I Bought 19 Caesar Dressings at the Store and Ranked Them!

With 19 Caesar dressing brands at my local grocery, which is the most delicious?
#caesarsaladdressing , #caesarsalad , #collardvalleycooks
Who makes the best Caesar Salad Dressings? Tammy is choosing only the best, so make sure you get the scoop if you love Caesar Salad!
If you want to make a delicious homemade Caesar Salad, Tammy has a great recipe for that on the website and in her Volume 2 Cookbook.
Caesar Salad, Vol. 2 Cookbook Recipe
2 ROMAINE HEARTS
1/2 RED ONION SLICED THIN
CAESAR CROUTONS
1 LARGE CARROT, PEEL AND GRATE.
CAESAR DRESSING (RECIPE BELOW)
Wash Romaine Hearts and dry in a salad spinner.
Place on paper towels and roll up and store in
refrigerator to prepare salad later. Tear (or cut) lettuce
add, sliced onion, & shredded carrots. Toss in chilled
Caesar dressing. Top with croutons, black pepper,
shaved parmesan cheese.
Caesar Dressing
1 CUP PLAIN YOGURT (OR 1 CUP MAYO)
1 RAW EGG YOLK (OPTIONAL)
4 CLOVES GARLIC PRESSED
1 TBSP. DIJON MUSTARD
2 TSP. WORCESTERSHIRE
1 TBSP. ANCHOVY PASTE OR 4 CRUSHED ANCHOVIES
1/2 TSP. SALT
1/2 CUP GRATED PARMESAN
1/2 CUP SHAVED PARMESAN (FOR TOPPING)
Combine ingredients, blend well with whisk and toss
in greens.
“It is nice to serve salads in chilled plates and
bowls…Tammy”
Option: Toast bread if desired. We typically use untoasted bread.
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I’m Tammy. The cameraman is my husband, Chris. And this is Collarded Valley Cooks. I was at the grocery and I wanted to get some Caesar dressing because I had a Caesar salad the other day at a restaurant and it was really good and I was overwhelmed by the choices and I bought every brand that I could. Even went to a different grocery store to pick up a few more and I’m so glad I did because they actually were the winners. Um, and I was very disappointed in the taste and flavors of the Caesar dressings that are available in your local grocery stores. Now, me and my daughter both tasted all of these with lettuce. And then I did pick up uh my other two winners um yesterday at Kroger. So, I am going to tell you what I put in my Caesar dressing first. And of course, it’s good if you make it homemade. Um, it’s good. Mine has plain yogurt or mayonnaise. It’s according if you want to save the calories or not. And it’s good with yogurt. Um, I put in a raw egg, and that’s optional if you’re afraid of them. four cloves of garlic pressed, don mustard, worstachire, anchovi paste or four crushed anchovies, and that’s very important in a Caesar dressing. A lot of you probably don’t even know it’s in there. Salt, grated palm. Okay. Now, um when you make it homemade, it’s absolutely delicious and fresh tasting, but when you get it from the store and especially in some of these brands that are that have been around since we were kids, um it’s very a lot of them taste like mayonnaise, some of them taste like ranch dressing instead of Caesar dressing. And then some of them are really oily and they’re not thick enough to stick to the lettuce. So, what are you looking for when you get a Caesar salad? What are you looking for in a Caesar salad dressing? You want it to be creamy. You want it to stick to the lettuce and not run to the bottom of the bowl. And you want it to have a flavor. Um, that’s what the anchovies give it. kind of like a earthy uh savory flavor. You also want it to have just a little bit of tartness from a lemon. And I don’t have lemon in my recipe, so I’m going to make sure and put it in there. But you don’t want it overpowering with lemon. Uh, one of these is good. I believe it maybe I think it was this one at Newman’s own. It was pretty good, but it had way too much pepper and it tasted more like lemon. Um, and it was just over the top. So, some of these go over the top, especially the ones that are low in calories and organic. Um, they try to make up with it with other ingredients and it causes the Caesar dressing to be really runny. Look how they’re just like watery. Um, and this was the overall worst. And I’m talking worst. I’m gonna pour it out and let you see it. Um, it was the very bottom. I’ll pour out some of these and show you why they were the worst. Um, that says it’s a steak marinade and I’m sure it was expensive, but it uses avocado oil. I’m going to shake it up and pour it in here and just let you see why. Is it for a dressing or is it It’s dressing and marinade. So, when you pour it in the bowl, look at how thin it is. It’s absolutely nothing like a