HOMEMADE CHICKEN CAESAR FTW!
Plus, a glimpse at America's "Third Coast" and how to eat well there
Ever wonder why a restaurant Caesar Salad is SO tasty, and why a bagged Caesar Salad from the grocery store tastes like caca? Chances are it’s the dressing. Fear not! We have a delicious classic Caesar dressing recipe for you that is packed with bright lemon and savory Parmesan. Once you’ve made it, you’ll never go back to the bottled stuff. Then, use that dressing as a marinade for some perfectly juicy—and EASY—chicken to top your salad. It’s a meal that can be on the table in 30 minutes flat.
And have you ever been to the Michigan Coast? Neither had Elizabeth, and safe to say, she fell in love with every swoon-worthy view…
AIR-FRYER CHICKEN CAESAR SALAD
AU: If you read that headline and thought, “WHAAAA?!?!” Don’t worry, you’re not cooking the ENTIRE salad in the air fryer. But the air fryer does produce incredibly crunchy croutons, so why not use it to cook your chicken, too?
EK: This may be the one recipe to get me to use an air-fryer. That golden-brown chicken is making me sooooo hungry! I can’t believe you got a crust like that without any breading!
AU: The secret, as they say, is in the sauce. Or in this case, the dressing. Since a Caesar dressing is really just a fancy mayonnaise, it acts as a wonderfully flavorful marinade for chicken that you can then grill, roast, or air fry!
I used to be someone who would never even think of making my own Caesar dressing. It seemed complicated, and I was just fine having it come from the bottle. Until one day I made it from scratch, and it is like tasting Caesar Salad for the first time.
Loads of lemon zest and juice, anchovy, garlic, and parmesan play in perfect harmony to create a savory salty coating for each piece of crisp, refreshing lettuce. You can use the classic romaine, or the trendy Little Gems (which is essentially baby romaine).
AU: The dressing comes together in a snap. I like to use a heart-healthy neutral oil (like avocado) here, to let all the ingredients shine. If you use a really strong-tasting olive oil, it’s going to overpower the other flavors (and may taste too bitter in the end).
In a medium bowl, combine some egg yolks, the zest and juice of a lemon, a grated garlic clove, 2-4 anchovy filets that have been mashed into a paste (I usually land on 3, for my taste), and a teaspoon of Dijon mustard. Then you slowly add in 1/2 cup of neutral oil while whisking constantly, making sure the mixture emulsifies before adding more oil. Once you have a cohesive emulsion, add in some more good stuff: parmesan cheese, Worcestershire sauce, S&P. Taste your hard work on a lettuce leaf to make sure she’ll perform as intended.
As you can see above, this recipe makes a little more than a cup of dressing—more than you’ll need, unless you are feeding a crowd. So now it’s time to set aside most of that dressing, keeping 1/3 cup or so in the bowl.
Here’s the magic bit: Add boneless, skinless chicken thighs to that dressing in the bowl, and toss to coat. If you’ve never marinated meat that you’re grilling/cooking in mayonnaise, you’re missing out! Sounds weird, but trust us! Check out Elizabeth’s perfect wings for game day, and read more about meats ‘n’ mayo here.
EK: I admit, It does sound weird. But nothing succeeds like success and I’ve never made a recipe with mayo as the flavor binder that didn’t work perfectly!
AU: The Caesar dressing acts as a flavorful coating that browns beautifully on the chicken when you cook it. You can grill, but with the Parmesan in the dressing, I prefer indirect heat—which makes the air fryer (or oven) the perfect tool for the job.
AU: After the chicken thighs rest for 10 mins, slice them up and top your Caesar Salad with them. It’s a fantastic weeknight dinner that’s tasty enough for entertaining, too! The recipe PDF below lists instructions for making perfect croutons and using the oven, if you don’t have an air fryer. Enjoy!
ELIZABETH EXPLORES AMERICA’S “THIRD COAST”
EK: I had the best long weekend! I knew I would have a great weekend because I was visiting great friends who are more like family, but I had no idea that I would fall in love with Michigan!
To be exact, Sawyer, Michigan—and it’s neighboring towns. It is 81 miles from Chicago but a world away. If I had known about this very special pocket of the world when I lived in Chicago, I would have become a regular visitor—maybe even moved there!
It is full of natural beauty, beaches and sunsets, but for someone whose passion is cooking, it is food and beverage heaven! There are some great places to eat and drink of course, but the ingredients are so inspiring and so abundant, that you can’t wait to get home and cook up (and drink up!) all the good stuff!
AU: Everyone who has been there tells me it’s just PERFECTION. I think people who love it are quiet about it, so the secret doesn’t get out…
EK: It is the northernmost community of Harbor country. The area is known for Warren Dunes, a state park with hundreds of acres of dunelands and sand dunes that look like small mountains. The sand dunes look over Lake Michigan, which I just learned this weekend is referred to as The Third Coast. I also learned that Michigan has more miles of fresh water shoreline than any other state.
