Southwestern Caesar Salad
ByPublished on November 8, 2011
Time
55 minutes, plus 30 minutes cooling
Yield
Serves 6 to 8
Ingredients
Before You Begin
Mild olive oil (not extra-virgin) works best here. Chipotle chiles are smoked jalapeños; look for them canned and packed in adobo sauce.
Instructions
- Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk 1/4 cup oil, adobo sauce, and half of garlic in large bowl. Toss in bread cubes and season with salt and pepper. Spread bread cubes on rimmed baking sheet and bake, shaking pan occasionally, until golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool completely.
- Whisk 1/4 cup Parmesan, sour cream, lime juice, Worcestershire, mustard, chile, and remaining garlic in bowl until smooth. Whisk in remaining oil in steady stream and season with salt and pepper.
- Toss romaine, remaining Parmesan, and dressing in large bowl. Toss in croutons and serve.
- Make Ahead: The croutons and dressing can be made up to 2 days in advance. Store the croutons at room temperature; the dressing should be refrigerated.
Time
55 minutes, plus 30 minutes coolingYield
Serves 6 to 8Ingredients
Ingredients
Ingredients
Why This Recipe Works
Caesar salad recipes are pretty straightforward, but we wanted to jazz up this classic recipe with unexpected Southwestern flavors. Replacing the anchovies and lemon juice in our favorite Caesar dressing recipe with canned chipotles chiles and lime juice balanced its richness and gave us a cohesive dressing for our recipe. We also used sour cream for the dressing’s base instead of raw eggs—it tamed the chiles’ punch and added the requisite creamy consistency. Making croutons using some of the adobo sauce from the can of chipotles gave us a smoky, garlicky garnish that paired perfectly with the bright flavors of our Southwestern Caesar Salad.
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