We present a novel phage receptor binding protein-based magnetic separation and pre-enrichment method as an alternative to the immunomagnetic separation methods by replacing antibodies with bacteriophage receptor binding proteins (RBPs). We couple the proposed RBP-based magnetic separation with real time PCR for rapid, sensitive and specific detection of Campylobacter jejuni cells in artificially contaminated skim milk, milk with 2% fat and chicken broth. Recovery rates, assessed by real time PCR, were greater than 80% for the samples spiked with as low as 100 cfu mL(-1) of C. jejuni cells. The specificity of capture was confirmed using Salmonella Typhimurium as a negative control where no bacteria were captured on the RBP-derivatized magnetic beads. The combination of RBP-based magnetic separation and real time PCR improved PCR sensitivity and allowed the detection of C. jejuni cells in milk and chicken broth samples without a time consuming pre-enrichment step through culturing. The total sample preparation and analysis time in the proposed RBP-based enrichment method coupled with real time PCR was less than 3 h.