Chicken Bacon Ranch Salad
with Tomato, Cucumber & Lemony Panko
- Eggs
- Milk
- Wheat
This delicious dinner salad features tender pieces of garlicky chicken and crispy bacon tossed with fresh lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and a creamy buttermilk ranch dressing. It's finished with a sprinkle of crunchy lemony panko breadcrumbs and extra bacon for the perfect savory crunch in every bite.
Ingredients
1.5 ounce
Buttermilk Ranch Dressing
(Contains: Eggs, Milk)
1 unit
Mini Cucumber
1 unit
Tomato
10 ounce
Chicken Cutlets
1 teaspoon
Garlic Powder
1 unit
Lemon
¼ cup
Panko Breadcrumbs
(Contains: Wheat)
1 unit
Baby Lettuce
4 ounce
Bacon
Not included in your delivery
Salt
Pepper
Cooking Oil
Butter
(Contains: Milk)
Nutrition Values
Utensils
Cooking Steps
• Wash and dry produce. • Heat a large dry pan over medium- high heat. Add bacon; cook, turning occasionally and adjusting heat if browning too quickly, until crispy, 6-10 minutes. • Turn off heat; transfer to a paper-towel- lined plate. Once cool enough to handle, roughly chop.
• While bacon cooks, zest and quarter lemon. Trim and discard root end from lettuce; thinly slice crosswise. Dice tomato into 1⁄4-inch pieces. Trim and slice cucumber into 1⁄4-inch rounds. • Once bacon is done, discard all but a thin layer of bacon fat from pan and set over medium heat (if pan seems dry, add a drizzle of oil). Add panko and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden brown, 2-4 minutes (lower heat if panko begins to brown too quickly). • Turn off heat; transfer panko to a small bowl. Stir in lemon zest. Season with salt and pepper. Wipe out pan.
• Pat chicken dry with paper towels. Cut into 1⁄2-inch cubes; season all over with garlic powder, salt, and pepper.
• Heat a drizzle of oil in pan used for panko over medium-high heat. Add chicken; cook, stirring occasionally, until browned and cooked through, 4-6 minutes. • In the last minute of cooking, stir in 1 TBSP butter (2 TBSP for 4 servings) until butter has melted and chicken is slightly charred. • Transfer chicken to a plate to rest, 1 minute.
• In a large bowl, combine lettuce, tomato, cucumber, chicken, and half the bacon. Toss with a squeeze of lemon juice and as much dressing as you like. • Taste and season with salt and pepper if desired.
• Divide salad between shallow bowls. Top with lemony panko and remaining bacon. Serve with remaining lemon wedges on the side.
Pork is fully cooked when internal temperature reaches 145°.
Poultry is fully cooked when internal temperature reaches 165°.
Customer reviews
Review summary
Updated on Sep 2026- Flavor: The chicken-bacon-ranch combination was a crowd-pleaser, with the lemony panko adding a welcome crunch for many. Some found the overall flavor mild; adding blue cheese, avocado, or extra seasoning on the chicken gave it more depth.
- Ease of prep: The recipe involves more steps than a typical salad — cooking bacon, toasting panko, then searing chicken — so expect closer to 40 minutes rather than 20–25.
- Suggestions: Add an extra packet of ranch dressing, as one packet was consistently not enough for two full servings. Some swapped the panko for croutons or skipped it entirely, finding it added little flavor.
- Leftovers: One reviewer meal-prepped this and found it stayed fresh and delicious for days when stored cold.
- Lemon: Opinions on the lemon were divided — some loved the brightness it added; others found it overpowering, so use the zest and juice gradually to taste 🍋.
Reviews from our home cooks
Very tasty, but a lot of steps just to have a salad for dinner. First cook the bacon, then cook the Panko crumbs, then cook the chicken... In between three steps of cooking, the chopping and mixing. It was delicious, but the description made it seem a little simpler than it actually was. It was not a 20-25 minute throw-together. Took more like 40 minutes. Minus one star for that.
Easy to make. I don't even like ranch dressing and I really like this salad. It made plenty for two people, and it was very filling which salad usually aren't. The piece of lettuce we received was very small so we got way too much chicken compared to the lettuce, but the taste was fantastic
Nice, fresh new salad recipe. We enjoyed it and would order again. I was wary of lemon juice squeezed on a salad with ranch dressing, but it totally worked and it limited the amount of ranch I wanted on my salad (not my husband though - he's a ranch lover and actually added more ranch that we had on hand).
It's a decent salad. I feel like the panko crumbs are an unnecessary step of cooking. Just sending some croutons would have been fine. It was also odd to cook the chicken in oil, then add butter at the end. Should've just cooked the chicken in butter.
OMG! I made it mine without bacon and the boys with bacon. The flavors were amazing! They ate huge bowls of it. It was sooo great seeing my boys eat salad and ask for more!
An easy and delicious meal. The lemon and panko give it an extra boost of flavor.
This dish was absolutely fantastic! Slightly more ranch would be nice! Overall I would definitely reorder this meal, one of our favorites.
Delicious! I really like the fact that this recipe comes with chicken cutlets & not chicken already chopped. The quality of the pre-chopped chicken is sub par as it's very fatty
This was a tasty and easy-to-prepare dinner. We added some sliced mushrooms and half a red pepper to the salad. We look forward to getting it again.
I mean you can't go wrong with the chicken, bacon, ranch combo! This was also my first time ordering salad for a meal and it was so worth it! This was a super fast and yummy!