Caesar dressing. And it says it’s Caesar, Steakhouse Caesar, which you would think would be delicious. The name sounds wonderful, but oh my goodness, it was bad. Um, Skinny Girl. Well, it’s just what you would think it would be, but even worse. Um, so this is one that was not good. Primal Kitchen Caesar with avocado oil. Uh, this one had a real fancy bottle. Had gold wrapping around the top and it was it just looked like it was going to be delicious and it was not good at all. Is that a low calorie one too? Um, says 80 calories. Yes. And this one they start going up to about 100 calories. The best I mean blew the others away for low calorie is Bolt House Farms 50 calories. It was good. Me and Amy both liked it. It was our number one until I went and got some more out of 15. This one was number one and it was 50 calories. So if you’re looking for a low calorie dressing that Caesar Boat House Farms beat them all, okay? I mean, it’s good. It’s creamy. It’s delicious. It’s And so, I’ll pour it out and let you see theirs since it’s a winter winner. And y’all know how when it’s hot, how it’s that that cool Caesar salad is so good. It’s good for lunch. It’s what we’re going to have for lunch. Now, you can see how thick that is. This is in the refrigerated section, so it doesn’t taste um it doesn’t have artificial flavors or preservatives, and it doesn’t have a taste of u I’m going to stick this in my freezer real quick. Um it doesn’t have the taste of chemicals. To me, a lot of these dressings taste like chemicals. If you just taste them on a piece of lettuce, they have a very chemical type flavor, especially these old standards we’ve always used. And believe it or not, Olive Garden wasn’t good. Panera wasn’t good at all. It was I mean, it wasn’t terrible, but it was very bland. It didn’t taste like a Caesar dressing. It just tasted like a creamy dressing. Uh, this one was really thick and looked like it was going to be delicious, but it was very boring with nothing in it hardly. So, it was more like a ranch. A lot of these were more like ranch. Um, this one I got yesterday. It’s actually medium. I got three in the medium category. All of these on the back I wouldn’t spend any money on. And that’s a lot of brands. Um, that’s and we like Kins. Yes, usually our favorite brand of dressing, but yes, we love their thousand island, but not with this. So, Ken’s Wishbone, Craft, the P the store brand, Newman’s Own Olive Garden, Panera Bread, Marie, I believe is how you say that. Um, Brianna’s, Gerard’s, Gerard, however they say that, the Primal Kitchen, the Skinny Girl, and this steakhouse chosen foods. They were all on the back, and I would not spend my money on them at all when you got some different choices. Okay, so medium. Um, if you can’t get these three, which are all in the refrigerated section, uh, then Yo Mama’s Caesar is dairyf free, glutenfree, natural, and it was decent, and I would eat it on a salad. This one is the same way. It’s Simple Truth, uh, organic creamy parm Caesar, and it was good. And this one, man, Amy really didn’t like this one, but I did. And it is Ken’s creamy Caesar with roasted garlic. So Ken’s does have the chef’s reserve Caesar that is doable. But remember, any of these that are on the counter that are not in the refrigerator, all of them have a chem chemical type flavor, no matter what brand it is. Okay. The only thing that’s going to taste fresh and delicious are those in the refrigerated in the refrigerated section that don’t have a lot of preservatives and things in them. That’s why Boat House blew it all out of the water. So, Boat House beat every one of these on the back and it’s 50 calories and it’s delicious. Uh, but it’s not as good as these two. This one is really good. Lighthouse Caesar and AI actually picked this one as the top dressing, but I’m picking this one. AI didn’t get to taste this one. Uh, so I’m sure she pulled in reviews from all different kinds of people and and the AI was really correct with this except that the Chick-fil-A wasn’t a choice in her 15 lineup. Okay. And Parmesan uh Caesar dressing by Chick-fil-A. Absolutely delicious. Good enough that I don’t have to make it anymore to have a good salad. So, me and Chris are going to have a salad today with Chick-fil-A’s Parmesan question. Okay. All right. Uh, you know how Caesar always has parm shaved parm on it? Yes. And black pepper? Yes. On it? Yes. Yes. Do you think that makes a difference in the fl like if you took one of these other ones and then you added