Proper chicken caesar salad

With my own versions of the classics, like Caesar salad, it's not about changing things entirely; it's about respecting the original while bigging up the flavours and textures where I can. My twists for this salad are to use chicken legs, smoky pancetta and lovely rustic croutons to suck up all the juices. It's a lovely little salad with just a hint of attitude.

Serves 6

Ingredients

• • 1 loaf of ciabatta bread (about 250g)
• • 3 sprigs of fresh rosemary
• • 4 chicken legs, preferably free-range or organic, skin off
• • olive oil
• • sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• • 6 thin slices of pancetta or bacon
• • ¼ of a clove of garlic discarded
• • 4 anchovy fillets in olive oil
• • 30g fresh Parmesan cheese, plus a few extra shavings to serve
• • 1 tablespoon low-fat Greek yoghurt
• • juice of 1 lemon
• • extra virgin olive oil
• • 2 or 3 cos or romaine lettuces, outer leaves discarded
• • a couple of handfuls of mixed leaves (like radicchio, rocket and red chicory)

To make your salad

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• Preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF/gas 6
• Tear the ciabatta into thumb-sized pieces
• Pick and roughly chop the rosemary leaves

To make your salad

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• Place the skinless chicken legs and the pieces of torn-up bread into a snug-fitting flat baking dish
• Sprinkle with the chopped rosemary, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper
• Mix with your hands to make sure everything is well coated, then lift the chicken legs up to the top, so they sit above the bread (this way the bread will soak up all the lovely juices)

To make your salad

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• Pop the dish into your preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until the chicken is nicely cooked (you can make your dressing while you wait)
• Take the dish out of the oven and drape the pancetta or bacon over the chicken and croutons
• Put the dish back in the oven for another 15 to 20 minutes for everything to crisp up - your chicken legs are ready when you can pinch the meat off the bone easily
• When they’re cooked, remove the dish from the oven and leave to one side for the chicken to cool down slightly

To make your salad

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• Peel the garlic
• Finely grate the Parmesan and drain the anchovies
• Pound the garlic and anchovy fillets in a pestle and mortar until you have a pulp

To make your salad dressing

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• Add the Parmesan, Greek yoghurt and lemon juice
• Pour in three times as much extra virgin olive oil as lemon juice
• Whisk well and season your dressing to taste

To dress your salad

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• Pull the chicken meat off the leg bones – you can use two forks to do this, or your hands if you’re tough like me
• Tear the chicken up roughly with the croutons and the bacon
• Wash, spin dry and separate all your salad leaves

To dress your salad

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• Tear up the salad leaves and toss them with the chicken, croutons, bacon and creamy dressing
• Use a vegetable peeler to shave off a few pieces of Parmesan, if using, and scatter these over the salad
• Serve hot or cold