Are you looking for an easy recipe that is gluten free, doesn’t need to be cooked, and delicious?! Here it is! This easy gluten free chicken bacon salad recipe uses mainly shelf stable items and doesn’t need to be warmed up before eating. You can use it on a sandwich, salad, wrap, whatever you prefer!
Like all my recipes, this recipe is gluten free, dairy free, and soy free. If you are just gluten free you can surely swap out my dairy free and soy free ingredients for your own favorites.
Why is a gluten free chicken bacon salad needed?
Oddly enough, some salad ingredients aren’t inherently gluten free. Always be sure to check labels to see if they contain wheat, gluten, or other troublesome ingredients. This recipe uses canned chicken and pre-cooked bacon, both of which sometimes contain gluten, soy, or other ingredients I’d rather not ingest. Again, always be sure to check labels. I use this canned chicken and this pre-cooked crumbled bacon.
Here is a funny aside, I posted this recipe on a gluten free Facebook group and bragged that no cooking was required. A woman asked me if that meant I ate raw chicken and raw bacon… (face palm). I replied by saying that within the recipe I detail that I use canned chicken and pre-cooked crumbled bacon.
Easy, Delicious and Gluten Free Chicken Bacon Salad Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 can Chicken drained
- 2 tbsp Crumbled Bacon precooked from package
- 1/2 cup Vegenaise Soy-Free and Dairy-Free Mayo
- 1/2 tsp Garlic Salt
- 1 bag Lettuce
- 8 pieces Canyon Bakehouse Bread or any bread, optional if you want a sandwich instead of a salad.
- Strawberries cut, optional
- Sliced Olives optional
Instructions
- Drain canned chicken and after draining use a butterknife to break the chicken up into smaller pieces while still in the can.
- In a medium sized bowl, combine canned chicken, bacon, soy & dairy-free mayo, and garlic salt.
- Stir to fully combine.
- Divide mixture between 4 salads, 4 sandwiches, or a couple of each! For the salad, I put the amount of lettuce I wanted in a low sided bowl and then put the chicken mixture on top.
- Optional: you can rinse and cut strawberries to add to your salad if desired. You can also add any olives you have on hand that you'd like such as sliced green olives or Greek Kalamata olives.
Notes
A Gluten Free Recipe for Various Occasions
I love being able to make recipes that are gluten free, dairy free, and soy free. Often I find a recipe with traditional ingredients and then make them allergen friendly. Other times I completely come up with them on my own.
For this recipe I don’t have step by step photos as I hadn’t planned on making this into a blog post, but I may do so in the future. I figure it’s rather self explanatory though, right?
As someone with food allergies it’s often frustrating to not be able to have traditional fast food and at least at first, it seemed like everything that was gluten free, dairy free, and soy free needed to be warmed up. It’s so nice to have a recipe like this chicken bacon salad that doesn’t need to be warmed up and can just be kept in the fridge or a cooler until you’re ready to eat it.
If you wanted to make this recipe more complex, you could cook chicken and then put it into the mixture, but that just seemed like a lot of work in the summer. If that is something that you want to do, a tip is to cook the chicken in a slow cooker all day so you don’t have to babysit it on a stove. That’s what I prefer to do as well and find it to work really well. Plus, it makes the house smell nummy!
As a mom of identical twins and a son two years older, I have gained invaluable experience in the realm, and chaos, of parenting. With a Master's Degree and Education Specialist Degree in School Psychology, I spent years as a school psychologist, helping children navigate through their educational and emotional challenges. Now as a stay at home mom and professional blogger, I combine my areas of expertise to help you in your parenting journey.