Keto Chicken Caesar Romaine Lettuce Boats (2024)

Eating lunch on the keto diet can be fun! Chicken Caesar romaine lettuce boats are a filling but light meal that fuels your body.

What Are Lettuce Boats

Lettuce boats are a fun way to eat salad! Instead of placing your meat and dressing on top of a bed of chopped lettuce, you place it all on one large piece of Romaine lettuce.

The lettuce leaf acts like a boat, holding all the ingredients. You can even eat it with your hands! Just pick up the lettuce boat and eat it like a sandwich.

These lettuce boats are filled with a chicken Ceasar salad; it looks and tastes like something you’d order at a restaurant, but only has 2 grams net carbs in each boat! And it uses ingredients you can easily find at the grocery store.

Lettuce boats make eating fun for kids and they are a healthy bread substitute for anyone that is gluten-sensitive or intolerant.

Shopping List

Before you make your lettuce boats, this is what you’ll need from the store. All of the exact ingredient amounts are in the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post.

Romaine lettuce
Grilled chicken cubed
Cherry tomatoes halved
Shredded parmesan cheese
Chopped bacon pieces
Caesar dressing

Ingredient Substitutions

There are a few ways that you can change things in this recipe to save yourself time or to make it taste differently the next time. If you make any changes, please let me know. I’d love to hear!

Grilled Chicken – use shredded rotisserie chicken or canned chicken. You can also use leftover pork chops or chicken thighs.
Cherry Tomatoes – this is where most of the carbs are coming from. You can leave them out if you need to. You can also use grape tomatoes instead.
Caesar Dressing – remember to use a low-carb dressing; always read the ingredients label. Change the recipe up by using your favorite creamy dressing.

Best Lettuce for Lettuce Boats

Romaine lettuce hearts are easy to find in the grocery store, and they hold up well under all the chicken Caesar salad ingredients. Plus, I love how long they are, which gives them the appearance of a boat!

Other types of lettuce that you can use include Boston Bibb lettuce, or save money and use large iceberg leaves.

Best Keto Lunch Sides

When it comes to eating a low-carb lunch, you really can’t beat the combination of a soup and salad! These romaine lettuce boats are really filling. They could be your entire lunch by themselves.

But since there are just 2 grams net carbs in each one, go ahead and enjoy a bowl of soup with it. My favorite soup with these lettuce boats is chicken and cauliflower rice soup. It’s very light but has a savory broth that warms you up.

Since Caesar salad uses Italian herbs, you might enjoy these lettuce boats with a bowl of Zuppa Toscana soup. Together they are still super low in carbs!

And if you’re craving something rich and creamy, a thick chicken lemon soup is hearty enough to fill you up!

Storage

This is a super-simple lunch recipe that takes maybe 15 minutes to mix together. It’s the perfect thing to add to your meal prep, but I don’t recommend freezing it.

How To Meal Prep

Store the chicken Caesar salad separately from the lettuce leaves. That way, the lettuce leaves won’t soak up the liquid from the salad dressing and become soggy. Now all you have to do is spoon the chicken salad onto the romaine lettuce hearts!

Store the chicken Caesar salad in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to three days.

Do Not Freeze

Creamy Ceasar salad does not freeze well. Plus, this is such a simple recipe; freezing it doesn’t save you any time at all. I don’t recommend freezing it.

Making It

Here are the step-by-step pictures of the process that you’ll follow to make this filling and delicious keto chicken Caesar Romaine lettuce boats recipe. All of the ingredients and instructions are located in the printable recipe card just a little bit further below.

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 0 minutes
Servings: 6
Net Carbs: 2 net carbs per serving

Directions

Remove six of the largest leaves whole from the outside of the head of romaine, and lay on a flat surface. Chop up the rest of the romaine.

Place an equal amount of the chopped romaine lettuce into each of the romaine lettuce leaves. Layer some of the grilled chicken on each leaf.

Add chopped tomatoes to each boat.

Sprinkle each lettuce boat with bacon and parmesan. Drizzle with caesar dressing before serving.

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