BLT Salad with Chicken
If you like BLTs, you’ll love this main course BLT salad.
If you like BLTs, then this flavor-packed BLT salad is for you. Along with the B, the L, and the T, there’s grilled chicken and shredded Cheddar cheese thrown in for good measure, making the salad substantial enough to serve as a main course. If you’d like to make all the components from scratch, I recommend this easy hands-off method for cooking the bacon and leftovers of this grilled chicken recipe. That said, I often use store-bought shortcuts for this salad. With one of my kids away at college and the other a teenager who’s often out and about at dinnertime, sometimes I don’t feel like cooking a “real” dinner for just my husband and me. To whip this salad up really quickly, I use pre-washed romaine hearts, fully-cooked bacon that just needs to be zapped in the microwave, and the grilled chicken slices sold in the refrigerated section at the grocery store (rotisserie chicken works great, too). The only thing I insist on making from scratch is the vinaigrette, and that only takes a few minutes.
Keep in mind that the recipe makes two generous main course salads, so if you’re serving more people, adjust accordingly. The vinaigrette keeps nicely for several days and can be made ahead of time.
What you’ll need to make blt salad with chicken
How to make blt salad with chicken
Put the lettuce in a large bowl, pour about 1/2 cup of the vinaigrette onto the lettuce, and toss well. Taste and add a few more tablespoons of vinaigrette, if desired.
Add the bacon, chicken, tomatoes, and cheese.
Toss gently to combine. Serve the salad with the remaining dressing on the side.
you may also like
- Vietnamese Shredded Chicken Salad
- Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing
- Chinese-Style Chicken Salad with Sesame Ginger Dressing
- Broccoli Salad with Bacon, Cheddar & Almonds
BLT Salad with Chicken
If you like BLTs, you’ll love this main course BLT salad.
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 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.
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.
This recipe was a big hit. We made Jen’s salad dressing and grilled chicken from the links in the recipe. All were excellent.
This was SO good! It’s going into our regular rotation for sure. The vinaigrette came out well; I appreciated the detailed instructions.
Simple, but delicious salad. We used thick-out bacon and followed the recipe exactly. The vinaigrette will definitely become a staple in our house—I would have gone with olive oil, but the recommendation for a neutral oil was spot on, as was the technique. Yet another great OUAC recipe.
I just made this for Saturday night dinner and my wife and I both loved. I have to be honest though I changed the recipe just a little. I have a pretty strict rule not to change a recipe the first time but when I told my wife the ingredients she asked where the Mayo was added ( she loves blt’s with Mayo. I Actually had already made the dressing but decided to used Ms Segal’s fantastic Caesar dressing which I have been using for years. Was wonderful. Please keep up the good work.
We were going to have a chicken caesar salad for dinner last night but decided to try this instead. Delicious! It will be added to our favourite (particularly for summer) salad dinners.
This is a keeper. Our home version of BLT is sometimes referred to as a California BLT. Adding avocado and fried egg. For the salad sliced or diced avocado and halved hard boiled eggs (don’t toss) works well.