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Chicken & Avocado Caesar Salad

This Chicken & Avocado Caesar Salad from https://meatified.com has all of the flavor, but none of the egg or dairy from the classic recipe, making it perfect for the AIP. As a bonus, it's coconut free, too!
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Ingredients

Scale

For the croutons:

For the Eggless Caesar Salad Dressing:

To assemble the Chicken & Avocado Caesar Salad:

  • 3 romaine hearts
  • 3 cups / 600 g chopped leftover or rotisserie chicken
  • 2 medium avocados, pitted and sliced into wedges
  • Nut Free Vegan Parmesan Sprinkles, to taste

Instructions

  1. CRISP: Add the broken up Yucan Crunch, avocado oil, garlic powder and salt to a bowl. Use your hands to work all the ingredients together until the croutons are evenly coated in oil and seasonings. Heat a small skillet over low-medium heat – any hotter and the croutons will burn rather than toast. Add the coated crouton mixture to the hot skillet and toast for 2 – 3 minutes, until lightly golden. You’ll want to take them out when they look a little underdone as they’ll continue to cook and darken further as they cool. Set aside for later.
  2. PREP: Lightly crush the garlic cloves with the back of a kitchen knife, then peel the cloves. Chop off and discard the tough ends of the garlic cloves. Add the peeled garlic cloves, anchovy fillets and lemon juice to a narrow jar or the blending container that came with your immersion blender. Blitz with the immersion blender a few times, enough to roughly chop the garlic and anchovies a little.
  3. EMULSIFY: Add 1/4 cup / 60 ml of the oil to the jar or container. Keeping the head of the immersion blender touching the bottom, blend everything together until you have a soft, thick & creamy dressing base. If your ingredients don’t emulsify at this stage, you will need to start over – check the notes for troubleshooting tips!
  4. BLEND: Leaving the immersion blender in place on the bottom of the container, add a further 2 tablespoons / 30 ml of the oil (it will sit on the top of the already emulsified mixture) and blend again. Repeat with the final remaining 2 tablespoons / 30 ml of oil, blending from the bottom, tilting the head of the immersion blender in a gentle circle to incorporate all of the oil from the top. When the mixture is almost completely combined, you can lift the head of the immersion blender up to ensure all of the ingredients combine totally smoothly. Add a pinch of salt, to taste. Set the dressing aside.
  5. ASSEMBLE: Cut the romaine hearts in half down the middle lengthways. Set the halves on a large platter, or divide between plates, as you like. Top with the chopped chicken and avocado wedges. Drizzle with the dressing (you may not want to use it all) and sprinkle with the croutons and parmesan, to taste.

Notes

Whatever oil you use, you don’t want it to overpower the dressing. This is definitely not the time for cold pressed avocado oil! Use a very mild, neutrally flavored avocado oil, like this one, or a very mild olive oil, like this one.

A quick anchovy guide: add 1 anchovy for a mild, subtle flavor, 2 for a dressing with a bit more bite and 3 if you really like anchovies!

The Caesar Dressing is best used immediately. Over time, the emulsion will break down and then separate, so it’s best to make just before you’re planning to use it.

Troubleshooting tips:
* Use very fresh garlic – older garlic is too dry and won’t emulsify, leaving you with a watery, unusable result.
* Chilling the anchovies, lemon juice and oil in the fridge ahead of time gives more consistent results than using ingredients with different temperatures.
* Make sure that the immersion blender is at the bottom of the container and that you blend from the bottom of the container first. This helps incorporate the oil a little at a time, which makes for the best, thickest emulsion.
* Add the oil directly to the blending container with the head of the immersion blender already in place.
* Measure the oil directly into the blending container, using an electronic scale. It’s more accurate and helps keep the proportions right.

Find it online: https://meatified.com/chicken-avocado-caesar-salad/