Meals · Main-dish salads

Chicken caesar salad

Name: Chicken caesar salad
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 35 min
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients: 2 large breasts chicken breast; 1 tbsp olive oil; 3/4 tsp salt; 1/2 tsp black pepper; 2 large hearts romaine lettuce, chopped, washed and dried; 3 slices white bread, cubed; 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil; 1/3 cup mayonnaise; 1/2 cup, plus more grated parmesan; juice of 1/2 lemon; 1 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard; 3 fillets anchovies, minced; 1 clove garlic, grated; 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

The salad that orders as a meal: grilled chicken over romaine in a real anchovy-parmesan dressing with proper croutons. America's default lunch salad, measured as served.

Time: 35 min (20 prep + 15 cook)
Servings: 4
Per serving: 525 kcal
Protein: 39 g

Both directions are legitimate — the score measures fullness per calorie, not virtue. Every version is the same dish, rebalanced.

Ingredients

Chicken

2 large breasts chicken breast550 g
1 tbsp olive oil15 g
3/4 tsp salt4 g
1/2 tsp black pepper1 g

2 large hearts romaine lettuce, chopped, washed and dried450 g

Croutons

3 slices white bread, cubed90 g
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil20 g

Dressing

1/3 cup mayonnaise80 g
1/2 cup, plus more grated parmesan45 g
juice of 1/2 lemon20 g
1 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard8 g
3 fillets anchovies, minced12 g
1 clove garlic, grated5 g
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce5 g

Every ingredient links to its food page — same data, same score, same formula.

Steps

Pound the chicken to even thickness, season, and grill or pan-sear in the oil 5–6 minutes a side. Rest 5 minutes before slicing — sliced immediately, the juices end up on the board instead of in the salad.
Toast the bread cubes in the oil at 200°C until golden, about 10 minutes.
Whisk the dressing; it should taste sharper than seems right, because the lettuce and chicken dilute it.
Toss the dry romaine with the dressing, then the croutons; lay the sliced chicken on top with more parmesan and pepper.

Why does this beat the plain caesar's score?

The chicken. A caesar is romaine plus a fat-based dressing — satisfying, but light on protein. Adding 550 g of chicken breast turns the protein bar from the plate's weakness into its engine.

Alternative

Caesar saladthe side-salad classic32

Why this score

moderately filling

No single route carries this one — a moderate amount of protein, volume and fiber.

Three routes to fullness — one is enough

30% of kcal

68% water

6 g/Mcal

What pulls it down

Nothing here converges the way engineered food does — no sugar, no savoury and no alcohol penalty.

How scores work

Computed on the finished dish, not an average of the parts: 2098 kcal goes into the pot, 1305 g of ingredients comes out as ~1150 g of food → 182 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water, and energy density is the score's biggest lever — so we show the math. Full formula here.

Per

Calories: 182
Protein: (30%); 14 g
Fat: (55%); 11 g
Carbohydrates: (14%); 7 g
of which sugar: 1 g
Fiber: 1 g
Sodium: 367 mg

Percentages are the share of calories from each macronutrient.

Computed from the ingredients' USDA data — nothing typed by hand. Every number is traceable, every score recomputable.

More meals

Photo: AI-generated. Nutrition and score are computed from the ingredients with the published formula — this recipe hasn't been kitchen-tested by us yet.