Caesar Salads may look like the healthy option, but they do have a tendency to be quite high calorie, particularly if you are using an oil based dressing.  Having previously tried the Hairy Biker’s Warm Chicken Caesar Salad, I was keen to try another recipe that was a little lighter.

The Healthy Chicken Caesar Salad from Meals by Mel, seemed to fit the bill and I was interested to see whether the real caesar flavour would still come through despite the “healthy” option.

Ratin 7.5/10

Healthy Chicken Caesar Salad

Ingredients

Olive oil, chicken breast, pancetta, wholegrain bread, egg, yoghurt, Dijon mustard, anchovy fillets, lemon juice, cos lettuce, parmesan cheese. 7/10

Healthy Chicken Caesar Salad

Level of difficulty

This is one of the simplest recipes that I have tried so far.  Very little equipment is required and no real cooking expertise is needed. 8/10

Healthy Chicken Caesar Salad

Time taken to prepare

The recipe was extremely quick and light on washing up! The chicken, bacon and croutons are all cooked in the same pan and the dressing is prepared in a single bowl. 8/10

Healthy Chicken Caesar Salad

The food

The dish was delicious and I particularly enjoyed the poached egg.  I used pancetta rather than bacon, which added quite an intense flavour and it was interesting to have wholegrain croutons.  I was pleased that the croutons were pan-fried, as I particularly like the flavour that this gives them.  The dressing was pleasant, but not particularly rich.  I would have preferred a little more seasoning, particularly in the chicken, bacon and croutons. 7/10

Healthy Chicken Caesar Salad

Overall

This was billed as a healthy chicken caesar salad and as such it was a light caesar salad dressing.  I wouldn’t really call it a caesar dressing though and personally I think it would have benefited from a small amount of grated parmesan and garlic in the dressing. You could add a small amount and still keep the dressing fairly low-calorie, if that is what you prefer.  This is definitely a salad I would try again. 7.5/10

Healthy Chicken Caesar Salad