EK: The most popular souvenir gear is embroidered with “Lake Michigan, Unsalted. No Sharks.” And I have to admit it took me a second to get it, but once I did, I promptly bought a baseball hat to commemorate my time on The Third Coast.
The area gives you all the art and agrarian vibes of the South of France, but with beer, brats, bourbon and rye in addition to the over-flowing produce farms, Swedish bakeries and wineries!
The vegetables, grain and fruit grown in Michigan are unparalleled from almost any place that I’ve seen in the USA. And, the growing season is long. It was October, and the markets were stocked like mid-summer in other regions; raspberries were on the vines, heirloom tomatoes were still at the market alongside the many varieties of fresh apples that had just been picked.
EK: The theme of the weekend was “from the land” as we visited more farm stands, markets, butchers and bakers than I usually do unless I am in France or Italy. The two places that were both an experience and a shopping trip were Journeyman distillery and Granor Farm—and a very special trip to see contemporary sculptor, Fritz Olsen.
EK: Some highlights…the distiller’s tour at Journeyman takes you on a short tour of the original distillery where you taste three barrel samples and then move to a 13-spirit tasting.
The most noteworthy aspect of the tour and tasting is that Journeyman won the Ascot Awards Whiskey of the Year in both 2022 and 2023 for their Corsets, Whips and Whiskey with smooth vanilla notes of toffee, caramel, spiced maple syrup and light citrus. The Pit-Spitter Cherry Rye was also a winner in my book: Fresh Michigan cherries are added to the Distillery’s Light Feather Rye for 14 days before being pressed and strained. The fresh cherries impart a concentrated cherry juice flavor to the rye that tastes like a cocktail in a bottle. The distiller told us that each bottle contained the juice of 80 cherries.
EK: Granor Farm is a working organic farm with grain, vegetables, fruit and flowers—the Dahlias and Zinnias were in full bloom and gorgeous! An education center with a children’s farm camp, market stand, restaurant and a new distillery round out the farm’s focus.
The farm had grown rye for Journeyman, but has now started to use the rye and other grains to make their own sprits. The first spirit is a 180-bottle production of Blue Corn Amaro (see above) that was so good that we drank it all weekend long. When my friend and local expert, Lisa, asked Farmer Jack how he liked to drink the Amaro, he told her with club soda and a lemon.
I riffed on Farmer Jack’s drink and made Amaro Spritz’ with about 2 ounces of the Amaro, 3 ounces of lemon Spindrift Sparkling Water and an Orange Twist. I highly recommend it with their Amaro or your favorite Amaro.
EK: We shopped at the Granor market, went on 2 farm tours and enjoyed a 7-course tasting dinner in the greenhouse. Our host for everything except the shopping excursion was Chef Abra Berens, the farm chef and author of a trio of the best farm-to-table cookbooks that I’ve ever seen!
She grew up in Michigan, worked at the famed Zingerman’s Deli in Ann Arbor, and other restaurants in Chicago before moving back and working at Granor to establish a world-class food program. Her cookbooks are Ruffage (think veggies), Grist (think grain) and Pulp (think fruit) and besides being great reads, you can browse by ingredient and use them as a reference for when you have a certain ingredient and need a new thing to do with it. She also has a lot of recipes on the Granor Farm website.
EK: In between drinking, cooking and eating, we visited the artist Fritz Olsen and his sweet dog, Poppy, at his gallery. Poppy thought we came to visit her, of course! And if you look at his IG, you can see a few pictures of Poppy in between all the gorgeous sculptures. I am assuming she is his muse for a number of dog-themed pieces that you don’t see on IG, but are very compelling—especially for another dog person like me.
He took us back to his private studio to see pieces in progress, and marble/stone that he had left-over from past shows. It was fascinating to see him pick up a piece of the material that he works with, like stone or steel, and tell their stories—I could have listened to him all day, but we had sunsets over The Third Coast to see and a dinner to cook…
EK: On Sunday morning we took a more in-depth look at the farm and went home with that week’s CSA bag and a bucket of flowers. We took that bag of “mystery” ingredients and a few extras from the well-known Sawyer Garden Center, a.k.a. Sawyer Market, and made dinner at home that night. It started with sunset cocktails and ended with hot toddy’s made with Journeyman’s distilled Michigan Apple Cider and Kentucky Bourbon—definitely a trip to remember!
It was wonderful!! Next time, you’ll have to join us! It was so great to see you both on Friday night!!
Your Michigan weekend recap made me swoon. What a perfect time of year to be introduced to a foodie nirvana. So good to see you.