Juicy Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad Sandwich

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Cooking With Anadi

12K subscribers · grilled chicken, bacon and Caesar on warm toasted bread

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Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad Sandwich

To me, a chicken sandwich is a staple sandwich at lunchtime. You don’t need many ingredients to make this sandwich amazing! The star of the sandwich really is the tender grilled chicken! Pair this with lettuce, tomatoes, green onions, sour cream and a spicy aioli mayo and you’re set for success! Of course, don’t forget to use your favorite bread!

Why Make This Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad Sandwich?

If you love a good Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad, then this sandwich has all that deliciousness packed into a sandwich! Grilling the chicken may seem like a lot of work, but it’s not! For this sandwich, you won’t believe how simply seasoning your chicken with salt and pepper will go a long way. Learn how I make The Best Grilled Chicken and you can use this for lunch!

Making the spicy aioli also takes about 1 minute. I’m not joking. Check out my Classic Spicy Aioli recipe which is the perfect condiment to go with your favorite sandwiches and burgers!

Finally, this recipe is not only delicious but it’s also quite healthy! This sandwich is protein-packed with the grilled chicken and of course the goodness of some crispy bacon. For the veggies, we’re adding some tomatoes, lettuce and green onions. It’s a great lunch to take to work or to enjoy or to take on a picnic!

Tools Needed

• Grill pan
• Cutting board
• Chef's knife
• Tongs
• Paper towels
• Spatula

Ingredients for Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad Sandwich

Let’s review the ingredients required to make an incredible Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad Sandwich! Be sure to scroll to the bottom of this post for the FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE CARD to see all ingredient quantities and to save the recipe for later. Furthermore, you can use the recipe card to scale the recipe based on how many sandwiches you want to make!

• Sliced bread: You can use your favorite bread, the possibilities are endless! My favorites are Belgian bread, rye bread, and sourdough because they will give you large slices and are strong enough to hold all the toppings. In this recipe, I tried out an Italian loaf and cut it in half to make 2 sandwiches. They are big ones.
• Chicken breast: Use boneless, skinless chicken breast.
• Olive oil: To grill the chicken breast and to top over our bread before broiling.
• Salt and pepper: Simple seasoning for the chicken breast.
• Bacon: Use your favorite flavored bacon or just regular bacon, if desired. I used maple flavored bacon since the sweet and smokiness is just super delicious!
• Tomatoes: Refreshing and adds color to the sandwich.
• Spicy Aioli: Made with mayonnaise, Sriracha sauce, lemon juice, minced garlic cloves, salt and pepper.
• Lettuce: Adds a nice crunch to the sandwich.
• Greek yogurt Caesar dressing: Refreshing and cool to complement the spicy aioli. Of course you can use a traditional Caesar dressing if that’s what you’re feeling. Otherwise, I’ve made this sandwich with sour cream which works well too!
• Green onions: Some extra green and a great garnish for the sandwich!

To prepare it, follow the same instructions and season simply with salt and pepper and grill for 3-4 minutes on each side until lightly charred. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can add olive oil, lemon juice and a touch of Dijon mustard and Worcestershire sauce and marinate for 10-15 minutes.

How to Make Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad Sandwich

To Prepare the Grilled Chicken - Full Detailed Recipe Here!

Butterfly the chicken and divide into 2 equal halves. Heat a grill pan on medium heat until hot. Check if the pan is hot enough by sprinkling some water on the pan. If the droplets dance around before evaporating, the pan is ready.

Season the chicken with salt and pepper and drizzle a bit of olive oil on both sides. Place the chicken on the grill pan and cook for 3-4 minutes.

Then flip the chicken, turn the heat down to low and cook for 1-2 minutes. Let the chicken rest for 2-4 minutes before slicing or serving.

For the Bacon

Cook the bacon as per your favorite cooking method. Or, to follow my pan-cooking method for bacon: add the bacon to a cold pan. Fill it with about 1/3 cup to 1/2 cup of water. Turn the heat to medium. Allow the water to gently come to a simmer.

Once the water has evaporated, turn the bacon ever so often until each side is golden brown.

Pat any excess grease off with the paper towel.

