You will love this easy recipe for a delicious chicken Cobb salad served with a simple homemade vinaigrette.
A favorite restaurant meal that you can easily recreate at home, this tasty and filling salad is ready in about 30 minutes.
I love main-course salads. They are tasty, fresh, and filling. I often make Thai chicken salad, Chinese chicken salad, taco salad, and turkey salad.
Chicken Cobb salad is one of my favorite lunches to order at restaurants. It's so wonderfully varied and flavorful. And it's filling too! I was surprised to learn how easy it is to make this salad at home.
Jump to:
Ingredients
Here's an overview of the ingredients needed to make this salad. The exact measurements are listed in the recipe card below.
- For the dressing: Olive oil, vinegar, mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, salt and pepper, and garlic powder.
- Sliced hard-boiled eggs: Sometimes, I slightly undercook them, so they're not exactly soft-boiled eggs but actually medium-boiled eggs. The yolks are not liquid but soft. Yum.
- Crispy bacon, chopped: Even if you usually like your bacon chewy, it's best to make sure it's crispy for this recipe. You can pan-fry your bacon, make microwave bacon, or cook your bacon in the oven.
- Cooked chicken breast, sliced: I use baked chicken breast, grilled chicken breast, or broiled chicken breast. Sometimes, I use leftover Cajun chicken. You can also use rotisserie chicken and slice or cube it. Just make sure to remove the skin. Cold chicken skin is rubbery.
- Vegetables: Salad greens (or baby spinach leaves) and sliced cherry tomatoes (or use regular tomatoes and cube or slice them.)
- Sliced avocado: I'm a big fan of the creamy Haas avocado. Other varieties are often too fibrous and watery.
- Crumbled cheese: Blue cheese is classic, but I've used goat cheese or feta, and both were excellent.
Variations
The classic chicken Cobb salad is made with chopped greens, tomatoes, crisp bacon, chicken breast, hard-boiled eggs, avocado, chives, Roquefort cheese, and red wine vinaigrette.
But like all salads, it's a flexible recipe with countless versions. Here are a few ideas for varying the classic recipe:
- I often use spinach leaves instead of salad greens.
- Change up the cheese you use. I love using gorgonzola or stilton as my blue cheese, but you can use any number of crumbled cheeses, including goat cheese and feta. You can even use slices of grilled halloumi cheese.
- Use cubed deli ham instead of crumbled bacon.
- Use your favorite salad dressing. Good options include ranch dressing and blue cheese dressing. A mustard dressing is also good in this recipe.
Instructions
Despite its complexity, making this salad isn't difficult, especially if you prep some of the ingredients ahead of time. Scroll down to the recipe card for detailed instructions. Here are the basic steps:
You start by whisking the dressing ingredients until they emulsify into a smooth, velvety salad dressing.
Next, arrange the salad greens on a large serving platter.
Arrange the remaining ingredients on top of the greens. You can pretty much arrange them in any order you like. I usually add them in the following order: chicken, tomatoes, avocado, eggs, bacon, and blue cheese.
The last step is drizzling the dressing on the salad and serving.
Expert Tip
This salad contains quite a few ingredients. And you need to pre-cook chicken, bacon, and hard-boiled eggs to make it.
So, I keep things simple by preparing these ingredients the day before and refrigerating them. They need to be cold anyway. The next day, assembling the salad is a breeze!
Recipe FAQs
This salad was created in the 1930s by Robert Howard Cobb, the owner of the Hollywood Brown Derby restaurant.
The story says that Mr. Cobb had not eaten until nearly midnight, so he just mixed together some leftovers that he found in the kitchen.
Much like in the case of Buffalo sauce, necessity is indeed the mother of invention!
You can use any salad dressing you like. I like to dress this salad with a simple vinaigrette made of olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, and garlic.
I also add a bit of Dijon and mayonnaise, which primarily serve as emulsifiers. Although they also add flavor and creaminess to the dressing.
This is the salad dressing that I use for almost all my salads. It's simple and delicious.
But if you prefer a creamy dressing such as ranch or blue cheese, that's fine too. Both go well with this salad.
You could serve smaller portions of it as an appetizer, but it's usually meant to be eaten as a main-course salad.
Serving Suggestions
The presentation is really important here, as you can see in the photos. It's such a gorgeous salad! So it's best to serve it as shown rather than mixed.
You can drizzle half the dressing over the greens and the remaining half over the other ingredients.
Or you can arrange the salad first, present it at the table without the dressing, then pour everything into a large bowl, add the dressing, and mix.
The perfect drink to go with this salad? A refreshing glass of cucumber water!
Storing Leftovers
The salad greens will become soggy if stored, and the avocado might turn brown, so I don't keep those. But the rest of the salad keeps fine in the fridge, in an airtight container, for 2-3 days.
More Salad Recipes
Foodie Newsletter
I send out a weekly newsletter with a recipe and tips. Want these recipes in your inbox? Subscribe today! You can unsubscribe at any time.
Recipe Card
Chicken Cobb Salad
Ingredients
Dressing:
- 2 tablespoons olive oil extra-virgin
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon avocado oil mayonnaise
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- ¼ teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt or ⅛ teaspoon of any other salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
Salad:
- 2 hard-boiled eggs large, sliced
- 4 strips cooked bacon crispy, chopped
- 2 baked chicken breast medium-size, sliced (6 oz each)
- 2 cups salad greens
- ½ cup cherry tomatoes halved
- 1 avocado sliced; use Haas variety
- 2 oz blue cheese crumbled
Instructions
- In a small bowl, whisk the dressing ingredients until they emulsify into a rich salad dressing.
- Arrange the salad greens on a large serving platter.
- Assemble the salad toppings on top of the greens. I usually add them in the following order: chicken, tomatoes, avocado, eggs, bacon, and blue cheese.
- Drizzle the dressing on top of the salad and serve.
Video
Notes
Add Your Own Notes
Nutrition per Serving
Made this Recipe?
If you made this recipe, please leave a comment sharing your experience with others. Thank you so much!
Subscribe
I send out a weekly newsletter with a recipe and tips. Want these recipes in your inbox? Subscribe today! You can unsubscribe at any time.
Share this Recipe
Disclaimers
Cup measurements refer to the standard American cup, which is 240 milliliters. Most of my recipes are low-carb (or keto) and gluten-free, but some are not. Please verify that a recipe fits your needs before using it. Recommended and linked products are not guaranteed to be gluten-free. Nutrition info is approximate, and the carb count excludes non-nutritive sweeteners. Nutrition info may contain errors, so please verify it independently. Recipes may contain errors, so please use your common sense when following them. Please read these Terms of Use carefully before using any of my recipes.
Leave a Comment