Craving a Big Mac but sticking to a keto diet? This Keto Big Mac Salad recipe will satisfy those cravings any day of the week! This keto-friendly, low-carb salad is packed with those burger flavors we all love. It’s a perfect way to enjoy the taste of a fast-food favorite without the guilt.
Why Choose a Keto Big Mac Salad?
If you’re making an effort to choose healthier food options, making the jump from fast food to salads can be difficult. This salad replicates the flavor of a Big Mac without the bread and extra carbs. It's also much more portable than a bunless burger.
Ingredients for the Keto Big Mac Salad
Here’s what you’ll need to create this satisfying salad:
For the Salad:
- Ground beef: Ground beef has the most flavor and fat. You can easily swap the ground beef for ground chicken or turkey if you want.
- Romaine Lettuce: Chop it pretty fine, just like it would be on a traditional Big Mac. To save time, you can buy pre-chopped.
- Red onion: Using a little bit of red onion adds some lovely vibrant color to the salad as well as flavor. You can’t have a Big Mac without some diced onions, can you?
- Shredded Cheddar cheese: Cheddar cheese is the best to add to this incredible salad. When you add it to the top of your warmed meat mixture, it will slightly melt, reminding you of a warm juicy cheeseburger. You could also use mozzarella, pepper jack, or anything else you enjoy also.
- Dill Pickles: You’ll need some dill pickles for the salad itself as well as some diced pickles for the sauce. Choose a sugar-free brand.
- Tomato: They are completely optional, but I love the way they taste, and they are great for enhancing the salad.
For the Big Mac Sauce:
The Big Mac sauce, or burger sauce, is your dressing for this salad. It is what makes this salad a “big mac salad’. Without it, it would be just a salad with ground beef on top. It is creamy, tangy, and a favorite.
- Mayonnaise: To keep it keto, make sure you use regular, full-fat mayo. Lower fat options have added sugar. Using mayo will make the sauce super creamy and flavorful.
- Dill pickle relish: Just make sure to check the sugar content of the relish and choose ones with no added sugar. If you can’t find dill relish, just finely chop up dill pickles.
- Mustard: You might be surprised to know there is mustard in that big mac dressing. You could exchange the mustard for French or Thousand Island dressing if you prefer. Dry Mustard: I like the tang from dry mustard.
- Ketchup: This adds lots of flavor to your salad.
- Worcestershire, Braggs aminos: I love the ‘umami’ flavor.
- Seasonings: Just a little bit of smoked paprika, garlic powder, and onion powder will give you the best flavor ever. Salt & pepper: All you need is 1/2 teaspoon of each, and it will be seasoned perfectly.
Making the Keto Big Mac Salad
It's fast and easy to make this salad. Cook up your ground beef, slice up your lettuce, make your sauce, and toss. The attached video shows you how to do this.
Read also: Easy Low-Carb Cheese Crackers
Step-by-Step Instructions:
Brown the Ground Beef: In a medium skillet brown ground beef, then drain. Heat a 10-inch sauté pan over medium heat. Add the ground beef, smash it to break up the clumps, and cook until it's almost cooked through. Add salt and pepper and finish cooking it all the way. Add the beef to a skillet and break it using a wooden spoon. Cook the beef all the way through, stirring occasionally. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and add the onion powder and garlic powder. When cooking the ground beef, feel free to add additional seasonings. Garlic powder or onion powder are good options.
Add the Sauce: Add sugar-free ketchup, mustard, ketchup, Braggs aminos, Worcestershire, salt, pepper, and oregano.
Prepare the Big Mac Sauce: The big mac sauce is what makes this cheeseburger salad complete and taste like an authentic cheeseburger salad. Start by mixing the mustard, mayo, and vinegar. To Make the big mac sauce, simply whisk together mayonnaise, finely minced dill pickles (or sweet relish), mustard, paprika, garlic powder, and onion powder. In a medium bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, dill pickle, ketchup, onion, sweetener, oil, vinegar, paprika, mustard, salt, and pepper. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Make a big mac sauce: whisk all the ingredients in a medium bowl.
