Classic chicken Caesar salad

This was our first CHICKEN CAESAR salad and it was very, very tasty.
In my old 'dieting' days, a creamy salad dressing was a no no and I believed they were wicked, contained too many calories were to be avoided at all costs. Now I think differently.
Low-fat processed dressings just never tasted that good either. So perhaps that's why I never bothered with this salad. Until now. I would say the effort to make this is well worth it and I wish I'd made double the quantity to store in the fridge for another day.
After weighing out all the ingredients I found myself pleasantly surprised at the amount of fat, protein and carbohydrate in this meal. It all seems perfectly balanced too.
I've worked out an approximate calorie count for this lunch and you might just be surprised. Here's our recipe:

CHICKEN CAESAR SALAD

Ingredients - serves TWO 

Salad

200g chicken breast 

1 chicken stock cube

100g ciabatta 

tablespoon oil

1 clove garlic - crushed

large Romaine lettuce

parmesan shavings

Dressing

1 anchovy fillet (we keep a jar in the fridge - or use anchovy paste)

1 clove garlic

30ml mayonnaise

1 teaspoon of white wine vinegar

2 teaspoons of grated parmesan

cold water to loosen the dressing

pepper

****

Heat the oven to 180ºC.

Place the chicken breast into a saucepan and cover with the stock/water. Bring to the boil then SIMMER for around 8 minutes. 

Turn the heat OFF the saucepan and leave the chicken in the stock/water as it cools (and as you prepare everything else).

Cube the ciabatta and place into a bowl. 

Mix the tablespoon of oil with the crushed garlic clove and add to the ciabatta. Turn to coat with the oil and place onto a baking tray. 

Place the ciabatta into the hot oven and cook for 10 minutes. 

Puree the anchovy fillet with the garlic, grate the two teaspoons of parmesan and add to the rest of the dressing ingredients. Give everything a good shake, taste and add pepper if you need to. Loosen with a little water if necessary.

Tear the lettuce and place in a bowl. Coat with some of the dressing. Add half of the chicken and mix together.

Plate the lettuce and chicken, add the remaining chicken and scatter the croutons. Add more dressing and finish with the parmesan shavings. 

***

We estimate this dish at around 450 calories. That surprised me! I know some establishments can be heavy handed with dressings so take care when dining out. We found we didn't use all of the dressing here - and think it would stretch to three servings - which makes it lower in calories again. We used a shop bought mayonnaise which was made with olive oil. This is a great way to eat expensive chicken breast, because a little goes a long way.
***
REMEMBER: We all have a calorie allowance - do you know yours?

We began our weight loss journey in January 2011 - and began our blog in June 2011. Here's a link to the first post. (here's the link).

We like to post our main meals to give you an idea of just how far calories can go! It's up to you what you eat.

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