Keto Chicken Salad
This Keto Chicken Salad Recipe is bursting with flavor. It is rich and creamy with cheddar, bacon, and dill. This is the BEST chicken bacon salad you will ever eat. It comes together in minutes as a delicious lunch or summer dinner with less than 2 net carbs per serving.
Over the last few years, the bacon ranch flavor combination has become a favorite of my entire family. They love any dish with those flavors. Throw in some cheddar, too, and you have a real winner.
We love my Chicken Bacon Ranch Casserole so much that I needed to come up with a version for the warmer weather in June, July, and August. This low carb chicken salad recipe does the trick. For an easy main dish packed with protein for the summer months, try this chicken bacon ranch salad recipe.
Love this recipe? Try my Blue Cheese Chicken Salad or Lemon Basil Chicken Salad next!
Ingredients
- Cubed Cooked Chicken – Any cooked chicken is fine. I normally use chopped chicken breast but shredded chicken thighs work too.
- Chopped Bacon – Fresh crispy bacon is great but bacon crumbles that come in the pantry section work well.
- Shredded Cheddar Cheese – If you don’t have cheddar you can swap in mozzarella cheese or Monterey jack.
- Sour Cream – You can swap in Greek yogurt if you prefer.
- Mayo – Mayonnaise adds fat and creaminess. I normally use avocado oil mayo but any variety will work.
- Seasonings – The combination of dried or fresh dill, parsley, onion powder, garlic powder, sea salt, and black pepper makes a homemade ranch spice blend.
See quantities in the recipe card.
How to Make Bacon Ranch Chicken Salad
1️⃣ Make the Sauce
Stir the sauce ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
2️⃣ Prep the Chicken and Bacon
Chop the bacon and chicken.
3️⃣ Mix Well
Mix those in along with the shredded cheese. That’s it!
Storage
Store leftovers in the refrigerator in an airtight container. It lasts 3 days in the fridge. For a quick lunch during the week, meal prep and make a double batch!
Variations
- Yogurt – If you are looking for a lighter chicken salad use Greek yogurt in place of the mayonnaise or try this Healthy Chicken Salad.
- Crunch – Want to add in some crunch? Add chopped celery, green onions, bell pepper, or red onion. Or nuts such as sliced almonds or chopped pecans or walnuts.
- Avocado – Love ripe avocado? That is great in this too! Or you can even serve it on top of a halved avocado.
- Lettuce Wrap – Serve inside a romaine lettuce wrap for a handheld lunch. Add in some slices of tomatoes or cucumbers to boost the veggies.
- Vegetarian – Swap out the chicken for broccoli florets and leave out the bacon. I use this as the base for my Keto Broccoli Salad! You can also use it as a base for pasta salad.
- Seasoning – You can easily change up the taste of this and replace the ranch spices with my Keto Fajita Seasoning or Smoked Paprika Rub.
Common Questions
Where is the ranch dressing?
I get a lot of questions about my ranch recipes because I do not use bottled ranch dressing or ranch dressing packets. I use a specific blend of herbs and spices to create a ranch flavor from scratch!
What type of chicken do I use for chicken salad?
I love to use grilled chicken marinated in my Ranch Yogurt Marinade for this recipe for double the ranch flavor. But any type of leftover cooked chicken is fine as long as it doesn’t have a contrasting flavor. This is a great way to use up leftover chicken, such as rotisserie chicken. I wouldn’t recommend using leftover chicken with an Asian marinade or spicy Mexican rub. If you use canned chicken breast just make sure to cut back on the salt or it might be too salty.
How many carbs in chicken salad?
This varies A LOT. Many store-bought chicken salads add sugar so if you are buying chicken salad instead of making it always read the label.
My keto chicken salad has 1 carb per serving so it is a great choice in place of higher carb chicken salad recipes and store bought salads!
What do I serve with chicken salad?
Chicken salad is great served with a fork. I tend to just eat it plain but other times I’ll put it inside a low carb tortilla, lettuce leaves, or serve it on top of baby spinach. If you have a low carb bread you like chicken salad sandwiches are delicious too.
