You guys know I’m all about a delicious burger, but sometimes an easy, flavorful grilled chicken sandwich just HITS. I love grilling chicken in the summer for weeknight dinners because you can use it in tons of amazing recipes. In fact, I have over 30 ways to use grilled chicken here!
Anyway, a couple of summers ago I was dreaming up new fun recipes using grilled chicken and realized I didn’t have a go-to chicken sandwich on the blog yet. What was I waiting for?! These incredible grilled chicken caesar sandwiches are packing the flavor thanks to my famous tahini-based vegan caesar dressing, which you’ll use as both the chicken marinade and the dressing for super crunchy, fresh slaw.
Pile these chicken sandwiches high on your fav buns with the best toppings like sweet tomato and creamy avocado. They’re perfect for your next BBQ, potluck, or just weeknight dinner or lunch. One bite and Abra, Tony and I were 100% hooked. As always, I’ve included tons of ways to customize your sandwiches and even ways to make them without a grill. Enjoy!
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Grilled chicken caesar sandwich ingredients
These incredible grilled chicken caesar sandwiches are super easy to make with just four components: the dressing/marinade, the veggies, the chicken, and the toppings. Here’s everything you’ll need to make them:
- For the dressing & marinade: we’re using my famous vegan caesar dressing made with tahini as both the chicken marinade and the slaw dressing. It adds the perfect amount of flavor to both and keeps the chicken nice and juicy.
- For the chicken: I like to use boneless skinless chicken thighs in this recipe for extra flavor.
- For the slaw: we’re chopping up green and red cabbage, carrots, and green onion. You’ll toss the veggies with your dressing along with a little pure maple syrup, salt & pepper to bring out the flavors.
- For assembling: add your chicken & slaw to your favorite hamburger buns (I love Dave’s Killer Bread or brioche buns!), and top with all of your go-to toppings. I love fresh sliced avocado and tomato!
How to grill perfect chicken
Grilling chicken can seem intimidating, but with all of my tips & tricks, you’ll be grilling perfect chicken every time for these chicken caesar sandwiches and beyond! Get my full guide to grilling chicken here.
Looking to bake your chicken instead?
You can! I like to bake my chicken at 400 degrees F for about 20-30 minutes or until a meat thermometer reads 165 degrees F. Get all of my tips for baking chicken here!
Customize your chicken caesar sandwiches
These easy chicken caesar sandwiches are great for customizing to your taste preferences. Here are some suggestions:
- Choose the meat. Feel free to use chicken breasts instead of thighs if you’d like.
- Try a new sauce. I love the flavor of the tahini caesar dressing as the marinade and in the slaw, but my creamy feta sauce would also be delicious!
- Add your fav toppings. Because toppings are the best part about sandwiches — feel free to choose any you’d like! I love fresh avocado and tomato with the slaw, but you could add a slice of cheese, bibb lettuce, red onion, and more.
- Pick a bun (or no bun). Use any bun you’d like for these sandwiches — even gluten-free! You could even make them in fresh lettuce wraps for a grain free / low carb option.
Grilled chicken caesar sandwiches in 5 easy steps
- Make the dressing. Start by mixing together the tahini caesar dressing — be sure to taste it and add more salt and pepper as needed.
- Marinate the chicken. Add your chicken to a large bowl or dish and pour half of the dressing in. Use tongs to mix the chicken in the dressing so that it’s well coated, then cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or overnight.
- Make the slaw. Add all of your shredded veggies to a bowl and mix them with the remaining dressing. Refrigerate until you’re ready to assemble your sandwiches.
- Grill your chicken. Grill up your chicken and feel free to toast your buns if you’d like.
- Assemble the sandwiches. Add your chicken, slaw, tomato, and avocado to your buns and enjoy!
Our fav grilling tools
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More grilling recipes you’ll love
- Seriously Good Sweet Potato Cheddar BBQ Chicken Burgers
- Crazy Good Street Corn Chicken Tacos
- Sazon Grilled Chicken Thighs
- How to Grill Pizza that’s Crispy, Chewy and Ready in only 15 Minutes
- Spicy Ranch Chopped Chicken Cabbage Salad
Get all of my grilling recipes here!
I hope you love these grilled chicken caesar sandwiches! If you make them be sure to leave a comment and a rating so I know how you liked them. Enjoy, xo!
Ambitious Kitchen
Cookbook
125 Ridiculously Good For You, Sometimes Indulgent, and Absolutely Never Boring Recipes for Every Meal of the Day
Grilled Tahini Chicken Caesar Sandwiches
Ingredients
- For the marinade & dressing:
- ¼ cup drippy tahini (we use Soom tahini)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- Juice from ½ large lemon (about 2-3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice)
- 1 clove garlic, grated or finely minced (or sub ¼ teaspoon garlic powder)
- 1 teaspoon very finely diced capers
- 2 teaspoons caper brine (from the jar of capers)
- 1 teaspoon dijon mustard (we love a grainy dijon!)
- 3 tablespoons warm water
- Plenty of freshly ground salt and black pepper
- For the chicken:
- 4 larger boneless skinless chicken thighs or 4 medium to smaller chicken breasts
- Freshly ground salt and pepper
- For the tahini caesar slaw:
- ½ cup shredded green cabbage
- ½ cup shredded red cabbage (or do a blend of both!)
- ½ cup shredded carrots
- ¼ cup chopped green onion
- 1 teaspoon pure maple syrup
- Freshly ground salt and pepper
- For assembling:
- 4 hamburger buns of choice (I love Dave’s Killer Bread or brioche!)