Chop the Veggies: While the ground beef is browning, chop lettuce. Slice onions and then cut into half. Roughly chop pickles. Wash and dry lettuce, then chop and place in four bowls.
Assemble the Salad: Start with lettuce at the bottom. Add cheese, then add ground beef. Top with onions and pickles. When you are ready to serve the salad, mix the lettuce, onions, pickles, and cheese. Put into four bowls. Add in ¼ of the ground beef mixture into each bowl. Layer the other ingredients on top of the lettuce. Start with the beef, then add the onions and pickles, and sprinkle the cheese on top. Divide the lettuce into 4 bowls, top each bowl with ¼ the browned beef, onion, cheese, tomato and pickled.
Read also: Keto Calorie Counting: A Detailed Guide
Dress and Enjoy: Drizzle with big mac sauce and serve immediately. At this point, you can either toss the hamburger salad (as in, MIX it, not toss it into the trash) or save it like this for a while. Drizzle 2-3 tablespoons of sauce on each bowl. Then, when you're ready for your Keto Big Mac Salad, either shake up that jar well or just tip everything into a bowl, stir, and enjoy. Add the sauce on top and devour!
Tips and Variations
- Make it in Advance: To prepare this in advance, simmer your burger meat and mix up the sauce a day prior and store it in the fridge. Then, if you prefer it warm, heat the beef mixture in the microwave before topping your lettuce and veggies. Technically, you can make it ahead of time, but don’t assemble it until you are ready to eat it. Simply cook the hamburger, dice the lettuce, tomatoes, and other toppings and whisk the sauce. Then when you are ready to serve the salad, warm up the hamburger in the microwave and put the salad together.
- Customize Your Toppings: When you make Big Mac Salad at home, it’s totally customizable too. You can add your favorite toppings like avocado, sour cream, jalapeno, or even roasted veggies.
- Use Different Proteins: Or if you’d rather substitute a different protein like ground turkey, chicken, or another beef alternative, you can!
Understanding the Keto Big Mac Sauce
Normal big mac sauce is NOT keto-friendly because of the added sugars that are mixed in. Many recipes call for Thousand Island dressing, which contains many ingredients that most of those who follow a low carb diet avoid.
Key Differences Between Big Mac Sauce and Thousand Island Dressing
Thousand Island dressing does have similar ingredients as the Big Mac sauce and therefore the taste is somewhat similar. There are a few big differences, however.
For one, Thousand Island contains ketchup whereas Big Mac Sauce does not. This adds quite a bit of difference in flavor in the two sauces.
Thousand Island also uses a sweet paprika instead of regular paprika, and often contains lemon juice in addition to or sometimes instead of vinegar.
Read also: Magnesium Supplements for Keto
Can You Have Big Mac Sauce on Keto?
The original Big Mac sauce is absolutely delicious and I know lots of people eating low carb love it. However, it causes problems if you are trying to follow a strict keto diet. The version you get it at McDonalds has added sugar from the sweet relish used in the sauce, but there is an easy way around that when you make it yourself.
For this recipe, we use dill pickle relish that does not include any added sugar. I promise it’s so good you won’t even notice the change. In fact, I like this version better!
This delicious sauce has 5 grams of fat per 1 tablespoon making it a great sauce to add to your meat of choice to help balance out your fat to protein macros. How Many Carbs are in Big Mac Sauce?There are 1-gram carbs and .2 grams fiber equaling less than 1gram NET carbs per tablespoon.
Storing the Salad and Sauce
The ingredients can be combined and left un-tossed for up to two days.
The dressing will keep for a week in your refrigerator if you cover it well. The sauce will keep for at least a week in the fridge, so make double--or quadruple! Not only does it get better with time, but it also works well with a variety of salads and grilled meats. Store your sauce in the refrigerator in an air tight container. This recipe makes approximately 1 cup of sauce.
Other Uses for Big Mac Sauce
There are so many ways to use this sauce other than on copycat Big Mac sliders, even if you aren’t on a keto diet. Make your own Big Mac chicken sandwiches or spread it on veggie patties. It’s even great as a dip for French fries!