BLT Salad with Chicken

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If you love a good BLT, this loaded salad version delivers all the same flavors, with grilled chicken and cheddar cheese added to make it a satisfying meal.

BLT Salad in ceramic bowl with small bowl of vinaigrette.

If you love BLTs, this flavor-packed BLT salad is right up your alley. Along with the bacon, lettuce, and tomato, there’s grilled chicken and shredded Cheddar cheese tossed in for good measure, making it hearty enough to serve as a main course.

If you want to make everything from scratch, you can use my favorite methods for cooking bacon and grilled chicken. But honestly, this is also the kind of salad that’s perfect for shortcuts: pre-washed romaine hearts, fully cooked bacon that just needs a quick zap in the microwave, and refrigerated grilled chicken strips or rotisserie chicken all work beautifully.

The only thing I insist on making from scratch is the vinaigrette, and that only takes a few minutes. One thing to note: the recipe makes two generous dinner-sized salads, so if you’re serving more people, you’ll want to scale it up.

“This salad was so delicious! I absolutely love the vinaigrette dressing! A perfect, light salad for the summer! This will be a new staple.”

Karen

What You’ll Need To Make BLT Salad With Chicken

Step-By-Step Instructions

Step 1: Toss the lettuce. Put the lettuce in a large bowl, pour about ½ cup of the vinaigrette over it, and toss well, adding a few more tablespoons of dressing if desired after tasting.

Pro Tip: Make sure your lettuce is completely dry before adding any dressing. Even a small amount of leftover moisture on the leaves will prevent the vinaigrette from clinging properly, and leave you with a watery salad.

Step 2: Add the toppings. Add the crisp bacon, chicken, tomatoes, and cheese to the bowl, then toss gently to combine everything without crushing the ingredients.

tossed BLT salad in wooden mixing bowl

Step 3: Serve. Serve the salad immediately with the remaining dressing on the side for everyone to add as they like.

Pro Tip: If you want a more striking presentation, skip the big bowl toss. Instead, scatter the dressed lettuce onto a flat serving platter and arrange the chicken, bacon, tomatoes, and cheese in distinct diagonal rows right on top.

BLT Salad in ceramic bowl with small bowl of vinaigrette.

More Hearty Salads You May Like

Print

BLT Salad with Chicken

Bowl of BLT salad with chicken.
All the flavors of a classic BLT—plus grilled chicken and cheddar cheese—tossed into a hearty salad with a quick homemade vinaigrette.
Servings: 2 main dinner course salads
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 15 minutes , plus about 20 minutes to cook the bacon, if necessary

Ingredients 

  • 8 cups (packed) cut romaine lettuce, from two large hearts
  • ½ to ¾ cup vinaigrette, to taste
  • 8 slices cooked bacon
  • 1 heaping cup bite-sized cooked chicken (grilled, rotisserie, leftover, or store-bought)
  • 1 cup grape tomatoes, halved
  • ½ cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Instructions

  • Put the lettuce in a large bowl, pour about ½ cup (120 ml) of the vinaigrette onto the lettuce, and toss well. Taste and add a few more tablespoons of vinaigrette, if desired. Add the remaining ingredients and toss gently to combine. Alternatively, spread the lettuce on a large serving platter and arrange the bacon, chicken, tomatoes, and cheese in diagonal rows on top. Serve the salad with the remaining dressing on the side.

Nutrition Information

Per serving (2 servings)Calories: 735kcalCarbohydrates: 12gProtein: 39gFat: 60gSaturated Fat: 17gCholesterol: 115mgSodium: 966mgFiber: 5gSugar: 6g

This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.

Gluten-Free Adaptable Note

To the best of my knowledge, all of the ingredients used in this recipe are gluten-free or widely available in gluten-free versions. There is hidden gluten in many foods; if you're following a gluten-free diet or cooking for someone with gluten allergies, always read the labels of your ingredients to verify that they are gluten-free.

5 from 11 votes

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13 Comments

  • Have both your cookbooks and love them. Very user friendly.. this salad is wonderful; living in FL always looking for ways to keep heat out of the kitchen. Have recently substituted fresh strawberries for the tomato and was a big hit. Keep the cookbooks coming

  • 5 stars
    This was amazing and the dressing is wonderful!

    • — Barb, from BC Canada
    • Reply