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Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad is just as tasty as a classic Caesar Salad but with a smokey flavor that cannot be beaten! Super yummy and relatively healthy as long as you don’t go crazy on the dressing.
How to Make Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad
For full recipe details on how to make this Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad, see the recipe card down below 🙂
Marinate the Chicken
Start out by grabbing some boneless and skinless chicken breasts. Slice them into long strips. Add it into a bowl with olive oil, lemon juice, minced garlic, salt, and pepper. Stir it up to marinate and set aside.
Grill Romaine Lettuce and Garlic
Now onto the main event! We’re going to take some hearts of romaine lettuce and slice them right down the center lengthwise.
Now comes the grilling! You’re going to want to get your outdoor or indoor grill hot. Really really hot. The idea is to char the lettuce as quickly as possible to reduce the wilting. Cooked, wilted lettuce is gross, but a quick grill to get that smokey flavor and grill marks is delicious!
Also, you’re going to want to slice a whole head of garlic in half and get that grilling too. This will be used in the dressing. Oh yes, it’s going to be good. Once everything looks good and charred, take it off the grill to cool.
Cook and Crumble Bacon
Meanwhile, cook some bacon. I used precooked bacon because I generally don’t like doing more dishes than I have to. And this way my kitchen stays splatter-free! #winning Feel free to pan-fry your bacon or even use this super easy oven method for cooking bacon.
Chop all of your bacon up and set it aside.
Grill Chicken
Because your grill pan is still hot from cooking the lettuce, throw on that chicken that has been marinating in that garlicky goodness. Because we cut these thin, they will cook in no time at all.
Make Caesar Dressing
Chop up a bunch of that grilled garlic and stir it together with some mayonnaise, salt, pepper, and lemon juice. Caesar dressing = done.
How to Assemble a Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad
To assemble, chop up charred lettuce into bite-size pieces or leave leaves large and place them in the bottom of a serving platter. Toss together with chicken, bacon, dressing, parmesan cheese, and chives if desired. Serve cold.
Can I Use an Indoor Grill?
The beauty of this recipe is that you can use either an outdoor or indoor grill to make it! So if you’ve packed away your grill for the winter you can still make this dish year-round. A cast iron grill pan also works just as well and worst case scenario, you can brown the chicken in a nonstick skillet with a little nonstick cooking spray. It won’t have that smokey flavor you get from a grill, but its still really flavorful.
What Do I Serve with Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad?
This grilled chicken caesar salad would make a great lunch all by itself. But if you’re looking to serve it alongside another side dish or even a main course, here are some suggestions:
- Fettuccine Alfredo
- Browned Butter Alfredo Pasta
- Margherita Pizza
- Simple Bruschetta
- Homemade Garlic Bread
- Focaccia
More Caesar Salad Recipes to Try!
- Macro Friendly Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad
- Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad
- Caesar Avocado Dressing
- Brussel Sprout Caesar Salad
- Classic Caesar Salad
Anyways, hope you enjoy this fun recipe and have a wonderful day! The printable recipe card for grilled chicken caesar salad is below. Enjoy, friends!
Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat indoor or outdoor grill to high.
- Slice 3 hearts of romaine in half lengthwise and set aside.
- Trim chicken breasts of any excess fat and cut into thin strips. Place into a bowl and stir together with olive oil, juice of 1 lemon, 1 large clove of garlic, finely minced and salt and pepper. Set aside to marinate.
- Place hearts of romaine onto the grill and char quickly on each side. Remove from grill.
- Slice the remaining head of garlic in half and drizzle with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Place onto the grill to char and soften. Remove when garlic has sufficient grill marks.
- Reduce the heat of the grill and spread chicken overtop. Each side should be done in 1 minute or less. Remove from the grill and cut into bite-size pieces.
- Place precooked bacon strips onto a paper towel lined plate and microwave until crispy. Chop up and set aside.
- For the dressing, chop up 3-4 cloves of grilled garlic finely and add to a bowl with the mayonnaise, the juice of the remaining lemon, salt and pepper.
- To assemble, chop up charred lettuce into bite size pieces or leave leaves large and place in the bottom of a serving platter. Toss together with chicken, bacon, dressing, parmesan cheese and chives if desired. Serve cold.
Hi Lauren looks delicious! I noticed on the grill the chicken is placed on a Lodge cast iron raised skillet. Could you please share which one that is. Thank you love your recipes. Catherine
Here ya go: https://rstyle.me/+b0Zs-l-AVYig0sWiOk5hyQ
So good! You wont believe I have never grilled lettuce but I am going to try this super soon now. And that garlic dressing – YUM
[…] Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad […]
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This sounds soooo good…wiLl make it tonight. Thank you
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This is my favorite salad! I love the grilled lettuce! I actually chopped all of the components really small and then put them inside a fresh (ungrilled) romaine leaf anf served it as an appetizer once. I have also added bleu cheese crumbles sometimes. It’s really versatile and great with other proteins, like steak, salmon or shrimp…good way to use up leftover proteins. Thanks for the recipe!