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With more chopped vegetables, bacon, egg, and cheese than there is lettuce in the salad, this Bacon and Egg Taco Salad is my favorite kind of salad.
I love it when a salad is so fully loaded that each bite results in loads of great flavor with just enough crunchy lettuce to tie it all together.
Several years ago, while we were up at the cabin, I was craving a taco salad and this recipe is the result of a rummage through the refrigerator over the weekend.
What is Taco Salad?
If you’re not familiar with taco salad, let me introduce you to your new favorite lunch. The best taco salads are basically all the best parts of your favorite tacos, served with lettuce and other vegetables in a bowl, usually tossed with tortilla chips or corn chips.
We often make a traditional taco salad by layering the Best Ever Taco Meat over a giant garden salad and topping it will cheese, chips, and this Spicy Ranch Dressing.
Some taco salads are served in a tortilla bowl, a crispy corn tortilla shell to hold all your salad fixings. We typically serve ours with corn chips (hi, Fritos, I love you) or tortilla chips on top.
Tacos salads are so easy to throw together and a fantastic way to use up leftover fillings from a taco night. They’re also the perfect way to satisfy a taco craving while getting a few extra veggies into your meal.
Best Taco Salad
As it turns out, this combination of bacon, eggs, and chipotle flavors resulted in one of the very best taco salads I’ve ever made.
I love the slight heat from the chipotle sauce and the bits of egg and bacon make it just unusual enough to make me smile. The whole family enjoyed this for lunch and my non-spice loving son declared it great even without the dressing.
Bacon and Egg Taco Salad is delicious with and without the Chipotle Garlic Sauce, if you want something with a little less heat. Ranch dressing also works beautifully.
The best taco salads combine everything I love about tacos in one bowl. Plenty of meat and cheese goes into this taco salad recipe and a good amount of veggies, too.
Most taco salads are the standard (and delicious!) combination I mentioned earlier of ground beef, cheese, sour cream, and lettuce. As much as I like a classic ground beef taco salad, I also enjoy branching out from the norm.
Chicken and Bean Taco Salad is always a hit. With Bacon and Egg Taco Salad I’m getting a little farther away from the norm but the results are just as tasty.
I liked that this salad stayed true to the form of a taco salad but put a breakfast-y spin on it for something a little different. It’s always fun to have “breakfast food” for lunch or dinner, too.
As an aside, if you’re not eating tacos for breakfast now and then, you’re seriously missing out! Bacon and Egg Breakfast Tacos are always a hit in my house and I’m excited I found a way to eat them for more than just breakfast.
Bacon and Egg Taco Salad
You might have gathered that I love cooking with bacon and I especially love adding bacon to salads. Crispy pieces of perfectly cooked bacon added to a bowl of veggies is enough to convert even the most avowed salad hater.
Bacon and eggs are a natural combination for a variety of salad recipes. They work beautifully in everything from Ranch Potato Salad to a classic Bacon and Egg Garden Salad.
If you love bacon, also be sure to try one of my all time favorite stir-fry recipes, this Spicy Chicken and Bacon Stir-Fry and Rebecca’s Easy Bacon Pea Salad (ideal for summer potlucks!).
My Southwest Chicken Salad with Spicy Ranch Dressing is another meal you might enjoy if you like a little spice in your salad. It’s not a taco salad by name but it might as well be since I like to top it with plenty of tortilla chips or corn chips when I make it for lunch.
Bacon and Egg Taco Salad Recipe
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Place all of the vegetables in a very large bowl and toss to combine.
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Add the beans, olives, eggs, bacon and cheese and toss again. (If you are unlikely to eat all of this salad in one meal, this is a good time to set aside a portion for another day.)
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Add about 1/4 cup of the dressing and toss well to coat the salad. Add more dressing as desired.
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Top with chips and serve immediately. Enjoy!
Bacon and Egg Taco Salad with Chipotle Ranch Dressing
Ingredients
- 8-10 cups romaine or green leaf lettuce washed and chopped into bite size pieces
- 1 large cucumber peeled, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced (about 1 1/2 cups)
- 1 green bell pepper thinly sliced into 1" matchsticks (about 2/3 cup)
- 3-4 green onions thinly sliced (about 1/4 cup)
- 3 roma tomatoes chopped bite size (about 1 1/2 cups)
- 2 carrots peeled and sliced thin (about 1/2 cup)
- 1 (14 ounce) can light red kidney beans drained and rinsed
- 1/2 (6 ounce) can large black olives sliced
- 4 hard boiled eggs peeled and chopped
- 8 slices bacon chopped into 1" pieces, cooked and drained
- 1 cup cheddar cheese cut into 1-inch matchsticks
- 1/2 cup Chipotle sauce (link above) or ranch dressing of your choice
- 1-2 cups tortilla chips, crushed bite-size OR Fritos corn chips
Instructions
- Place all of the vegetables in a very large bowl and toss to combine. Add the beans, olives, eggs, bacon and cheese and toss again. (If you are unlikely to eat all of this salad in one meal, this is a good time to set aside a portion for another day.)
- Add about 1/4 cup of the dressing and toss well to coat the salad. Add more dressing as desired. Top with chips and serve immediately. Enjoy!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
{originally published 7/18/12 – recipe notes and photos updated 6/17/19}
oh yum!
What a scrumptious summer-time meal Mary! I love that the "toppings" outweigh the lettuce too. Way to go!
I always love it when there are more mix-ins than there are salad greens. That's how you know it's a good salad! As soon as I heard chipotle, I was so in.
You had me at bacon…. 🙂 And the chipotle sauce….. I mean what is there really to say other then, YUM!!!!
This sounds perfect to me! Great summer meal and pretty too. I love hard boiled eggs in salad.
This looks healthy, fresh, and crunchy; all of my favorites. For a salad I'm making today, I'm playing with just adding some hot sauce to my ranch dressing, to add a little spice.
That sounds perfect for this salad, too.
What a delicious creation Mary and what Joanne said.
This is my kind of salad, you've got all the food groups in there I think!
This sounds amazing! I love all of the greatness that you have packed into this salad! Delish!
I think I could live on this salad, no joke. I'm highly addicted to a similar one at California Pizza Kitchen. Looks perfect!
Well dang that sounds GREAT! That's the kind of salad I can eat and really enjoy.