As I was munching away I thought to myself, "I bet I can make it even better at home." And so I did. This version gets an extra kick from sun-dried tomatoes and a healthy dose of Parmesan cheese and grated black peppercorns. To add some smokey undertones, I used my gas-burning stove top to slightly char the halved Romaine. You can seriously come up with a hundred alternate versions of this one. Just think about all the different meats, seafood, cheeses, and vegetarian combinations:)
Make sure you completely rinse out your Romaine to get any bits of soil out (or bugs for that matter). You'll also want to shake the heads out a bit before you halve them. You don't want your salad being too wet and runny.
I made my croutons from the two end pieces of an Udi's gluten free bread loaf
I had. All I did was toast them up and cut them into small squares. Ingredients
- As many halved heads of Romaine lettuce as you need (1 half per person)
- 1 small jar of sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil (any brand = whatever is on sale)
- Parmesan cheese (grated)
- 1-2 pounds of skinless/boneless chicken (chopped)
- Gluten Free Caesar dressing (I used Ken's Light Options Caesar Dressing - because it said "Gluten Free" on the back )
- Fresh Ground Pepper
Directions
- Rinse out your heads of lettuce. Shake the water out of them and cut them in half; so that both halves are held together by the root.
- Chop up your chicken.
- Toast and then dice up some gluten free bread.
- Drain the olive oil from the jar of sun-dried tomatoes into a deep pan.
- Chop up the sun-dried tomatoes.
- Heat your oil over med-high heat and add the chicken when the oil is hot. Cook the chicken, stirring occasionally, until no pink remains.
- Add the chopped sun-dried tomatoes and reduce to medium heat. Stir often, and cook until the chicken is slightly browned.
- Using either a skillet or an open gas-stove top flame, and a pair of tongs, slightly char the inside of each halved Romaine head.
- Place each halved Romaine head on its own large plate. First top with a generous portion of the chicken/sun-dried tomato mixture, then lightly cover the whole head with grated Parmesan cheese, grate some fresh-pepper over everything, throw on the GF croutons, and then drizzle your Caesar dressing over the top.
- Chow down and thank me silently in your head:)
