Chicken Caesar Salad with Homemade Croutons

Its been a while since I've made this...dont know why, I must be crazy! Seriously you can not go wrong with homemade croutons, they really make this such a good salad. We like to pile them on to where you almost can't see anymore lettuce, kinda takes the "salad" out of this meal but you can't help it.  I like the big chunky pieces of croutons so I buy either a french loaf or store bread uncut.
We went through a testing period of Caesar dressings to find one that was really good.  We prefer Cardini's Light Caesar Dressing, nice and creamy with a good flavor.  And the word "light" makes us not feel guilty about dumping it on in massive amounts  :)

This recipe makes two adult meals or several side salads (and really this makes a filling meal all by itself).  Cook it all up fresh, the warm croutons and chicken make a nice contrast to the cold lettuce and dressing.  drooool....

Chicken Caesar Salad with Homemade Croutons

Ingredients

• 3 Tbsp butter or margarine 
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 Tbsp parsley, slightly crush in the palm of your hand with your thumb
• 1/2 tsp basil, slightly crushed also
• Loaf of uncut bread
• 6 chicken tenderloin pieces (or 2 chicken breasts)
• 2 heads of Romaine Lettuce
• grated Parmesan cheese
• your favorite Caesar salad dressing

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Heat a large skillet over medium/ med high heat with a little bit of oil.  Lightly season chicken with salt and ground pepper and place in skillet. Cook till done, about 3-4 minutes each side.

2. Cut bread into large chunks.

3. Melt butter. Add olive oil, garlic powder, parsley, and basil and mix thoroughly.

4. Slowly pour half the butter mixture over half the bread, tossing with your fingers to get evenly coated. Add remaining bread and butter mixture and toss it all around till lightly coated.

5. Pour coated bread out in one layer on cookie sheet and bake in oven 10 minutes or until browned, shaking pan midway through cooking.

6. Wash and chop lettuce into pieces. Chop chicken into pieces. Place lettuce, chicken, and croutons in a large in bowl. Grate Parmesan cheese all over. Pour your favorite dressing and dig in!