This Big Mac Salad is easy to make and is packed with flavor. The recipe yields a delicious and filling meal that is perfect for weeknight dinners and weekday lunches.
You’ll love this dish if you like salad recipes like this Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad, Jalapeño Popper Chicken Salad, and this Keto Cauliflower Potato Salad.
If you’re looking for a lighter version of McDonald’s fast food favorite, this copycat Big Mac Salad is a perfect choice.
The recipe yields the flavors of a drive-through burger that you know and love — all in salad form.
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💛 Why you’ll love this recipe
- Easy to make with straightforward ingredients and recipe instructions.
- Stores well and the leftovers are delicious.
- Great for meal prepping.
- Gluten-free and can be made low-carb and keto-friendly.
➡️ Ingredients
⏲ How to make Big Mac salad
This is an overview of the recipe’s instructions. The full instructions can be found in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
- Preheat Oven and Prep Baking Sheet: Preheat oven to 425 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Cook Bacon: Lay bacon strips atop the prepared baking sheet in a single layer. Bake the bacon in the preheated oven until crispy, about 15-20 minutes depending on the thickness of the bacon. (Alternatively, bacon can be cooked on the stovetop over medium heat and drained of excess grease on the paper towel-lined plate.)
- Cook Ground Beef: While the bacon cooks, to a large skillet over medium-high heat, add ground beef, and cook that until browned. Break up the meat while it cooks. Once cooked, remove the skillet from the burner, then stir in salt and pepper. Do not drain the grease from the skillet.
- Prepare Salad: Once the bacon has cooked, remove the baking sheet from the oven, allow the bacon to cool slightly, then crumble the bacon into a large mixing bowl. To that same bowl, add the cooked ground beef, romaine, shredded cheddar, and chopped pickles.
- Prepare Dressing and Add To Salad: In a high-speed blender or food processor, blend dressing ingredients until smooth. Pour the dressing over the salad and stir until all of the ingredients are incorporated.
- Chill Salad Then Serve: Transfer salad to the refrigerator to chill for at least 1 hour. Serve chilled.
👉 Ingredient substitution suggestions
- Bacon: Turkey bacon can be used instead of pork bacon.
- Ground Beef: Use lean ground beef patties instead and just break them up while cooking. Or, if you’re looking for a lighter option, you can use ground turkey or ground chicken.
- Romaine Lettuce: Iceberg lettuce would work well here.
- Pickle Slices: Use sweet pickle relish instead of pickle slices.
- Cheddar Cheese: Other types of cheese like Colby-Jack cheese, American cheese, Swiss cheese, or dairy-free cheese will work.
- Mayonnaise: Use Greek yogurt instead of mayonnaise. (If you’re altogether looking for a substitute for the copycat Big Mac sauce ingredients, use storebought Thousand Island dressing.)
- Sour Cream: Similar to mayo, you can substitute sour cream with Greek yogurt.
- Pickle Juice: White wine vinegar, white vinegar, or apple cider vinegar can be used.
- Sweetener: Honey, maple syrup, or powdered monk fruit sweetener can be used, but only use 1 teaspoon.
- Yellow Mustard: Use dijon mustard or stone-ground mustard.
- Onion Powder: Garlic powder can be subbed in at a 1:1 ratio.
✨ Variations
- Chop up and stir in Roma tomatoes or grape tomatoes to the salad.
- Add some ketchup to the dressing for added sweetness and flavor.
- Add sliced or cubed avocado to the salad right before serving.
- Sprinkle sesame seeds on top of the salad right before serving.
〰️ How to serve
- Soup — Serve with creamy Italian sausage soup or Cauliflower Cheddar Cheese Bacon Soup.
- Bread — Serve with a slice of keto bread, a buttered and toasted sesame seed bun, or a slice of crusty bread.
- Croutons — Sprinkle in some croutons right before serving.
- Fries — Serve golden baked jicama fries or sweet potato fries alongside the salad.
💬 FAQs
How should Big Mac salad be stored?
Store the salad in an airtight container in the fridge and eat within 2-3 days. If you’re meal-prepping the salad, wait to add the dressing to ensure the salad doesn’t wilt.
What is the best way to meal prep this Big Mac salad?
I like to put all of the components in individual mason jars so I can have a single serving of the salad. To do this, excluding the dressing, layer all of the ingredients in a mason jar (leave some room at the top of the jar). When you’re ready to eat, shake up the mason jar to incorporate all of the ingredients, pour in the dressing, shake again, then eat.
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Big Mac Salad
This Big Mac Salad is easy to make and is packed with flavor. The recipe yields a delicious and filling meal that is perfect for weeknight dinners and weekday lunches.
Ingredients
Salad:
- 8 ounces bacon
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- 9 ounces romaine, ~1 ½ romaine hearts, roughly chopped
- 1 cup hamburger pickle slices, 30-35 slices/~125 grams, roughly chopped
- ¾ cup 84 grams finely shredded cheddar cheese
Copycat “Big Mac Sauce” Dressing:
- ¼ cup 60 grams mayonnaise
- ¼ cup 60 grams sour cream
- 8-10 hamburger dill pickle slices, ~30 grams
- 1 Tablespoon dill pickle juice
- 2 teaspoons 8 grams sweetener of choice (sugar, monk fruit sweetener, etc.)
- 1 teaspoon 5 grams yellow mustard
- ⅛ teaspoon onion powder
Instructions
- Preheat Oven and Prep Baking Sheet: Preheat oven to 425 degrees and line baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Cook Bacon: Lay bacon strips atop prepared baking sheet in a single layer. Bake bacon in preheated oven until crispy, about 15-20 minutes depending on thickness of bacon. (Alternatively, bacon can be cooked on stovetop over medium heat and drained of excess grease on paper towel-lined plate.)
- Cook Ground Beef: While bacon cooks, to a large skillet over medium-high heat, add ground beef and cook until browned, breaking up meat while it cooks. Once cooked, remove skillet from burner, then stir in salt and pepper. Do not drain grease from skillet.
- Prepare Salad: Once bacon has cooked, remove baking sheet from oven, allow bacon to cool slightly, then crumble bacon into a large mixing bowl. To bowl, add cooked ground beef, romaine, shredded cheddar, and chopped pickles.
- Prepare Dressing and Add to Salad: In a high-speed blender or food processor, blend dressing ingredients until smooth. Pour dressing over salad and stir until all ingredients are incorporated.
- Chill Salad Then Serve: Transfer salad to refrigerator to chill for at least 1 hour. Serve chilled.
Video
Recipe Notes
Preparing Salad in Advance: If you plan to make this salad ahead of time and serve it the following day, I’d suggest waiting to add the dressing until you’re ready to serve to ensure the lettuce doesn’t wilt.
Storage: Store salad in an airtight container and eat within 2-3 days. If you are meal-prepping for the week with this salad, I would suggest keeping the salad and dressing separate until you’re ready to serve to ensure the lettuce doesn’t wilt.
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