As someone with an egg allergy, Caesar salad has always been forbidden fruit. It is SO good, but it instantly makes me feel horribly ill. And though I have tried to figure out how much I can eat without feeling the effects, the bottom line is just not very much. And so I had resigned to never eating Caesar salad again.

Until I went to a local restaurant that proudly offers an egg-free Caesar. It isn’t the traditional creamy Caesar dressing, it’s a little more on the vinaigrette side, but it is still similar and delicious. And from there my mission to replicate this salad was born. A few google searches later and I found a recipe that I made that night. And since then it has had a frequent place in our dinner rotation.

It’s best made a little in advance so the dressing can really develop it’s flavor and the lettuce can wilt down a little bit, but you can make it right before eating too. And while it’s not necessary, I also make my croutons from scratch. They absolutely taste better than the box ones and they are really easy too. I promise.

Homemade Egg-Free Chicken Caesar Salad
Adapted from: Cooking Light
Serves: 4-6

Ingredients
2 bags of romaine lettuce
1/2 small loaf of bakery bread (I used rosemary, it was awesome)
6 tbsp olive oil
juice from 2 lemons
4 tsp Worcestershire sauce
4 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
3 garlic cloves, minced
Parmesan cheese (I prefer to shred my own so it’s a little thicker)
Chicken

(not pictured: olive oil, because I forgot and was WAY too lazy to take another picture)

Directions
1. In a food processor or a bowl with a whisk combine olive oil, lemon juice, Worcestershire, Dijon, sugar, salt, black pepper and garlic.

Pulse or whisk until well combined. I use my mini chopper because it helps emulsify the dressing and because I am lazy. Taste the dressing and adjust as needed. I had very juicy lemons today, so I added an extra tsp of Dijon and Worcestershire to balance it out. Just play around, the recipe is very forgiving.

2. Put lettuce and parmesan cheese in a very large bowl, pour dressing over, mix and refrigerate for as long as you can.

3. To prepare croutons, cut up bread into crouton sized pieces, place on cookie sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and toss to coat the pieces and the pan.

My oven bakes really hot, so I baked mine at (allegedly) 350 for 16 minutes and they came out like this.

I checked them at 10 minutes, don’t go far because it doesn’t take long to go from golden to burnt. Make sure that they are completely cool before you store them in an airtight container or the heat will soften them up again. And soft croutons are just not great.

4. Just before you’re ready to eat, prepare your chicken as you normally do. I season mine with garlic salt and pepper and cook on the stove, nothing fancy. To assemble, put a serving of salad, sprinkle with croutons and top with chicken. If you put the croutons in the salad too early, they’ll get mushy, so keep them out until you’re ready to eat.

5. Enjoy!

Seriously, if you like Caesar, you’ll love this. Don’t be put off by the ingredients (I haaaaate Dijon), the combination is great and the salad is even better the next day.

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