Caesar salad with chicken, lime and honey mustard sauce

Caesar salad with chicken is definitely one of the most popular salads. It’s not just a salad, it can actually be the whole meal. Grilled chicken, crunchy iceberg and croutons, fresh cucumber and tomatoes, crispy bacon, seasoned with famous Caesar salad dressing. What else do you need? 

I usually make Caesar salad the traditional way but one day I’ve got leftover honey mustard sauce. I wasn’t sure how the Caesar salad without Caesar salad dressing would taste, but the risk paid off. A drizzle of fresh lime juice instead of vinegar, some olive oil, grated parmesan and my homemade honey mustard sauce gave a totally new and exotic flavor to a classic Caesar salad with chicken. Turned a classic Caesar salad into an exotic meal. 

How to make Caesar salad from scratch 

If you organize yourself properly, you can make a quick Caesar salad with chicken for dinner or lunch. Start in this order:

1. Season the chicken breast and grill it in a pan with slices of bacon. You need just 1 minute to season the meat and cut the bacon into slices. 
2. Meanwhile, make the salad dressing. You can make regular Caesar salad dressing or my homemade dressing for Caesar salad with honey mustard sauce. See the instructions below. Let’s say you need up to 7 minutes to make this sauce for the first time. 
3. The chicken is probably ready by the time you have finished the sauce. Remove it and put one or two slices of bread in the pan. 
4. While the bread is baking you can cut the meat which takes around 1 minute. 
5. Finally, you will need 5 minutes to wash and cut vegetables, cut the bread into small croutons and assemble the salad. 

That’s a total of 14 minutes, let’s say 15 for nutritious but not bland salad for dinner or lunch. 

Recipe for Caesar salad without anchovies and raw egg

A regular Caesar salad dressing features anchovies and sometimes even raw egg. My Caesar salad with a twist features honey mustard sauce enriched with fresh lime juice, olive oil and parmesan (optionally). Chicken, honey and mustard are a fool-proof combination. Lime juice is that exotic twist. Let’s see what do you need to make this Caesar salad with chicken:

Chicken – grilled chicken breasts. Season the chicken just with salt and pepper or use chicken seasoning mix. Don’t cut the meat in strips before cooking. 

Bacon – a few slices of grilled bacon is enough to spice up your salad. You can either fry chopped bacon or serve the whole slices of it. 

Iceberg or any other lettuce or a mix of those. Everything you choose, you won’t make a mistake. 

Cucumber – you can either peel the cucumber or not, it’s up to you. Unpeeled cucumber gives that crunchy moment to the salad. 

Tomatoes – cherry tomatoes look more attractive than the regular tomatoes and they have less liquids so your salad won’t become mushy if it rests a bit. However, you can also use regular tomatoes and remove those watery parts if you don’t want the salad to have tomato juice. 

Parmesan- You can use grated parmesan or any similar type of cheese. Parmesan gives the texture to the salad. I usually add grated parmesan to the honey mustard sauce.

Honey mustard sauce – instead of Caesar salad dressing, try my homemade honey mustard sauce. Mix 2 tsp of honey, 2 tsp mustard, 2 tbsp of mayo and 2 tbsp of sour cream, salt and pepper to taste, a pinch of hot paprika and half a tbsp of vinegar or lemon.

Lime- at the moment I was making this salad, I didn’t have vinegar or lemon so I put lime. I was really surprised how the lime made Caesar salad exotic and refreshing. 

Which lettuce for Caesar salad? 

Romaine lettuce is healthier than iceberg, but you can use both types of lettuce for Caesar salad. I sometimes use butterhead lettuce or batavia lettuce. A combination of two types of lettuces can also turn out good. 

Which cheese for Caesar salad? 

Parmesan is always the cheese to use for Caesar salad. However, if you are on a keto diet you can use Romano cheese instead. Any other hard cheese can be an alternative. 

Is Caesar salad gluten free?

This Caesar salad recipe can be gluten free if you skip croutons or you use gluten free bread. When you make honey mustard sauce, make sure you buy gluten free mustard. 

Is Caesar salad keto friendly?

My recipe for Caesar salad is not keto friendly but it can be with some tweaks. Instead of parmesan use romano cheese. Honey mustard is not keto friendly but I have found a recipe for keto honey mustard dressing if someone needs. Also, you should skip croutons in this recipe. I am sure the salad will still taste great with crunchy bacon, tender grilled chicken, fresh veggies, Romano cheese and keto honey mustard. Don’t forget a drizzle of lime!