the palm of black pepper, would that improve it? I mean it it would always improve it except that some of these I’ve over went overboard with the pepper. Newman’s own put the pepper in it. Newman’s own is overboard with pepper. Um this one right here, Brianna’s, doesn’t taste like Caesar at all. It’s a good dressing, but it doesn’t taste like Caesar. And it’s got a really tart flavor. It’s like whoa when you taste it. Okay. So, hers is kind of like that. I told um Amy that I could probably take I believe it was this one, Brianna’s, and mix it with another creamy one and make one that was doable. But hers isn’t creamy enough. So, these are the winners. These are the winners. Chick-fil-A. And we love Caesar dressing. Uh Chick-fil-A’s. It’s not real real thick, but the flavor is bang up. And this one was AI’s top choice. So, it’s the top choice of a lot of people, but like I said, she did not have Chick-fil-As in the lineup. Okay. It’s the creamiest. Um, I’m going to taste them again while we’re standing here. Uh, just because I want to. Now, this was my top yesterday, my top low calorie. And I’m just going to put my finger in them and taste them, y’all. It’s just good. One, one of the reasons it makes that one good is that it has the um cheese in it, the ago and parm in it. And so it just has a really good flavor. Low calorie. This is the bomb. Low calorie. Mhm. It’s good, Chris. Isn’t it good? It’s got a really good flavor. Amy loved it, too. All right. And it’s really um it’s delicious. Yeah, it’s got a lot of zip to it. It’s delicious. All right, this one is the Chick-fil-A. It’s a little stronger than the other one. Yeah, this one’s more man, you know, got more creamy base. This one’s more garlicky. Oh, yeah. It’s good, ain’t it? That garlic makes a difference. Yes. That’s the Chick-fil-A. The garlic and the anchovi. Yes. Makes the big difference in season. Yeah. And Chick-fil-A has uh parm is Wow. It’s oil, then water, then parm, then salt, lemon juice, and then it starts listing the other things. Anchovies is in there. It’s not at the bottom. A lot of these in the back, the anchovi is at the very end. and it’ll say contains anchovi. So, you know, they don’t hardly put anything in it. Um, this lighthouse one, um, oil, water, parm, uh, mustard, vinegar, garlic, and it has anchovies. All right. And then the boat house farm farm is uh water, yogurt, milk, buttermilk, cheeses. So the ones that we like the most have cheeses in in the start of the lineup. I mean, you know, in the more cheese in the dressing. What did you think about the lighthouse? I like the Lighthouse, but I think I actually like the Chick-fil-A better. So did I. The Lighthouse has a It’s very creamy. Yeah, it is so creamy. It doesn’t have the zip that some butter garlic. If you put some pepper on it. Yeah. Would make a big difference with it. Yeah. Like the It is definitely not as good as Chick-fil-A’s. So Chick-fil-A’s is absolutely the winner. It might not be the creamiest and it will run. You see that? You can see these two. This one runs some. You can see the lighthouse don’t run at all. But it it doesn’t have enough flavor in it. It’s it tastes more like the yogurt or the whatever’s in there, mayonnaise or uh Now, this one’s 140 calories and of course the best one is 150 calories. But y’all, when you go up to um the the highest calorie one was uh Kins 170. I think I had one at 180. And if you’re coming in late, we do have she does have a parm I mean a parm. She does have a Caesar’s dressing that she makes. Yes, that’s a homemade dressing in volume two that we talked about at the beginning of the video. And I could mix it up for y’all real quick, but why should I do that when I’ve got 19 dressings that I bought? I did this just for y’all because I really was I was like with 19 dressings, how do you know which one to choose? And now you know which one to choose. Absolutely. The refrigerated section is worth stopping and getting your dressing. So if you This was at Kroger. It was not at Publix. Okay. I don’t know if you’ll have it or not cuz it’s Chick-fil-A. It’s kind of like a southern thing. I don’t know if it’ll be in your grocery or not. If it’s not there, I would choose Boat House Farm next myself. And then, um, and if you don’t have Boat House Farm, then I would go Lighthouse. And if you don’t have that, absolutely make your own. Or I mean really and truly this one wasn’t that bad. Let’s taste it again. Don’t forget you in the freezer. I know it’s in there. This is pretty runny