Sunday, August 8, 2010

The Chicken Caesar: how do you make croutons?

Simple. Classic. Summer big salad for dinner. I feared the make at home Caesar mostly because of the anchovy. The first trial years ago resulted in three tins of Costco size anchovies in the cupboard. For awhile. Daring the bag of Costco pine nuts who was going to get put in a salad first. Both being tossed during the last move.

And I'm a firm believer in making fun of girls that order this salad everywhere, with the dressing on the side, and would figure that I would wait til I was with one of those girls before I order it let alone make it for dinner. But it was a summery day and it seemed easy enough. You know me, I'm a Martha girl. No anchovies, no worry.

Chicken breasts marinated in buttermilk, Parmesan cheese, garlic, lemon. Romaine in the salad spinner.

Meanwhile... make the croutons. Brush bread with olive oil with herbs and garlic. Broil for 1 min on first side. Assign timer, wait for the beep, even count down in front of the oven from 30-0. Beep. Perfect. Then flip and wait for the other minute.

(Insert ADD test)

FAIL! Burnt to a crisp by minute 2 second side. Even how many times have I heard the annoying phrase "I always burn the toast! where's the evoo? by the garbage bowl?" by the ever happy 30 minute girl. How can I fail at croutons? Please, please help me with a sure fire no problem just a few minutes perfect crouton.

Salad was fine. The lack of anchovy was noticed.

3 comments:

  1. Hello! Hmm. Perhaps you didn't use enough oil. I put mine in the oven for 20 minutes after tossing them in a bunch of olive oil and salt and garlic powder. I turn them a few times. The broiler is a dangerous weapon. I never don't burn things when I use the broiler.
    Great anchovy photo.

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  2. I stole the anchovy photo from an article about the overfished little guys. But I did link the word to the article so it's not really that bad.

    Just like the 350 oven already cut up into chunks?

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  3. I read something this weekend in my Food Porn that said to microwave them for a bit and then broil. CRAZY times, since Nik doesn't even know how to turn the microwave on...

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