Deluxe Chicken Caesar Salad

We adore Caesar salad at our house. We serve a Caesar almost every time we have friends or family over for dinner. What makes our Caesar so good? It's homemade and absolutely delicious. We use this beautiful seasoned wood salad bowl, shown below, in which we mix up the dressing. It's really easy and once you do it, you'll never want to eat another store bought dressing again.

The best part about a Caesar is that it's excellent on its own but then you can also add meat or another veggie to it and make it a one-stop meal. I added French's onion chicken to this one but we also like grilled chicken, salmon or steak. The versatile salad!

Dressing:

2-3 cloves garlic, pressed
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg* or you can substitute 2 tbls mayonnaise
2/3 to 3/4 cup good olive oil
1 medium lemon
1/2 cup parmesan cheese plus 1/4 cup for garnish
1 tsp dijon mustard

Using a garlic press, press the garlic into a large bowl. We then press the garlic further by using the back of a spoon until garlic "oil" coats the sides. Sprinkle in salt and then crack egg into bowl. Whisk the egg and then slowly drizzle in 1/4 cup of the olive oil. Squeeze lemon juice into mixture and continue to whisk, adding olive oil 1/4 cup at a time until dressing is thick. Whisk in mustard, then cheese. Add 1-2 heads of chopped, washed romaine lettuce to the bowl and toss thoroughly to combine. Add croutons and your choice of topping for a healthy, lite dinner.

Gayle's Grocery Cart Challenge is always chock full o' recipes and meal planning ideas. She generously hosts the recipe swap each Friday so go check it out and see what other creative cooks are dishing up this week!

*Those with salmonella concerns or other health concerns should not consume products made with raw egg