Keto Caesar Salad with Bacon

This healthy keto Caesar salad with bacon is a filling and hearty main course salad, perfect for a tasty lunch or a light dinner.

Jump to:

• How to make a keto Caesar salad
• 🥘 Ingredients
• 🔪 Instructions
• 💭 Top tips
• 🥗 Serving suggestions
• 🍲 Leftovers
• 📖 Variations
• 🍴 You might also like these recipes..
• 📋 Frequently asked questions
• Recipe

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I absolutely love salads and could eat them for pretty much every meal (just check my entire collections of healthy main course salads and healthy side salads). My partner is not a fan. We have finally ended on a compromise – salads are appropriate for dinner only if they contain bacon.

This salad is honestly the ultimate salad for people who don’t like salad, and I have served it to many skeptics over the years.

Picky eaters will be excited about the general lack of vegetables. Chicken breasts, cheese and bacon are all generally well liked by most people, as is the tasty Caesar dressing. It’s a great dish to convince people that salads definitely are complete and filling meals, without being boring.

As with any salads, you can easily make adjustments as well, either by removing or adding ingredients to fit your family’s preferences!

How to make a keto Caesar salad

Caesar salads are very simple, but absolutely delicious. They typically contain crunchy bread croutons, which are not keto compliant.

To make a keto friendly Caesar salad, we replace the croutons with crispy pieces of bacon. They give the salad a fantastic flavor, and the perfect crunch that we expect from a Caesar salad.

This recipe also includes instructions for how you can make a really simple homemade Caesar salad dressing, but you can also totally just use store bought dressing if you want.

🥘 Ingredients

To make this easy Caesar salad with bacon, you will need lettuce, chicken breast fillets, bacon and parmesan.

I prefer to use streaky bacon, as it gets really crunchy. You can use bacon medallions as well, which typically contain less fat.

To make the Caesar dressing you will need mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, parmesan, garlic powder, salt and olive oil.

🔪 Instructions

This is how you make this easy dish:

Step 1: Dice bacon into bite sized pieces, and cook them in a skillet until crispy. This typically takes about 5 minutes. If your bacon sticks to the bottom of the skillet, you may need to add some cooking spray or oil to it.

Step 2: Meanwhile, prepare the Caesar dressing by combining all the ingredients in a small bowl and whisking thoroughly. Set it to the side until the salad is ready to serve.

Step 3: When the bacon has finished cooking, remove it from the skillet and set it to the side. Leave the bacon grease in the pan. Add chicken breast fillets to the skillet, and season them lightly with salt and pepper on both sides. Cook them until they are golden underneath, then flip and cook on the other side.

Sear the chicken fillets until they have cooked through, using a meat thermometer to ensure that the chicken has reached an internal temperature of 165 °F / 75 °C. Remove the chicken from the heat and slice the fillets.

Step 4: Assemble the salad in individual salad bowls by combining lettuce, crispy bacon pieces, and sliced chicken breast. Sprinkle finely grated parmesan on top, and serve with keto Caesar dressing on the side.

💭 Top tips

Here are my top tips to achieve a perfect keto Caesar salad:

• If the chicken breast fillets are particularly thick, you might want to slice them in half. This will allow them to cook through quicker and more evenly.
• The crispy bacon in this keto salad replaces the classic bread croutons, however you can add these in addition to the bacon if it fits with your dietary needs.
• You can also totally use store bought Caesar dressing instead of making your own!

🥗 Serving suggestions

This Caesar salad is excellent as a main course salad. I like to serve it as a quick and easy lunch, but it’s also suitable for dinner.

The salad doesn’t really require any side dishes, but you can serve it with crusty or toasted bread if you wish.

🍲 Leftovers

Leftover salad can be stored in a refrigerator for up to 4 days. I highly recommend keeping the dressing separate from the rest of the salad, and only adding it immediately before serving. This will prevent the lettuce from wilting too early.

📖 Variations

If you need to adjust the recipe to suit any dietary needs, don’t worry, I got you covered:

• Whole30 / paleo: Omit the cheese, and use a whole30 or paleo compliant mayonnaise. Avoid bacon that contains unnatural additives for a paleo Caesar salad.
• Dairy free: Omit the parmesan. You can use a dairy free parmesan alternative, or nutritional yeast as a substitute.
• Vegetarian: Making this dish vegetarian friendly requires a few more steps. Omit the parmesan, chicken and bacon. I suggest replacing it with crunchy roasted chickpeas or tofu instead for a protein rich and filling veggie Caesar salad.

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If you love healthy main course salads, you should try any of these recipes:

📋 Frequently asked questions

Can I use frozen chicken? – No. If you have frozen chicken, I suggest thawing it beforehand, then cooking it in a skillet as instructed.

Can I add more vegetables? – Of course! Add anything you’d like to your salad. I highly suggest adding sliced cucumbers, cherry tomatoes or roasted cauliflower.

Recipe