Chicken and Escarole Salad With Anchovy Croutons Recipe (2024)

Regular soft-boiled eggs have a liquid yolk, which is probably not cooked enough to kill salmonella. Jammy eggs have a thicker yolk, still bright yellow, but cooked long enough to ensure bacteria are killed. Not just “cute”, but a reference to a specific Bon Appetit cooking method.

In my 30+ years as a cook and chef, I find that many people who prefer thighs over breasts in many recipes do so because they don't adjust cooking times and temps properly between breasts and thighs.To each their own, which is what cooking at home is all about, but this recipe works great with bone-in breasts. (I used Romaine hearts)

Made this exactly as written except minus the shaved cheese at end. Couldn’t resist the anchovy chickeny croutons - and they were delicious. But I followed the advice to use chicken breasts and was reminded of how much I dislike chicken breasts. Will use thighs next time.

Next time: reduce lemon juice (too acidic this time), and whisk olive oil with lemon/garlic/soy the way they do in France. Also, easy on the salt since cheese,anchovies and soy are salty already.

I am here for this! Crispy, crunchy, salty, zesty, cheesy, and fresh. It's a beautiful, impressive, easy dinner.

Peter, I've made my own aioli (raw egg yolk)for more than 10 years; never had an issue. Go for it!

You will find it at the un-gentrified grocery stores!

The croutons are the best! I tried it with Iranian lavash, and they are perfect - tasty and crunchy! Superdelicious.

My neighborhood produce stand, on Court Street opposite Union Market, always has escarole.

Our Caesar salad is made with raw eggs dropped onto the lettuce and then drizzled with lemon juice. I too was freaked out about eating raw egg in my salad when my husband first introduced this concept to me. However, in the 20+ years we've been making this salad, we have never had an issue with the raw eggs.

Mmm outstanding. I forgot the anchovies, next time I will add them. Also I used a single thigh and made a perfect one person meal. The baguette croutons were delicious over oven roasted tomatoes. I used Fresh spinach as the base.

This was delicious and going into our regular rotation. Just the right combo of crunch, salt, lemon, and flavor. Used romaine hearts and skin-on, boneless chicken breasts. I would recommend a splatter guard for the first part. We'll move the prep for this to our grill when it gets warmer this summer. Thanks!

Was excited to make this dish, the only thing I didn’t like is that I felt like cooking the croutons in the chicken fat, overpowered them, and gave them an aftertaste. I think I would brush olive oil on them and put some salt and pepper and cook them that way..

Delightful! As others have noted, the schmaltzy, anchovy-y croutons are a revelation. I added some thyme to the chicken/croutons which paired beautifully.The rest of the recipe is creative but I found it unnecessary (especially the parsley). Next time I will just make the chicken/croutons and for the rest do a classic ceaser. I found the dressing was a bit too lemony and still missed anchovy, Worcestershire and more Dijon.

This was a stunning salad! The croutons were to die for. I used 'jammy eggs' at the end and they worked well. Thank you Alison.

So good. Made it as instructed but I did do jammy eggs instead of the yolk because I just didn't trust the eggs I got this time. Next time I'll try it with a yolk.

Wow, this was really really good! Five stars. I made as written, topping with “jammy” egg (simmer 6.5 mins, plunge into ice bath). The escarole is a nice change from romaine.

Marinated the chicken over night with chopped garlic and cumin in addition to salt and pepper to be better matched with parsley. Other than that, matched all the ingredients and steps with the recipe. Fabulous dish to kick off the summer.

This recipe is a winner, but we modified it and didn't use salt at each step specified as we felt that it was a bit much--a good move. I adore anchovies, but next time around I'd chop them instead of adding them whole as the odd bite contained a whole, or near-whole, fried anchovy which was a bit too salty. We used a combo of bone-in breasts and thighs, and it worked out perfectly. The crunchy chicken skin was a definite bonus. We also soaked the escarole in cold water to ensure crispness.

Inspired by Sam Sifton newsletter, made this last night with CSA romaine plus chicken nuggets sautéed in garlic, anchovy & oil, lots of cheese, extra lemon in dressing, no egg yolk. Delicious.

Used leg quarters with bone in very yummy!!

I just have skinless chicken breast. How should I adjust cooking time?

Sam Sifton's advice about substitutions in recipes is the best advice I've heard. In many years of cooking I did the "freak out" thing if I didn't have something. Now I know better and just use whatever I have in the house that's similar to the called-for ingredient. Thank you, Sam Sifton!

I like to add poached eggs in stead of raw yolks. Like they do in Lyon- France

This was delicious and an easy one-pan meal. But one word of caution: I way overdid the salt (and I love salt). I salted the chicken, the salad dressing and the croutons as directed. With the anchovies, soy sauce and cheese it was a lot of salt. So will cut way back next time.

Totally delicious. Served with jammy eggs on the side so people could add if they wanted. To make more room for the croutons in the skillet, I transferred chicken to a baking sheet to cook. After both chicken and croutons came out of the oven, I poured chicken cooking juice over the croutons and then placed the thighs on top of the chicken to cool before slicing. That way they absorbed plenty of the delicious chicken drippings.

Very good recipe. Especially pleased with the dressing. Wouldn’t have thought to use soy, but it added a nice depth. Overall a kind of lighter (but not a negative, diet-y way) take on Caesar.