- 1 large ripe avocado, sliced
- 1 roma or heirloom tomato, sliced
Instructions
- Mix the dressing ingredients together in a small bowl until smooth: tahini, fresh lemon juice, garlic, diced capers, caper brine, dijon mustard, warm water and freshly ground black pepper. Please note that most caesar dressings are pretty heavy on the salt and that's also important in this recipe to bring out the flavor and make it taste like a true Caesar salad dressing/marinade. Be generous with your salt and pepper!
- Add the chicken to a large bowl or shallow dish and pour half of the dressing on top, reserving the other half for the slaw. Use tongs or a fork to mix the chicken with the dressing, then cover and place in the fridge; allow chicken to marinate for at least 30 minutes or overnight. Place reserved dressing in a small container and set aside in the fridge for later
- Once ready, make the slaw: in a medium bowl, combine the cabbage, carrots, green onion and pure maple syrup. Add the remaining reserved dressing and toss together until well combined. Season with additional salt and pepper to taste, if necessary. Place in the fridge while you grill your chicken.
- Preheat your grill to 400 degrees F. Grill for about 6-8 minutes per side until chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees F. If you’d like, you can also toast the buns for 1-2 minutes.
- To prepare: place chicken on bun bottom, then top with slaw, sliced avocado and tomato slice then top with remaining bun. Serves 4. Enjoy!
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Recipe by: Monique Volz // Ambitious Kitchen | Photography by: Eat Love Eats
This post was originally published on June 13th, 2022, republished on June 11th, 2023, and republished on July 25th, 2024.
28 comments
This looks amazing! Could I sub something for the caper brine?
Pickle juice would be delicious!
These were fantastic – best chicken sandwiches I have ever made! It was too hot out today to grill so I cooked them in the air fryer and tossed a spinach arugula mix with maple syrup and the Caesar dressing instead of the slaw. 10/10!
Oh, nice!! Glad they worked well in the air fryer. Yum!
How much tahini goes in the slaw? It is not listed in the recipe…unless I am missing it, lol.
Click the “jump to recipe” button at the top of the post to get to the full recipe! It’s 1/4 cup tahini and you use half of the dressing for the chicken marinade and half for the slaw 🙂
Made the tahini dressing for the slaw to eat on turkey burgers! Worked perfectly! LOVE the recipe. Thank you for sharing it.
Yum! So glad that worked well 🙂
So good! Chicken was moist and delicious. I love the tahini Caesar dressing! Definitely will make again.
Woohooo! So happy you loved them, Amanda! Thanks so much 🙂
Every recipe is amazing. Every one. This one is no different and in fact surprised the heck out of me with how easy it was. I’m gluten free so I used the gluten free hamburger buns from Trader Joe’s but everything else I was able to keep the same. Absolutely incredible meal! I made my own homemade French fries to go with this. The prep time for me was just a few minutes since I got shredded cabbage and carrots. I could not find grainy Dijon so I mixed Dijon and grainy brown mustard together!
I honestly haven’t made this sandwich yet BUT the dressing on this slaw is KILLER. I have been making it non-stop for all types of slaws and salads. It is absolutely addicting and made with all pantry/fridge staples which is a major win. The Tahini Queenie does it again!
To go with turkey burgers, I made the tahini dressing for the slaw. Perfectly functional! AMAZING recipe. I’m grateful you shared it.
Nice! SO happy you loved it 🙂
These were delicious! It’s the marinade/dressing that really makes it. Sometimes our chicken can get dry when grilling but this marinade kept it moist and flavorful. And it’s so easy to make which is very important right now with a toddler and a new baby! Will definitely be keeping this on repeat all summer!
Yes, I can’t stand dry chicken! So glad it stayed nice and juicy 🙂 Happy you loved them, Kristin!
These are an absolute must try! The flavor is such a unique spin on a classic caesar. The slaw adds a perfect crunch. We used chicken thighs and grilled ciabatta for the bun. Would highly recommend. I can’t wait to make these again!
Absolutely! Perfect summer dinner 🙂
This was amazing!!! I let our chicken thighs marinate for 3 hours and then baked them. Absolutely delicious and full of flavor! Definitely on the rotation ◡̈
Nice! Happy they turned out delicious 🙂 Thanks for the review!
This was delicious! Thank you for sharing.
I’m SO glad you loved them! Thanks, Morgan!
This dressing and marinate is excellent, I just love the coleslaw and when I make this recipe I make a double or triple batch, mmmmmmm
Yay! So happy that you are loving this recipe, Jeff! 😊
I appreciate the efforts you people put in to share blogs on such kind of topics, it was indeed helpful. Keep Posting!
The food looks delicious, have to learn to cook it！！
This Grilled Chicken Caesar Sandwich recipe certainly sounds tempting. The use of tahini-based vegan Caesar dressing as both the marinade and the dressing for the slaw is quite intriguing. I can already imagine how it would lend a rich, creamy, and slightly nutty flavor to the chicken, making it juicy and flavorful.
The choice of boneless, skinless chicken thighs is also appealing. They tend to be more flavorful and juicy than chicken breasts, which could elevate the overall taste of the sandwiches.
The slaw, with its combination of green and red cabbage, carrots, and green onion, promises a delightful crunch and freshness. The addition of pure maple syrup for a touch of sweetness is an interesting detail that I believe would beautifully balance the tanginess of the dressing.
What’s also great about this recipe is the option to customize. The flexibility to choose the type of meat, sauce, toppings, and even the kind of bun makes it adaptable to different dietary preferences and tastes.
Although I haven’t tried this recipe yet, it certainly seems like a fresh, flavorful, and satisfying meal that’s perfect for a summer cookout or a family dinner. It’s definitely on my list of recipes to try out.