Chicken Caesar salad

Ingredients

Serves 2 · dimmer marks are storecupboard

• 280gchicken breast
• 1 headromaine lettuce — cos, or two little gems
• 2good bread — thick slices, a day or two old
• 1½ tbspmayonnaise
• 30gpecorino romano — or parmesan
• 4anchovy fillets
• 1 tbspolive oil
• 2garlic cloves
• 1lemon
• to tastesalt

Method

6 steps

1. chop · 5m

   Bread torn into rough chunks rather than cubed — the ragged edges are what go crisp. One garlic clove crushed, the other kept back for the dressing.

2. fry · 8m

   Croutons into the olive oil with the crushed garlic over medium heat, turned until gold on most sides, then tipped onto paper.

3. grill · 12m

   Chicken flattened a little under a hand, salted, and cooked on a hot dry pan until firm and white the whole way through with no pink left in the middle and the juices running clear.

4. fold · 5m

   The dressing: anchovies and the second garlic clove mashed to a paste with the flat of a knife, then beaten into the mayonnaise with the lemon juice and most of the cheese. Leave the anchovy out and the bowl tastes of nothing — it does not taste of fish, it tastes of the dish being finished.

5. rest · 5m walk away

   Chicken off the heat for five minutes before it is sliced, or the juice ends up on the board.

6. finish · 4m

   Leaves torn into a dry bowl, dressing turned through by hand until every one is coated, chicken and croutons on top, the rest of the cheese shaved over. Dress it while the chicken is still hot and the leaves collapse.