Our Chicken Cobb Salad Recipe is quick, easy and a healthy weeknight dinner. It’s also impressive enough for guests and a feast for the eyes.
Cobb salad is thought to be the original chopped salad and has several variations. The original had cooked chicken, hard-boiled eggs, crispy bacon, avocado, blue cheese, cherry tomatoes and chives with a mixture of greens.
Cobb salad ingredients are robust enough that it satisfies your hunger. If you serve the toppings on a platter and let diners fill their own plates, then everyone can take what they like and/or what goes with their diet. Your keto and low carb friends can create a salad with the chicken, bacon and hard-boiled eggs and your gluten free diners can use any of the toppings.
How To Make Our Chicken Cobb Salad Recipe
Many of the ingredients can be prepped several days ahead of time.
You can make the hard-boiled eggs, crisp the bacon, cook the chicken, halve the grape tomatoes and crumble the blue cheese up to 3 days ahead of time.
Wait to slice the avocado until ready to serve so that it doesn’t brown.
You can wash and dry the lettuce up to a week ahead of time. If you chop ahead it may only last a couple of days until you get some brown edges.
See below under Cobb Salad Tips & Techniques for more detailed information on how to cook and prep these ingredients.
I’ll be making a post soon giving detailed instructions on storing greens in the refrigerator.
Chicken Cobb Salad Recipe Ingredients
We use all the original Cobb salad ingredients of cooked chicken, hard-boiled eggs, crispy bacon, avocado, blue cheese, cherry tomatoes and chives.
For the greens I typically use Romaine because I always have that on hand. But if you have other greens around add them for extra flavor. It’s said that the original Cobb Salad from the Brown Derby was a mixture of half a head each Romaine and iceberg, small amount of curly endive and a little watercress, all chopped.
Substitute Ingredients
Romaine lettuce – As I said above, because I have Romaine around all the time that’s what I use in this recipe. But if I’m serving guests, I’ll jazz it up by following the original recipe with a mix of Romaine, iceberg, curly endive and watercress.
Cooked Chicken – Sautéed shrimp, grilled steak, crispy tofu or any other protein are great substitutes.
Crispy bacon – cooked pork belly is an updated addition.
Grape tomatoes – cherry tomatoes or larger ones served in wedges work.
Chives – chives have a delicate onion flavor. You can substitute with green onions or scallions.
Blue cheese – Roquefort is my favorite blue cheese, it has a little bite without being overpowering. You can use any blue cheese that you like. And if you are one of those people that just doesn’t like any kind of blue cheese then use whatever you have on hand.
Cheddar, Swiss, Gruyere, or brie all come to mind as a good substitute for the blue cheese.
How To Take Our Chicken Cobb Salad Recipe On-The-Go
Keep the dressing separate until ready to eat to keep the ingredients from getting soggy. You’ll want to keep the salad with an ice pack or in a cooler.
Cobb Salad Tips & Techniques
To prep the greens, wash the greens right away. Cut off the stem, separate the leaves and rinse in cold water. Then dry in a salad spinner or lay out on paper towels until completely dry. Then wrap in dry paper towels and store in the crisper drawer. Salad should last up to a week this way.
If you chop the lettuce it may only last a few days until brown edges begin to form.
I like the fact that you can either plate a large salad or make several small ones. Both look pretty. Personally, I like the separate bowls so that everyone gets some of each topping.
And even better, you can make a bowl of salted and peppered chopped lettuce and put all the other toppings on a platter and let diners serve themselves. This is the way I serve at home, that way everyone gets the Cobb salad ingredients they want, and it saves me time and effort. Can you say “win-win”?
The fastest and easiest way to make crispy bacon is in the oven. Here’s a post showing how to Cook Bacon In The Oven.
The chicken can be leftover chicken of any flavor. Or you can poach, bake or grill it. Buying skinless, boneless chicken saves time. You can also use rotisserie chicken.
See our post on how to Hard Boil Eggs, hint, it has nothing to do with boiling. They will come out perfect every time and easy to peel.
See our Post on How To Cut Avocados the safe and easy way.
Cobb Salad History
The original Cobb salad recipe is from a restaurant in Hollywood called the Brown Derby and named for the owner Robert Cobb. It’s debated whether Robert Cobb or his chef Robert Kreis created the recipe, let’s just thank both for an enduring, delicious Chicken Cobb Salad recipe.
What To Serve With Cobb Salad?
A simple soup rounds the meat out well, or some French bread. Or how about a loaded baked potato?
Chicken Cobb Salad Recipe
Our Chicken Cobb Salad Recipe is easy, quick, nutritious and delicious.
Ingredients
- 1 large head Romaine lettuce chopped
- 6 large hard boiled eggs cut in wedges or sliced
- 1 pound cooked chicken sliced leftovers are great or poach, bake or grill boneless skinless chicken thighs or breasts
- 6 slices cooked thick cut bacon or 12 slices thin bacon
- 2 medium avocados sliced or diced
- 4 ounces Roquefort or your favorite blue cheese crumbled
- 1/2 pint grape tomatoes or cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
- 3 Tablespoons chives or green onions, optional chopped
- 1/2 cup of your favorite vinaigrette or see in notes for homemade vinaigrette recipes
Instructions
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If you don't already have cooked bacon (I make bacon on weekends and keep leftovers in the refrigerator for meals like this), then preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Line a baking sheet with foil, place bacon in a single layer. Bake for 15 minutes or until the crispiness you like. Drain cooked bacon on paper towels and when cool crumble. -
If you don't already have hard boiled eggs then, while bacon is cooking steam eggs for 12 minutes, immediately plunge in ice water to stop cooking. Peel and cut in wedges or slice. It’s easier to cut in wedges.
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If you don't have leftover chicken then pull raw chicken from the refrigerator and let get to room temperature. Salt and pepper. Add 2 Tablespoons oil to skillet and warm over medium heat. Add chicken and cook for about 6 minutes each side or until cooked through. Let sit on a cutting board for 5-10 minutes, then slice.
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Wash produce. While bacon is cooking, eggs are steaming and chicken is cooking, cut the tomatoes in half, chop the chives and peel and slice the avocados.
Spin the lettuce dry in a salad spinner or dry by wrapping in paper towels. Chop. In large bowl add a third of the lettuce, sprinkle with a pinch of kosher salt and pepper, mix. Repeat two more times so that all the chopped lettuce is seasoned. Pour half the vinaigrette over lettuce and mix again.
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To serve a group, put all toppings on a platter with forks or spoons and let diners serve themselves. People love adding their own ingredients. You can serve the salad already dressed or let your diners add the dressing.
To serve individual servings, place dressed lettuce in bowls and decorate with the above toppings, ending with the blue cheese and chives. Serve the extra dressing on the side.
Recipe Notes
See how to Cook Bacon In The Oven, How to Make the Perfect Hard Boiled Egg and How To Cut An Avocado
No Chicken? I served Cobb Salad tonight thinking that I had chicken, and of course when I opened the refrigerator there was no chicken to be found. So I substituted cooked steak from the other night by slicing it very thin. I’ve also julienned deli meat making the salad more like a chef salad than a Cobb Salad. People just like a really great salad with really great ingredients!
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