Salmonella is one of the main microorganisms that causes food-borne illnesses worldwide, although there are standard procedures to determine its presence or absence in food samples. However, these methodologies are time consuming and cumbersome, so the development of devices that rapidly and accurately determine bacteria is necessary. Various materials have been used to construct these devices. Hydrogenated amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiC:H) is one of the least studied. Therefore, in the present work, self-assembled monolayers were applied on a-SiC:H thin films to determine Salmonella Typhimurium ATCC 14028 by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The detection of this microorganism was performed between 1060 and 960 cm −1 corresponding to carbohydrate and phosphate groups of the bacteria. The lowest detected concentration was 10 CFU/mL. This work confirms the utility of a-SiC:H to reliably and rapidly determine Salmonella.