though. Which one is that? The organic. Organic. Simple treat. No, no, no, no. It’s terrible. Terrible. When you taste it alongside those other Just taste that, Chris. I want you to taste it so that you can let them know how chemical Put your finger down in it. There you go. You taste that chemical at night, isn’t it? Horrible. It’s a world of difference. It’s like night and day. And I’m telling you, all of these way out of those taste. You don’t I don’t think this one did, but now Ken’s does. I mean, cuz they’re they’re cuz they’re not refrigerated right now. This one’s not refrigerated. No, it’s still got that taste. Every one of these have that yuck chemical flavor. And buddy, when you get a good dressing and then you taste one of these along with it and look, I could not believe that Panera Bread uh didn’t have a good dressing. Um but they it’s just not a Caesar. It don’t taste Caesar at all. So anyway, I hope y’all enjoyed this. We’re going to mix this up salad right quick. But look at the worst. Just look at that, y’all. If you came in late, look how it’s separated. And I wouldn’t want to marinate a steak in that either. That’s pretty nasty looking. I don’t even know how much it cost, but I guarantee you it wouldn’t cheap cuz the wrapping and all looks all fancy. Matter of fact, it may have come out of the refrigerated section. This one might have. Sure might have. But okay, so a lot of y’all probably thought that Primal Kitchen would be up there, too, but it one of the worst. Okay, the avocado oil just is not good in the dressings. Now, let me talk about these croutons cuz I got just your standard croutons. I got Texas toast. I got Mis Mrs. Mrs. Cubbison. How do you say that? Cubbison. Yeah, I guess Mrs. Cubbison. And she’s the winner by far for texture. Oh, the texture of these is wonderful. And you can make these, too. Yes. On your own. You have to get in the air fryer. Quick. Texas toasts are good. Um, Olive Garden and um, the Greenwise brand were decent. Um, and this one was absolutely throw in the trash bag. I’m not kidding. It was that bad. Me and Amy were like, “Oh my stars.” Okay, so we’re going to make us a salad. Chris has already been out for his walk this morning. When you make Caesar salad, it’s good to throw it in the freezer for a minute, okay? It just makes your lettuce good and crisp. I tell you how to clean your lettuce and how to store it. And mine wasn’t cleaned and stored that way today. I did wash it, but um you usually rinse off all your leaves and you lay out paper towels and you roll the leaves up in the paper towels and then you put it in the refrigerator and they stay nice and crisp and crunchy. Okay. And some of this, this is not the prettiest, but I got the real kind, you know, the big piece instead of the hearts because I wanted the green. It’s a little better for you, you know. Boy, it’s cold from being in the freezer. It’s just wonderful. All right, we’re going to toss it in this dressing. Let’s take out these ugly ones. That one’s really bad. You never know what you’re going to get when you get down in the lettuce. Not really. I’m just making sure I don’t have some that look really bad in here. I’m going to give them to the chickens, though. I’m not going to throw them out. My chickens will like them. I got rid of some lettuce, so I’m going to try to get some more. Okay. Wait, how’d that get in there? You got another one in there. I do. I don’t know. Okay. Okay. So, this ought to be enough for me and Chris. And you can put meat and stuff on it if you want to. Um, that’s up to you. And you can just buy the hearts if you want to. I bought the whole leaf, which was really a waste of money cuz down inside the leaf, it’s not as pretty as it looks on the outside. So, you might be better off getting the hearts anyway. Um, so what I do first is I put my dressing on my lettuce. And now I’m funny about dressing. Me and Chris both are. We don’t like to go to the restaurant and a Caesar dressing just be just drenching our lettuce. We like for it to be tossed with just enough Caesar dressing. So, me and Chris and Caesar dressing is a Caesar salad is one that you you don’t normally say put my dressing on the side, but if me and Chris had it to do ourselves, we would have it on the side cuz Caesar dressing is uh rich and thick and Yeah. And you don’t need a lot of it. Now, some of y’all might feel differently about it. This is just not got a little bit. This right here It didn’t have any on it. It was down in the bottom. All right. Now, once