Pup Daddy and I have dabbled in vegetable gardening over the past few years with varying results, mostly poor. This year we finally figured out that in tropical St. Petersburg we needed to start in January, seriously amend our soil, and use drip irrigation on a timer (I have a real problem remembering to water regularly). Voila! It worked. Now I'm searching for ways to use our bumper crop. Right now I need to use lots of Romaine and what better way than Caesar Salad. I'm not kidding you, this was THE BEST Caesar Salad I have ever had, including the those from super fancy restaurants like Bern's Steak house. Even better, it's super easy. You will always want this dressing in your fridge. I found this recipe on AllRecipes.com. The base for the dressing is mayo rather than raw eggs, which makes sense. Mayo is just raw eggs and oil. And yes, there are anchovies in it. If you have an aversion to them, you'll just have to get over it! You absolutely can not have Caesar Salad without them! If you can't make yourself chop them up, you can buy anchovy paste in a tube and squirt it in.
You can use store bought croutons, but fresh ones are very easy to make. Besides, I always seem to have left over bread to use up. For these croutons I used my favorite Fresh Market bread, Rosemary and Sea Salt, but any bread will do. Brown up some garlic in olive oil. Remove the garlic and add the bread, turning it over when it gets brown. Sprinkle them with salt and pepper as soon as you take them out of the pan.
For the chicken I marinated bone-in, skin-on thighs in my own Caesar Marinade and cooked it on my gas grill. I love chicken thighs because they have such great flavor and stay moist. You could absolutely use any cut of chicken you like and use your favorite method to cook it.
Puppy Daddy and I had a major dilemma this weekend, what to have for dinner on Sunday night. While our Wednesday night dinner tradition is something quick and easy, I try to make our Sunday night dinners something special. Now when I was working full time, I spent Saturday mornings planning a menu for the week and making my grocery list so that I could shop once for everything I'd need for the week. But since I've been working part time from home, I've gotten lazy about our weekly menu, deciding many times day by day what I feel like eating, thus the weekend dilemma. At about 3 PM Sunday afternoon I started trying to decide what we would have for dinner that night but nothing was inspiring me. So, I asked Puppy Daddy what he wanted for dinner. He thought something cooked on the charcoal grill would be good so I put him to work looking through my Weber Grill cookbooks. He let the first book, Weber's Way to Grill by Jamie Purviance fall open and Chicken Involtini with Prosciutto and Basil was the first thing he saw. After perusing the cookbooks and discussing several options, we decided to try this recipe and boy were we glad we did!
The ingredients are very simple, chicken breast, prosciutto, provolone cheese, basil, garlic powder, salt and pepper. The result is super tasty! Just pound your chicken breast out nice and thin. Sprinkle both sides with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Top each with prosciutto, provolone and basil.
Next roll up chicken breast and tie up in several places with kitchen twine to keep the cheese from oozing out while it cooks. We cooked this on a charcoal grill which I think gave it a great smoky flavor, but you could use a gas grill, stove top grill or even bake it in the oven.
Yes the finished product photo from the cookbook shows it served on tomato sauce, but I served it with pasta and homemade sauce made with fresh tomato, artichoke, garlic, basil and parmesan . DELICIOUS! You should try this soon!
Ingredients 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, about 8 ounces each, tenders removed 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1 teaspoon powdered garlic 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 4 very thin slices prosciutto 4 slices provolone cheese, halved 8 large basil leaves, plus more for garnish Extra-virgin olive oil 2 cups good-quality tomato sauce
Directions Prepare the grill for direct cooking over medium heat.
For each piece of chicken, use about 12 inches of plastic wrap. Place the chicken, smooth side down, to one side of the plastic, about 2 inches from the edge. This will allow the chicken to spread out as it gets thinner. Starting from the thick side, gently pound the chicken with the flat side of a tenderizer or the bottom of a small, heavy skillet, moving to different areas with every stroke until it is about 1/4 inch thick and just about doubles in size. Don’t pound too hard or the chicken might break apart.
Season each piece of chicken with salt, granulated garlic and pepper. Arrange the chicken with the smooth side down on a work surface.
Lay a slice of prosciutto on each piece of chicken. Then lay down 2 halves of the provolone and 2 basil leaves. Carefully roll up the chicken, keeping it snug as you work, until it is tube-shaped. Tie 2 pieces of butcher’s twine around each piece to keep it together. Trim the loose ends of twine.
Lightly brush each rolled piece with olive oil.
Brush the cooking grates clean. Grill the chicken over direct medium heat, with the lid closed as much as possible, until golden on all sides, about 12 minutes, turning a quarter turn every 3 minutes. Remove from the grill and let rest for 3-5 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a small saucepan over medium-high heat, warm the tomato sauce.
Remove the twine from each chicken piece, cut into slices and serve warm on a pool of sauce. Garnish with torn basil leaves.
