The star of this dish is the crispy chicken made using Bob’s Red Mill Potato Flakes to get that nice crispy crust. I know it sounds weird, I thought so at first too, but hang with me I promise it’s delicious! This was inspired by Buck Naked Kitchen’s use of potato flakes for crispy fish and I just had to try this on chicken! It’s so genius and I will forever be grateful to her for sharing that delicious idea!
Making the chicken
I actually used my air fryer for this one, but you can definitely use your oven, pan fry it, whatever works for you. First cut your chicken into tenders and pat dry. In one bowl you want your arrowroot flour seasoned with paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, salt & pepper. In another bowl, whisked egg and in the last your potato flakes. You’ll go from arrowroot, to egg, to potato to get these tenders ready for the oven/air fryer/pan. Be sure to really press down and get the chicken covered with the potato flakes!
Use breakfast leftovers for this salad!
The other star of this dish is bacon, which I used leftover bacon from a weekend breakfast, so I highly suggest next time you make some bacon stash a couple pieces for this salad! I also added in leftover pan sauteed potatoes from our weekend breakfast as well. Definitely not necessary for this salad, but certainly added a little something! So again, scoop out some leftovers at breakfast before everyone digs in! You’ll thank me later.
The dressing
If you’re not doing a Whole30 use whatever your favorite ranch dressing is! If you are doing a Whole30, I highly recommend their ranch dressing brand. There are many options out there though, even Ken’s makes one that’s compliant nowadays!
Putting it together
I made our salads on a bed of kale, which is just my favorite, but choose whatever lettuce floats your boat. If you do use kale, please please please massage your kale! It makes it so much tender and your salad that much better! As for the rest of the veggies, top with whatever you like or have on hand. For ours, I opted for carrots, tomatoes and peppers. But you do you! You can’t go wrong with whatever veggies you choose. I definitely recommend not skipping the bacon though, or the potatoes for that matter!
Enjoy this awesome crispy chicken salad and leave me a comment, let me know how you made this yours!

Crispy Chicken Bacon Ranch Salad
Ingredients
Crispy Chicken
- 1 lb chicken breasts cut into tenders or bite size pieces
- ½ cup arrowroot flour
- 1-2 eggs whisked
- 1 cup potato flakes
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- ½ tsp onion powder
- ½ tsp paprika
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp pepper
Salad
- Kale
- Chopped bacon
- Roasted or Sauteed potatoes
- Carrots
- Peppers
- Tomatoes
- Ranch Dressing
Instructions
- Mix your arrowroot and spices into a small bowl, whisk your eggs into a second bowl and add your potato flakes to a third bowl
- Pat dry your chicken, dredge first in the arrowroot shaking to remove any excess, then your egg, then your potato flakes turning to coat
- Set aside as you work your way through all your chicken
- If you’re doing this in the oven, preheat to 425 and place chicken on a wire rack on a baking sheet to cook. They’ll take about 20-25 minutes turning halfway through depending on the size of your chicken.
- If you’re doing this in an air fryer, preheat the air fryer to 400 and cook chicken about 5-6 minutes per side. Again depending on the thickness of your chicken this may take longer or shorter
- Lastly, you can pan fry in olive oil cooking until browned on both sides and cooked through.
- While your chicken is cooking put your salad together, top with sliced chicken, dressing and enjoy!