you toss it in your dressing, you’re going to put some pepper on it. Pepper makes it taste so good. All right. I got some parm that was This was actually on sale and it was shaved um homestyle parm. And I’m going to use my little I don’t know if y’all got one of these or not, but they’re less than $10 on the website. And watch how easy they are to open a jar. And then you It’s just open and your lid still works. Yes. Now, I don’t want to put my hands in this cheese. Whenever I use cheese, I never put my fingers in it. It don’t matter how clean my fingers are. I will not do that. If you need to get it out with something other than that, you can use the end of a utensil or something to put more. Is that cheese any good? Try. It’s a good brand. Well, I’m just asking cuz then the other ones were good brands and it wasn’t any good. Oh, yeah. It’s good. Good. Mhm. What is it again? Homestyle. It’s really good. Oh, did I have any shaved cheese? I thought I bought some ch No, I thought I had some thin wafer cheese. Yeah. Where’s it at? Let me get it. Are you going to put it in there, too? Yes. So, what’s so good about a Caesar salad? Do you know where it is? Yes. Now that I got that, I don’t know that I need to use my fresh, but we’ll we’ll put a little fresh on it. That’s That’s really good. Yeah. Yes. No, we don’t need to use the fresh. Lord, you already got more cheese on it. So, this is the wafer. You know, the real thin pieces. Yeah. That they always put on there. Good looking kind. Yeah. And I just got it shaved. It’s just called four month 14 month aged parm shaved palm cheese. And it was on sale, too. All right. So, all we got left is the croutons. And I’m going to put a little bit of this on there just so that you can see if you want fresh parm and not to get it in a jar or whatever. You can just use fresh like this. And I get my palm cheese typically at Aldi because it’s a lot cheaper. All the cheese is so much cheaper at Aldi. And then I just keep it. Me and Chris eat it a lot. We eat it on pizza. We eat it on spaghetti. We eat it on salad. So that’s where I keep it. I’m going to use the best croutons, which were these. So now you know who has the best croutons. And let me tell you why these are the best. Chris, I want you to crunch one. And I’ll crunch one. [Applause] Good texture. Do you like it? Mhm. To me, if you can crunch it without it being hard, it’s just delicious. It’s just good. And there you have it. Our delicious Caesar salad. Um, and we’re going to have it for lunch. So, let me get a bowl. Or you want me to put it on a plate [Music] so they can see it? I’ll put it on a plate for y’all. So you can see how pretty it is. And remember to chill your lettuce. And you won’t be talking like I’m talking, so yours will be even colder. And don’t think you can’t have a delicious salad at home this time of year. Especially our weather today is going to be 101°. That is really hot. This is going to be Chris’s salad. Really hot. And so, um, nice light salad. It’s a nice delicious salad. Let’s get a bite now with this delicious Chick-fil-A dressing and see how it tastes on the lettuce, with the cheese. It’s going to be even better. I’m going to get it out of the bowl so I won’t mess up my salad over there. So, I did tell them it was going to be 101 today, didn’t I? 101 degrees, y’all. No, I do make big pieces that I have to shove in my mouth. [Music] Yum. Y’all, before you go, I’m going to tell them something. Okay. One reason I did this is because it is summer and I bought this the other day before I bought all these others. And I made me and Chris a salad. And we sat down and we ate it. It was edible, but it wasn’t good, was it, Chris? Disappointing. Very disappointing. And I thought, you know what? I am going to buy every Caesar dressing and figure out if there’s one available that’s worth buying, not have to make it yourself. And that’s exactly what we did. It was an investment. So, it’s an investment for y’all and the show. I mean, we use the show’s money, and that’s one good thing about having this. You know, I can go and I can compare things so that you guys can save the money and not have to. And so I hope you enjoy your delicious Chick-fil-A Caesar salad dressing. If you don’t get it, get the Bolt House Farms. If you don’t get it, get the Lighthouse. Okay. And we will see you next time on Colored. Sorry, I’ve got lettuce on my tongue. And we will see you next time on Collarded Valley Cooks, where we cook like mama did. Bye y’all. Love you.