What’s Inside: This Paleo Ground Chicken Taco Salad recipe is easy to make, packed with nutritious ingredients, and takes bland ground chicken to a super delicious meal. Plus, it’s simple with minimal ingredients and it’s Whole30 and AIP-friendly.
Fresh and Easy Paleo Taco Salad with Ground Chicken
Sometimes you just need a filling, delicious, nutritious salad, and this Paleo Ground Chicken Taco Saladrecipe fits the bill!
I created a lighter alternative to traditional take-out-style taco salads that come in a fried corn-based shell or drowned in tortilla chip strips🤣. The taco-spiced chicken is tender and super flavorful from spices like coriander, cumin, and oregano. (And no chili powder!) Plus, the turmeric gives it a beautiful golden color, as well as lots of anti-inflammatory goodness.
I love serving this as a taco salad over leafy greens with sliced avocado, lime wedges, and homemade pineapple salsa. But you can customize this to best fit your family’s palettes! If you love tomato salsa or guacamole, that would be a great cousin salad to this one, and adding your own gluten- or grain-free tortilla chips would add even more crunch with the crisp and juicy pineapple, onions, and romaine lettuce.
Ingredients
This Paleo Ground Chicken Taco Salad recipe is divided into three components: the pineapple salsa, the seasoned taco meat, and the dressed salad.
For the Pineapple Salsa, you’ll need ½ cup diced pineapple, ¼ cup diced red onion, 1-2 tablespoons fresh cilantro (roughly chopped), the juice from half of a lime (plus more wedges for garnish), and 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil.
For the Seasoned Taco Meat, you’ll need 1 tbsp olive oil, 1 lb ground chicken, and a variety of dried spices including:
Oregano
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Turmeric powder
Cumin (You may substitute ground cinnamon for AIP.)
Coriander powder (Omit for AIP.)
Sea salt
Black pepper (Omit for AIP)
Lastly, the Salad is comprised of 1 head of romaine lettuce (cleaned and chopped), 1 tbsp olive oil, and the juice of half to one whole lime. And that’s as easy as this throw-togetherdressing gets.
How To Make Paleo Ground Chicken Taco Salad
INSTRUCTIONS
Make the Pineapple Salsa: Add salsa ingredients to a small bowl, and mix well. Adjust flavors as desired, or add to a food processor if you’d like it to be more saucy rather than chunky. Let it sit so the flavors can meld together. (The longer, the better!)
Make the Seasoned Taco Meat: Add olive oil to a hot skillet over medium heat. Mix in the ground chicken, breaking it up with a wooden spoon so that’s it’s crumbled (but not grainy). Then, add in all taco seasonings including salt and pepper as you continue to stir into the ground chicken. Once the chicken is fully cooked, remove the skillet from heat, and allow to cool for a few minutes before assembling the salad so it doe not wilt the lettuce.
Assemble the Salad: Add the chopped lettuce to a serving bowl, and dress with olive oil and lime juice. Toss to combine before topping with meat and salsa. Then, layer in the pineapple salsa and room temperature taco meat on top.
Serve: And enjoy with optional garnish like lime wedges, avocado slices, and more cilantro!
Variations
Swap the ground chicken for ground turkey if that’s your preference! You could also use ground beef or bison.
Load up more greens! Spinach, kale, arugula, and cilantro would be great additions to the salad.
Add more veggies! Fajita-style sautéed or roasted bell peppers, jalapeños, and onions would be great additions. (but not while on AIP)
Swap the pineapple for mango, or add diced mango to the pineapple salsa! You can also give my mango guacamole a try, too.
Store cooled and cooked leftover ground chicken in an airtight container for up to 4 days in the refrigerator.
Freeze cooled and cooked ground chicken in a freezer-safe, airtight container or plastic bag for up to 2 months. Allow thawing in the fridge or on the counter before reheating.
More Recipes To Try
If you enjoyed this Paleo Ground Chicken Taco Salad, then you’ll love these other quick and easy Paleo and AIP-friendly dinner recipes:
This Paleo Ground Chicken Taco Salad recipe is easy to make, packed with nutritious ingredients, and takes bland ground chicken to a super delicious meal. Plus, it’s simple with minimal ingredients and it’s Whole30 and AIP-friendly.
