Traditional Lyonnaise Frisee salad with bacon

Lyonnaise salad, often called frisée aux lardons, a traditional dish from the Bouchons de Lyon. Perfect as a starter or as a complete salad as a main course. But do you make it at home? With homemade croutons, pan-fried bacon and soft-boiled or poached eggs, what a pleasure!

It is now a dish of basis of bistro and brasserie cuisine served throughout France. So good and yet so simple, to prepare at home urgently throughout the year, varying the choice of salads throughout the seasons.

Mixed salad is the perfect lunch for meserved on a main course plate. The Lyonnaise salad combines crunchy curly salad and bitterA warm, creamy egg with runny yolklvery fragrant and crispy scallions, crunchy croutonsoptionally flavored with garlic, fresh, healthy herbs and mustard, a vinaigrette of olive oil and red wine vinegar.

We often like to say that dishes must have at least three textures, which is absolutely the case here! Crunchy/soft/crispy texture.

What do you need to know to prepare a Lyonnaise salad?

Which salad to choose:

The salad must first be fresh and crunchy. No classic lettuce here, you have to choose a bitter variety that has chew.
Originally this salad was made with young dandelion leaves found in spring, but it is now more common to use frisée (also called curly chicory, Cichorium endivia), which is a winter variety. Optionally, use escarole or mesclun in summer.

Soft-boiled egg or poached egg?

When it comes to eggs, some use poached eggs, which may seem a little tricky to prepare for some of you, others just use soft-boiled eggs, which is my choice.
I don’t recommend hard boiled eggs unless they haven’t been cooked too long. The eggs should still be hot or at least warm to create a nice contrast with the fresh salad.
If you are serving this salad as a main meal, serve 2 eggs per person, for 8 eggs in all, and increase the amount of bacon and croutons.

Focus on poached eggs if you choose this option: choose very fresh eggs. Heat water in a saucepan until simmering. Add a little spirit vinegar (wine vinegar will color the eggs). No salt which prevents the white from coagulating while vinegar accelerates it. Pour the eggs one by one, breaking them into a small bowl or ladle. Create a small whirlpool by swirling the water. Pour in the egg which will be entrained and thus coated. Cooking is quick: allow 3 minutes for a runny egg and 4 minutes for a set egg, do not exceed 5 minutes.

No guilt, we add bacon!

For the bacon, preferably choose smoked bacon. If you want to do things properly, start by blanching them for 1 to 2 minutes maximum in boiling water then drain them.
You will fry them without adding fat because the bacon will cook in its own fat (be careful with a little butter or oil if you have blanched them).
Stir regularly, at a high enough temperature so that they are golden and crispy.
It must then be left to rest on a plate covered with a paper towel to remove excess fat.

Don’t forget the croutons

Croutons can be prepared with different breads: baguette or country bread, the choice is yours.
Cut the bread into cubes, optionally scrape the bread with garlic. Heat the butter in a pan, when melted add the bread cubes and brown for a few minutes, stirring occasionally to obtain a crispy texture on all sides.
As with bacon, place the croutons on absorbent paper to remove excess fat.

Which vinaigrette to choose?

The vinaigrette is well mustarded to be very spicy.
With wine or sherry vinegar (avoid balsamic vinegar), Dijon mustard or a mix of whole-grain mustard and hot mustard. For the oil, choose a neutral oil, or a mix of sunflower or rapeseed oil and olive oil.

It’s time to serve the salad

Serve this bacon frisee on individual plates.
Start by tossing the frisée salad with the vinaigrette. Fatigue the saladdo you use this expression?

Arrange the salad on plates, add fried bacon and croutons, place an egg (possibly 2) in the center, sprinkle with chopped fresh parsley (flat-leaf parsley has more flavor than curly parsley).
Be generous, Lyon cuisine is gourmet and opulent. Lyon mothers don’t like their family or guests to go hungry.

For a revisited Lyonnaise salad

You can make some variations, much less conventional which therefore move away from the traditional recipe or that of Chef Paul Bocuse but still pleasant with: potatoof the walnut kernelssmall cubes of fresh goat cheese… Sprinkle with fine herbs of your choice.

This recipe is the first in a long series on mixed salads typical of French cuisine. I also offer you the Parisian salad, a true classic of the capital’s bistros and brasseries.