You can also serve it on these Cheddar Ranch Keto Biscuits for extra ranch flavor!
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Video
Keto Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- 12 oz cooked chicken cubed
- 1/4 cup mayo
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1/2 tsp dried dill
- 1/2 tsp parsley
- 1/8 tsp onion powder
- 1/8 tsp garlic powder
- pinch salt
- 1/4 cup shredded cheddar
- 1/4 cup crumbled cooked bacon
Instructions
- Combine mayo, sour cream, and spices and mix thoroughly.
- Fold in the chicken, bacon, and cheddar.
Notes
Nutrition
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Originally published May 20, 2016, Revised and republished February 26, 2026.
Easy, delicious, remedy for dry chicken salad! I used rotisserie chicken, dukes mayo, sour cream, and seasonings. I added Chopped Vidalia onions and celery! My new favorite recipe!
I made this tonight , made some changes to it and it was so fing gd lol. I added some eggs, onion, green pepper , and pickles plus more seasoning and deff will be making it again.
Love Love this!! U killed it girl it’s amazing!!
Very nice recipe! I don’t really like chicken salad but this is making me think again. I made a couple of small change, I used 1.5 ounce of softened cream cheese instead of mayo as I don’t like mayo(makes everything too wet). Refrigerated overnight, this is the perfect texture I prefer and tastes delicious. I added way more fresh dill fronds as I love dill! Thanks for the recipe!
Do you think it would be okay to do an 1/8c cream cheese and 1/8c sour cream? Not a huge fan of sour cream.
Yes
Taryn, what kind of mayo and sour cream do you use?
I like the Just Mayo brand of mayo and I just use the store brand of sour cream or whatever is on sale.
Hello Taryn, just came across your site and really like it. I was wondering if you could add measurements in grams/ml for us Europeans who don’t do/understand cups and find measuring in grams/ml more accurate?
Thank you!
Hi Margaret, I’ve been meaning to look into adding that information. Thanks for the reminder!
I’m fairly new to Keto but I was craving chicken salad. Boy am I glad I found your recipe!! I didn’t have cheddar cheese so I had to use mozzarella and I’m not a fan of dill so I omitted it. This is the best chicken salad EVER!!! Thank you for sharing this 🙂
This is amazing! And totally kept. Thank you for sharing! I put in a little more cheese and bacon and I also sautéed the chicken a little in the bacon grease for a little extra flavor.
Delicious!Upped the chicken to 15 oz. I used 4 tbsp mayo, 3 tbsp home made ranch dressing and I did not have sour cream so I replaced it with 3 tbsp of sabra tzatziki dip and it tasted great!
Is the 552 calories for both servings or just one?
That is just for one serving. The bacon, cheese, and mayo pump up the calories a bit. If you want to reduce them you could cut back on the bacon & cheese and add a little plain yogurt in place of part of the mayo.
Is it dill seed or dill weed?
Dill weed
This was absolutely the best chicken salad recipe on the face of the planet. Easy and delicious. I added abit of chopped celery for some crunch. While I had mine on a bed of spinach, my non-keto hubby had his rolled up on a flatbread. He gave it a big thumbs up as well
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Oh My Goodness, this was sooooo delish. I used three precooked grilled chicken breast from HEB. I also added some scallions/green onions. Adding this to my regular menu.
How many servings is this? I was thinking four?
I have the nutrition facts calculated for 2 servings. If you put a scoop on top of a green salad it could stretch to 3 or 4 servings.
Have you tried adding small cubes of Jicima. It would add a subtle sweetness and a crunch. Love Jicima. Low carb and crunchy.
No, I’m not a big jicama fan. It’s too similar to water chestnuts which I always picked out of Chinese food as a child. Lol.
Jicama is not actually low carb, just putting that out there
1 cup of jicama has 5 net carbs so it is fairly low carb. Adding a little for crunch isn’t a bad idea, although celery may be a better option depending on your diet plan.
Thanks so much for sharing your recipe – a delicious chicken salad! I can’t wait to try more of your recipes😊
so this is an S meal?
Yes