This Chicken Caesar Salad Pasta brings you the best of both worlds. Perfect for when you’re craving the freshness of your favourite garlicky, lemony Caesar salad, but hungry for a big plate of comfort food. Chicken caesar salad – meet pasta.
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I love, love, LOVE Caesar salad. Once a week, Laurier and I have date night. We feed the kids supper, put them to bed, then make something delicious that they don’t really like to eat, pour ourselves some wine and dig in while watching an episode of Murdoch Mysteries (Canada’s favorite show!). It’s super low key but I love it.
On a semi-regular basis, we make amazing chicken Caesar salad, with the most creamy, garlicky homemade dressing and croutons made from homemade focaccia. Sometimes we make the chicken spicy. YUM.
BUT. I LOVE pasta.
For some reason, all summer, I’ve been wanting to turn our Caesar salad into a pasta dish. I’ve tried a couple of different iterations, and finally found one I’m happy with. Fresh, lemony, garlicky Caesar salad, meet comfort food pasta. YES.
Now, this recipe calls for a lot of garlic. But hello! It’s a Caesar salad pasta! Don’t be scared!
In the instructions I’ll offer some tips for you to use, depending on how much you like garlic. I’ve made it while slightly cooking the entire amount and I actually didn’t find it garlicky enough! I do love my garlic, though. It’s delicious and very good for you.
Other than that it’s a pretty straightforward recipe.
Please, if you can, use real Parmesan cheese.
It really makes all the difference. In our recipe for Easy Pasta Carbonara we give a detailed price breakdown for buying it versus the stuff in the container and I think it’s pretty compelling. Check it out!
We’ve also kept the cost of the rest of the recipe in line by just using one chicken breast and 1/2 package of bacon for four servings of pasta. This is a pasta recipe, not a chicken recipe. The meat is an accent.
Finally, this recipe only uses 1/4 cup of cream to make this creamy, lovely sauce, thanks to the magic of PASTA WATER. If you don’t make your pasta using pasta water, now’s the time to try. It’s amazing.
Chicken Caesar Salad PASTA – Step-by-Step Instructions
Chicken Caesar Salad PASTA – Ingredients
First, get a big pot of SALTED water boiling. The water should taste like the ocean.
Once it’s boiling, add 1lb (one normal sized package, usually) of long pasta – I used fetuccine and cook until al dente (it will still have a little bite to it), around 10 minutes.
Before you drain the pasta, scoop out a big cup of the nice, starchy pasta water to use later. Drain pasta (don’t rinse it) and set it aside.
Wash, dry and chop one head of Romaine lettuce and set aside.
Heat a large frying pan over medium heat, chop 1/2 package of bacon (I’m not too finicky about this) and cook until crispy.
Remove the bacon to a plate with paper towel on it to drain. Pour off all but 1-2 tablespoons of the bacon grease.
Chop chicken into small bite size pieces, season it with a bit of salt and pepper and fry it in the bacon grease until it’s nicely browned. Remove to a plate.
In the meantime, peel and chop one BULB of garlic. Yes, you read that right. Not one little clove. One bulb. Now bulbs can vary in size, but I used an average sized one.
Now you have a decision to make, based on how much you like garlic:
You can either cook all the garlic slightly or leave some out to add to the sauce uncooked. If you want to err on the side of caution you can just cook it all (slightly). But if you’re a garlic lover I would definitely save some to use fresh.
Add chopped garlic to the pan you just took the chicken out of. Turn the heat to low. Add a few tablespoons of pasta water to it and use a wooden spoon to scrape all the brown bits off the bottom of the pan, adding more water as necessary. I used 1/4 cup in total. Gently cook the garlic just for a minute or two.
If you’re comfortable multi-tasking, while you’re cooking the bacon and chicken you can be working on the sauce.
Combine 3 whole eggs, 1 cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese (I use a microplane like this), 1/4 cup of fresh squeezed lemon juice (I really love the juicer I have – similar to this one – it’s easy and fast), 5 drops of Worcestershire sauce, 2 drops of Tabasco sauce and any garlic you decided not to cook.