To Prepare the Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad Sandwich

Cut the Italian loaf lengthwise and season the bread with olive oil and garlic powder.

Broil in the oven for 4-5 minutes or until lightly toasted.

On the bottom half of the bread, spread 2-3 Tbsp of the yogurt-Caesar dressing and 2-3 Tbsp of spicy aioli on the top half of the bread.

Slice the grilled chicken and then starting from the bottom half of the bread, arrange the chicken, sliced tomatoes, chopped green onions, lettuce and bacon strips.

Close the sandwich with the top half, slice and enjoy!

Tips & Tricks for a Great Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad Sandwich

• Have fun with seasoning up the grilled chicken to make it your own. You can follow my tips outlined for my Simple Grilled Chicken recipe and then personalize it with spices like cayenne, oregano or garlic powder for example. Alternatively, you can marinate the chicken with some olive oil, lemon juice and fresh or dried herbs.
• To perfect the bacon crunch, you can either follow pan fried method as I do with the water method, or to cook in the oven, bake the bacon over a wire rack at 375°F for 15-20 minutes.
• Make sure to cut out the root of the lettuce before washing to ensure you remove any grit or dirt well. Then, make sure to pat dry or use a salad spinner to ensure a satisfying crunch in the sandwich.
• Lightly salt the tomatoes to bring out their natural sweetness and prevent them from becoming soggy.
• You can add additional crispy elements in the sandwich by using fried onions or crushed nacho chips for a nice crunchy element.

No Marinade and No Italian Seasoning: The Chicken Is Salt, Pepper and Olive Oil

The chicken here is a linked recipe, and its ingredient list is four lines long: one medium boneless, skinless chicken breast, a teaspoon of olive oil, salt and pepper. That is genuinely all of it. There is no marinade to whisk together in a small bowl, no italian seasoning, no honey and no garlic in the chicken itself — the only garlic in this chicken sandwich recipe is the dash of garlic powder that goes on the bread. If you have been told a grilled chicken sandwich needs hours of soaking in something, it does not; it needs the breast pounded thin.

Pound it to about a quarter inch between two sheets of plastic wrap, with a meat tenderizer or, as I do, a rolling pin. If the breast is over 150 g, cut it diagonally into two equal halves first, so you end up with two even pieces of chicken rather than one thick one. On salt: the card just says salt, so kosher salt or fine sea salt, whichever is already open. And organic chicken breast is a preference rather than a requirement here — even thickness is what decides whether this comes out juicy, not the label on the packet.

Medium Heat, Not Medium-High, and Why There Is No Meat Thermometer

Heat a grill pan on medium until it is properly hot, and test it the way I do: sprinkle a little water across the surface and watch. If the droplets dance around before they evaporate, it is ready. The chicken goes on for 3 to 4 minutes, then you flip it, turn the heat down to low, and give it another 1 to 2 minutes. Rest it for 2 to 4 minutes before slicing so the juices settle back through the meat instead of running out onto the board.

The pan never goes to medium-high heat, and that is deliberate — a quarter-inch piece of chicken on a screaming pan scorches on the outside before the middle has set. You will also notice there is no meat thermometer anywhere in this recipe, because at that thickness there is no thick middle left to probe; the timings do the work. If you would rather not cook olive oil that hard, avocado oil has a higher smoke point and behaves the same way on a grill pan. The bacon gets its own gentle treatment: two slices into a cold pan with a third to half a cup of water, brought up to a simmer on medium, and once the water has evaporated you turn them every so often until each side is golden brown, then pat the excess grease off on paper towels.

Building It: Textures, Flavors and Easy Variations

Cut the Italian loaf lengthwise, brush the cut sides with olive oil and a dash of garlic powder, and broil for 4 to 5 minutes until lightly toasted. Then 2 to 3 tbsp of the Greek yogurt Caesar mixture across the bottom half, 2 to 3 tbsp of spicy aioli across the top, and build upward from the bottom: sliced chicken, two quarter-inch tomato slices, a tablespoon of finely sliced green onions, romaine lettuce, bacon. The vegetables are as simple as it gets — romaine, tomato, green onion — and the whole point of that order is textures: soft dressing, warm chicken, cold crisp leaf, crunchy bacon on top.