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A delicious summer keto chicken salad with melt-in-your-mouth avocado, moist shredded chicken, crispy bacon, and lemon dressing.
Hot days call for salad and I am here to tell you that keto salad recipes are far from boring tasteless meals. On the contrary, low-carb salads are high in healthy fat from avocado, olive oil, or meat which means happy brain food that also satisfies your biggest hunger. So let’s see how easy you can make a keto chicken salad at home.
Are avocado chicken salads keto?
No, classic avocado chicken salads are not keto-friendly as most recipes out there use corn. Corn is not a keto-friendly vegetable. Corn is high in sugar and carbs. Plus, be very careful when ordering salads in a restaurant!
The worst part is always the dressing. In fact, most restaurant salad dressings are loaded with honey. So sugar and carbs. My tip, always order your salad with no dressing and olive oil on the side!
Keto avocado chicken salad ingredients
It is very easy to make your own keto avocado chicken salad at home. First, let’s see the ingredients you need to make the salad. Then, let’s talk about the lemon olive oil dressing. And, finally, I will share with you the many different fun ways you can eat your keto salad!
Avocado – the choice of your avocado is crucial to make this salad perfect. You must use fresh, ripe avocado. So how do you know if your avocados are ripe? A ripe avocado should be slightly soft when you press it but still tender. Another great way to check if the avocado is ready for a salad is to remove the small stem on top of the fruit. If it’s green it means the avocado is perfect. If it’s dark brown your avocado is overripe and will be sour and too mushy for the salad.
Chicken breast – two options here. You can buy a rotisserie chicken and use the chicken breast from the whole cooked chicken. Shred the chicken using two forks or your hands. Otherwise, follow my recipe cooking method below to make juicy moist chicken breast for salads.
Bacon – dice and fry bacon in a saucepan. Any bacon is good in this recipe even chicken bacon if you are diabetic and you want to decrease the saturated fat of the recipe.
Lettuce – fresh cos lettuce, shredded is the most crunchy addition to the salad.
Cucumber – peeled and diced. It adds a fresh crunchy, juicy texture to the salad.
Keto chicken salad dressing
The best dressing to go with avocado is a lemon olive oil dressing. All you need to make this simple keto salad dressing are:
Lemon juice
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Garlic
Fresh Italian parsley
A healthy keto chicken salad
Keto or not, this avocado chicken salad recipe is a healthy salad for anyone looking for a fulfilling meal, side to BBQ meat, or light dinner.
Of course, this is a chicken bacon avocado salad, and if bacon is a bit too high on saturated fat for you, let me give you some options.
First, you can use chicken bacon that is reduced in saturated fat and provides the same culinary pleasure as regular bacon.
Then, you can use a low-saturated fat cheese like mozzarella, cheddar, Monterey Jack, or blue cheese.
Finally, simply use a low-carb vegetable like chopped capsicum, celery, or radish, it will be delicious with the chicken and avocado too!
How to prepare this keto chicken salad?
The most important part of this recipe is to use cold shredded chicken and bacon. Obviously, you don’t want to add warm chicken or bacon to your cold vegetables or they will wild the vegetable. So this is how you should prepare the salad:
Cook the chicken for a few hours before making the salad and refrigerate. Or, use rotisserie chicken.
Fry the bacon and refrigerate.
Meanwhile, make the dressing and refrigerate in a closed container.
When the previous ingredients are cold, you are ready to make the salad. Shred chicken with two forks, add into a large mixing bowl.
Dice avocado and add in the bowl next to the chicken.
Add side by side, cold fried bacon, shredded lettuce, cubed cucumber.
Drizzle dressing all over the salad, toss and serve.
How to turn this keto chicken salad into an avocado chicken sandwich?
You can make delicious salad sandwiches on keto using either a keto flatbread or keto bread. I recommend you use my keto bread recipes below to make an avocado chicken salad sandwich wraps or sandwiches.
Coconut flour flatbread Ketogenic flatbread perfect as a side to curries or a low carb tortillas wraps. 100% Vegan + eggless + gluten free soft breads.
Flaxseed Wraps is an almost no-carb, easy, keto wrap recipe made with 4 ingredients - 1.2g net carbs. 100% low carb + gluten-free + vegan. An easy protein wrap recipe to enjoy finger food while boosting your body with whole foods.
Vegan Keto bread loaf No Eggs, Low-Carb with coconut flour, almond flour, psyllium husk, and flaxseed meal. A delicious easy low carb baking recipe with only 3g net carb per slice!
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Instructions
Cook chicken breast - skip if you are using rotisserie chicken breast!
Heat the olive oil in a large skillet on medium heat.
Place the chicken in the skillet, season the top with salt and paprika. Cook for 5 minutes, then flip the chicken breast on the other side.
Pour the chicken broth in the skillet, cover, reduce to low heat and simmer for 10 minutes until the chicken breasts are fully cooked in the center.
Cool the chicken breast, then place it in the fridge and wait until it is cold before using it in the recipe.
Shred chicken
Place the cold breasts on a chopping board and shred chicken using 2 forks. Otherwise, place the chicken in a stand mixer and using the flat beater attachment, beat the meat until fully shredded
Set aside in a bowl in the fridge while you prepare the rest of the salad.
Fry bacon
Fry the bacon in a frying pan on under medium heat. Store in a bowl in the fridge.
Lemon Dressing
Place all the ingredients into a small mixing bowl, whisk and set aside in the fridge.
Assemble the chicken avocado salad
In a large salad bowl, add the cold shredded chicken, cubed avocado, shredded lettuce, cooked (cold!) bacon pieces, and diced cucumber.
Pour the lemon dressing all over the salad and toss to blend flavors.
Store the keto chicken salad in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. The avocado slightly darkens with time but the flavor will stay wonderful.
Bacon swap options: if you are diabetic and want to decrease saturated fat, use chicken bacon or replace by low saturated fat cheese.
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