All the delicious familiar buffalo chicken flavors make this healthy, Keto friendly salad a mouth watering, quick and easy lunch or weeknight meal!
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What better way to dress those boring ole salads, than to add zesty and perfectly fried Keto chicken tenders that are coated in spicy buffalo sauce? It is bursting with flavor and can be ready in minutes.
Buffalo chicken is always a family favorite, but sometimes, you just want something light and crunchy. Well, this buffalo chicken salad recipe really delivers!
Creamy Homemade Blue Cheese Dressing adds the finishing touch and rounds out all the beautiful flavors in the low carb salad recipe. Just wait until you taste that first bite that’s bursting with flavor! This will be your new go-to salad.
What’s in Keto Buffalo Chicken Salad
- Chicken tenders
- Almond flour
- Plain pork rinds
- Parmesan cheese
- Buffalo wing sauce
- Eggs
- Smoked paprika
- Salt
- Keto friendly oil
- Romaine lettuce
- Uncured bacon
- English cucumber
- Cherry tomatoes
- Blue cheese crumbles
- Blue cheese dressing
*Exact measurements are listed in the recipe card below.
How to Make Buffalo Chicken Salad
To Make the Keto Buffalo Chicken Tenders
To make the breading, mix the pork rinds, parmesan cheese, smoked paprika, salt and the almond flour together in a food processor and grind it to a fine powder.
Set up a breading station with your chicken, beaten eggs and breading mixture. You can use separate pie plates to hold your ingredients.
Dip the chicken tenders in the egg first.
Then in the breading. Next sauté the coated tenders in oil (I used light olive oil) for about 4-6 minutes on each side or until they reach an internal temperature of at least 165F.
Take them out and allow to drain on paper towels, while you finish frying the remaining tenders.
Add the wing sauce to a bowl and dip the cooked chicken tenders in the sauce to coat them.
Once the tenders have been coated, slice them into bite size peices and set aside while you prepare the salad.
To Assemble the Salad
Add the romaine lettuce to a bowl. Top with the crumbled bacon, blue cheese crumbles, cucumber, cherry tomatoes and the sliced buffalo chicken tenders.
Add a healthy drizzle of the blue cheese dressing right before serving.
You can also drizzle some Buffalo Wing Sauce over the top if you’d like.
Can You Eat Buffalo Chicken on Keto?
Traditional fried chicken tenders or buffalo tenders are coated in a flour mixture and then typically deep fried in canola or peanut oil. Not these tenders! They have had a complete Keto makeover!
Using an almond flour coating instead of regular flour makes these chicken tenders a great Keto option. But taking it one healthy step further, homemade, sugar free buffalo sauce is used to eliminate any hidden carbs in store bought brands.
You can now enjoy all the flavors of traditional buffalo wings but in a healthy low carb way.
What are the Carbs in Romaine Lettuce?
Romaine lettuce is used in the this Keto chicken salad. For a cup of romaine lettuce, there’s only .5 net grams of carbs. Talk about the perfect Keto vegetable! And it’s healthy too!
Here are Some Romaine Lettuce Nutrition Facts
If there was a king of the lettuce world, romaine would definitely reign supreme. Lettuce can often times be over looked as a leafy green veggie, but romaine lettuce should be the exception to that because it’s actually a very nutritious food.
Romaine lettuce is an excellent source of vitamin A, Biotin, vitamin B1, vitamin C, vitamin K, folate, and molybdenum.
Romaine lettuce also is a very good source of dietary fiber and four very important minerals for those on Keto or a low carb diet, manganese, potassium, copper, and iron. If you’d like to read about the health benefits of romaine lettuce, check out this article on Healthline.
Variations for Keto Buffalo Chicken Salad
- If you’re short on time, one short cut for ground pork rinds is pork panko. They’re basically pre-crushed pork rinds in a package and because they typically have a long shelf life, you can always have some in the pantry.
- The ingredients used in this low carb salad are listed as suggestions. But, you can add any low carb veggie you like. Chopped raw zucchini, summer squash or even chopped jalapenos, added to this salad is a great way to get in your daily veggies.
- If you’re not a blue cheese fan, you can always use Homemade Creamy Ranch instead. You can use another crumbling cheese in place of the blue cheese in this salad as well.
- If you’re more a BBQ fan, instead of using this buffalo sauce, feel free to try this Homemade Sugar Free BBQ Sauce in its place.
- If you’d like a little more heat to the Buffalo tenders, just add a little more Frank’s Hot Sauce to the mixture!
- Serve this low carb salad with some diced celery added in. It makes it taste even more like a traditional buffalo chicken dinner.
- This salad make for an excellent Keto meal prep salad. Layer all the components of the salad in a large mason jar or other air tight container. When ready to eat, just add the dressing and give it a good shake.
- Though this Keto salad includes links for the homemade sauces used, you can use any Keto friendly sauce you prefer. Just be sure and look for hidden sugars, non-Keto friendly oils or other inflammatory ingredients in the label.
More Buffalo Keto Recipes
Food seasoned with buffalo sauce packs such a tasty punch to just about anything you use it with. If you love buffalo sauce, you’ll love these Keto recipes that use the same flavors:
- Easy Buffalo Shrimp Lettuce Wraps
- Buffalo Chicken Casserole
- Buffalo Deviled Eggs
- Air Fryer Buffalo Wings
- Buffalo Cole Slaw
- Buffalo Cheese Sauce
- Buffalo Cauliflower “Mac” and Cheese
- Buffalo Chicken Dip
- Keto Buffalo Chicken Tenders
More Keto Salad Recipes
- Grilled Shrimp Salad with Apricot Vinaigrette
- Keto ” Big Mac” Cheeseburger Salad
- Jalapeno Popper Egg Salad
- Zucchini Zoodle “Pasta” Salad
- Cauliflower “Potato” Salad
- Broccoli Salad with Bacon
- Classic Cobb with Ranch Dressing
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Keto Buffalo Chicken Salad
INGREDIENTS
For the Buffalo Chicken
- 1 1/2 pounds chicken tenders cut into bite size pieces
- 1/2 cup almond flour
- 1/2 cup plain pork rinds
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 1/4 cup buffalo wing sauce
- 2 whole eggs beaten
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
- Pinch of salt
- Keto friendly oil of your choice (for frying)
For the Salad
- 8 cups romaine lettuce chopped
- 8 sliced uncured bacon cooked and crumbled
- 1 cup English cucumber chopped
- 2/3 cup cherry tomatoes halved
- 1/2 cup blue cheese crumbles
- 1/2 batch Blue cheese dressing
PREPARATION
To Make the Buffalo Chicken Tenders
- To make the breading, mix the pork rinds, parmesan cheese, smoked paprika, salt and the almond flour together in a food processor and grind it to a fine powder. Set up a breading station with your chicken, beaten eggs and breading mixture.
- Dip the chicken tenders in the egg, then in the breading and sauté in oil in a large nonstick skillet (I used light olive oil) for about 4-6 minutes on each side or until they reach an internal temperature of at least 165F.
- Allow to drain on paper towels, while you finish frying the remaining tenders.
- Add the wing sauce to a bowl and dip the cooked chicken tenders in the sauce to coat them. Slice the tenders and set aside while you prepare the salad.
To Assemble the Salad
- Add the lettuce to a bowl. Top with the crumbled bacon, blue cheese crumbles, cucumber, cherry tomatoes and the sliced buffalo chicken tenders.
- Add a healthy drizzle of the blue cheese dressing right before serving.