Whip it together with a fork. Scrape the entire contents of the garlic pan (brown liquid and slightly cooked garlic) into the sauce.
Put the pasta back into the pot you cooked it in (or your frying pan if it’s really large) and add sauce to it.
Toss it together over low heat.
Tip: At the beginning it will look curdly but as the cheese melts it will start to thin out and become creamy.
Add another 1/4 cup of pasta water and keep tossing vigorously until the sauce is coating the pasta in a creamy way.
Tip: As you’re tossing, try to make sre there’s no sauce sitting idle on the bottom of the pot – the eggs could scramble slightly.
Add 1/4 cup of cream (whatever kind of cream you have on hand is fine – I used coffee cream). You can also add more, to taste.
Mix in the bacon and chicken (unless you want to put the chicken on top of each plate of pasta – up to you).
Mix well to combine. Serve, topped with Romaine lettuce.
Enjoy! 🙂
Chicken Caesar Salad PASTA
Ingredients
- 1 lb long pasta I used fetuccine
- 1 head romaine lettuce
- 1/2 package bacon
- 1 chicken breast
- 1 bulb garlic Around 10-12 cloves
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup grated fresh Parmesan cheese
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 5 drops Worcestershire sauce
- 2 drops Tabasco sauce
- 1/4 cup cream any type of cream is fine - I used coffee cream (+ more to taste)
Instructions
- First, get a big pot of SALTED water boiling. The water should taste like the ocean. Once it's boiling, add pasta and cook until al dente (it will still have a little bite to it), around 10 minutes.
- Before you drain the pasta, scoop out a big cup of the nice, starchy pasta water to use later. Drain pasta (don't rinse it) and set it aside.
- Wash, dry and chop Romaine lettuce and set aside.
- Heat a large frying pan over medium heat, chop bacon and cook until crispy. Remove the bacon to a plate with paper towel on it to drain. Pour off all but 1-2 tablespoons of the bacon grease.
- Chop chicken into small bite size pieces, season it with a bit of salt and pepper and fry it in the bacon grease until it's nicely browned. Remove to a plate.
- In the meantime, peel and chop one BULB of garlic.
- You can either cook ALL of the garlic slightly or leave some out to add to the sauce uncooked. If you want to err on the side of caution you can just cook it all (slightly). But if you're a garlic lover I would definitely save some to use fresh. Add chopped garlic to the pan you just took the chicken out of. Turn the heat to low. Add a few tablespoons of pasta water to it and use a wooden spoon to scrape all the brown bits off the bottom of the pan, adding more water as necessary. I used 1/4 cup in total. Gently cook the garlic just for a minute or two.
- If you're comfortable multi-tasking, while you're cooking the bacon and chicken you can be working on the sauce. Combine eggs, freshly grated Parmesan cheese, fresh squeezed lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco sauce and any garlic you decided not to cook. Whip it together with a fork. Scrape the entire contents of the garlic pan (brown liquid and slightly cooked garlic) into the sauce.
- Put the pasta back into the pot you cooked it in (or your frying pan if it's really large) and add sauce to it. Toss it together over low heat. At the beginning it will look curdly but as the cheese melts it will start to thin out and become creamy. Add another 1/4 cup of pasta water and keep tossing until the sauce is coating the pasta in a creamy way. As you're tossing, try to make sure there's no sauce sitting idle on the bottom of the pot - the eggs could scramble slightly.
- Add cream. You can also add more, to taste. Mix in the bacon and chicken (unless you want to put the chicken on top of each plate of pasta - up to you). Mix well to combine. Serve, topped with Romaine lettuce.
- Enjoy! 🙂
Notes
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* To grate the Parmesan cheese I use a microplane like this). You can read a cost breakdown of the price difference between real Parmesan cheese and what you buy in a container in our recipe for Easy Pasta Carbonara. I think I make a good argument for the real stuff!
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** I use a juicer similar to this one and I really love it - it's easy and fast.
Nutrition
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