Start with making the salsa. Add diced pineapple, red onion, cilantro, and lime juice to a small bowl and mix well. Adjust flavors as desired or add to a food processor if you’d like it to be more saucy rather than chunky. Let it sit so the flavors can meld together.
Next, make the taco meat. Add olive oil to a hot skillet over medium heat. Mix in the ground chicken, breaking it up with a wooden spoon. Next, add in all taco seasonings including salt and pepper as you continue to stir into the ground chicken. Once the chicken is fully cooked, remove the skillet from heat and let sit to cool off for a few minutes.
Then, assemble the salad. In a serving bowl, add chopped lettuce and dress with olive oil and lime juice. Then, layer in the pineapple salsa and room temperature taco meat on top. Serve and enjoy with optional garnish like lemon wedges!
Great! I just finished it last night and the result was unexpected, My wife loves it. She got surprised. Yeah. I am going to try this for my friends too. Nice. Thanks for your guide.
Ok, this paleo chicken taco salad was definitely a hit and is a new favorite in my house! The pineapple was a nice touch and I loved the combination of flavors.
Love taco salad and I am getting interested in the Paleo diet so trying to learn everything I can. Thanks for the interesting recipe to add to my collection. Will definitely be using your suggestion and loading up with more greens!
Love this healthy and delicious taco salad. The fact that it is paleo makes even more interesting. I’m looking forward to making this for lunch tomorrow.
I’ve been seeing a lot of taco salad recipes lately and I am LOVING it!! I for one have never tried a taco salad, so this must be a sign for me to get on that train! Thanks for the recipe 🙂
What a delicious and very flavorful salad! We are always looking for a recipe that’s healthier for us and we tried this, and absolutely loved it! Excited to make this again soon!
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22 comments
The pineapple salsa was AMAZING. It really pulled everything together. This is now my go to for tacos. Thanks!
Awesome, so glad you liked it – I have to agree!
Great! I just finished it last night and the result was unexpected, My wife loves it. She got surprised. Yeah. I am going to try this for my friends too. Nice. Thanks for your guide.
Fabulous! So happy you both enjoyed.
My mom is doing the AIP diet right now for her AI healing journey so I’m constantly on the lookout for tasty recipes to send her way. This is perfect!
Wonderful, I hope mama enjoys it!
Ok, this paleo chicken taco salad was definitely a hit and is a new favorite in my house! The pineapple was a nice touch and I loved the combination of flavors.
amazing! so happy to hear it!
Oh yum! I just love the pineapple salsa on this! It’s great on the chicken taco salad, but I’ll be using it on other stuff too!
This looks like a really tasty and healthy summer dinner. Great recipe!
Love taco salad and I am getting interested in the Paleo diet so trying to learn everything I can. Thanks for the interesting recipe to add to my collection. Will definitely be using your suggestion and loading up with more greens!
Love this healthy and delicious taco salad. The fact that it is paleo makes even more interesting. I’m looking forward to making this for lunch tomorrow.
I’ve been seeing a lot of taco salad recipes lately and I am LOVING it!! I for one have never tried a taco salad, so this must be a sign for me to get on that train! Thanks for the recipe 🙂
Wow! Such a unique idea! I added 1/2 tsp smoked paprika to take this to the next level! Yum!
that sounds fab!
What a delicious recipe – just made it including the pineapple salsa – the whole family loved it!!
perfect – so happy you liked it!
What a delicious and very flavorful salad! We are always looking for a recipe that’s healthier for us and we tried this, and absolutely loved it! Excited to make this again soon!
Such a delicious way to serve ground chicken! So tasty and I love that is paleo too!
I’m always looking for new healthy weeknight dinners and this checked the box. It was so yummy – I’ll be making it again!
Currently collecting a stack of whole 30 recipes and this one looks promising 🙂
What a great dinner recipe! Love how fresh everything is, especially with the pineapple and sharp red onion flavour!