Grilled Chicken Caesar Sandwich Recipe

The Caesar salad may not have been around since its eponyms ruled Ancient Rome, but it has been a restaurant staple for over a century. While it was originally more of a side salad, entree Caesar salads topped with salmon or chicken now feature on many menus. Here, however, developer Kate Shungu extends the evolution even further, taking Caesar salad ingredients and flavorings as her inspiration for this chicken sandwich. She says the recipe was "a slam dunk" in her household, impressing even those who don't consider themselves big Caesar salad fans.

While Shungu feels that this sandwich "tastes restaurant-worthy" and compares it to something you might pick up in a fancy deli, it can also be practical for meal preppers. "Wrapped in foil," she says, "this is an excellent bring-to-work sandwich for lunchtime." You could also enjoy it for a light, warm weather dinner, perhaps accompanied by a green salad (or even a Caesar salad) and some homemade potato chips.

To make this sandwich, you'll need boneless, skinless chicken breast cutlets, salt, pepper, a ciabatta loaf, romaine lettuce, and Parmesan cheese. You're also going to need garlic, mayonnaise, lemon juice, anchovy paste, Dijon mustard, and parsley for the homemade Caesar dressing.

Preheat a grill over medium heat.

Season the chicken with the salt and pepper.

Grill the chicken on one side for 3 minutes.

Flip and continue cooking for an additional 3–4 minutes, or until cooked through. Set aside while you make the dressing.

Grate one garlic clove into a medium bowl.

Add the mayonnaise, lemon juice, anchovy paste, Dijon, and parsley. Whisk until smooth.

Slice the chicken into thin pieces.

Place the ciabatta on the grill, cut-side down, until lightly toasted, about 3–4 minutes.

Rub the grilled ciabatta with the remaining garlic clove.

To assemble the sandwich, divide the dressing between the cut sides of the ciabatta.

Place the chicken on top of the bottom half of the ciabatta.

Top the chicken with the shredded romaine and shaved Parmesan.

Place the top half of the ciabatta on top of the romaine, slice, and serve.

You can absolutely make this sandwich without a grill. For starters, "grill" needn't mean an outdoor one here — a ridged grill pan will work, and you can even use an un-ridged, heavy frying pan to cook the chicken and toast the ciabatta bread.

You can also use alternate cooking methods for both the meat and the bread in this sandwich. It's perfectly fine to bake the chicken, and you could also substitute leftover rotisserie chicken for even quicker meal preparation. If you do go with rotisserie chicken, you might want to sprinkle it with a little extra black pepper for flavoring. As for the bread, you can always cook it under the broiler. You could toast it in a toaster oven, too, as long as your appliance is large enough to fit a halved loaf. In this case, though, you may need to work in batches to toast both the top and bottom pieces of the bread.

There are severa ways to change up this sandwich to suit your taste or the ingredients you have on hand. For one, you could swap out the anchovy paste for crushed anchovy fillets. You could also leave them out if you're not a fan of these little fishies since the original Caesar salad recipe omitted this salty ingredient. To add a different savory flavoring, try sprinkling the sandwich with bacon bits or layering it with a few strips of cooked bacon.

Another way to switch up the sandwich is to use a different type of bread. Focaccia would work, as would French, Italian, or a sturdy loaf of sourdough. Swap out the romaine for a different type of lettuce or greens, if you wish, or make less work for yourself by using bottled Caesar dressing. You could also add extra cheese to the sandwich by draping a slice of provolone over the still-warm sliced chicken or melting it onto the bread before you assemble the sandwich.