Cobb Salad – Hearty and Satisfying

The unmistakable combination of chicken, bacon, hard-boiled egg, avocado, tomatoes, and blue cheese makes the Cobb Salad one of the most recognizable and iconic salads to exist. The flavors are fantastic, and this salad is hearty and satiating enough to be a complete meal.

Best Salad Ever

I’m the first to admit that while I enjoy salads, I don’t usually view them as a full meal. I typically eat them before a meal, or at the very end of the meal, but rarely as the meal itself.

But the Cobb Salad is truly an exception, and one I admit to regularly eating as a full meal.

Invented in the 1930s at The Brown Derby restaurant in Hollywood by combining a bunch of leftover ingredients, this salad is comprised of calorically dense ingredients: chicken, eggs, blue cheese, avocado, and bacon, while the lighter ingredients, tomatoes and lettuce, balance it out, yielding a satisfying and truly delicious meal that stands on its own.

And while many would rather order a Cobb salad at a restaurant than make it in their own home, similar to my homemade Chicken Caesar Salad, this one is infinitely better when made at home!

Recipe Ingredients

All ingredients for this recipe are shown in the pic below and special notes are made in this bulleted list to assist you.

• Chicken. I’m using chicken breasts that I poach, similar to how I do them for my New York deli chicken salad recipe. You could definitely use pulled rotisserie chicken, sliced Italian chicken cutlets, or leftover Thanksgiving turkey breast as well.
• Bacon. Any bacon, thick-cut or otherwise, will do. Feel free to take a shortcut and buy precooked bacon from the store.
• Eggs. Either hardboil the eggs yourself, or buy the ones from the grocery store.
• Lettuces. I’m using a combination of iceberg lettuce and endive. Feel free to use other lettuces, such as bib or romaine.
• Blue cheese. Roquefort or other blue cheeses, such as gorgonzola, are typically used for the Cobb Salad.
• Avocado. Look for avocados that are slightly soft, but still firm.
• Dressing. I’m using a combination of lemon juice, red wine vinegar, garlic, Dijon mustard, olive oil, and neutral oil for the salad dressing. Another option is to use homemade balsamic vinaigrette.

See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.

How to make it

Each number corresponds to the numbered written steps below.

1. Combine the lemon juice, vinegar, garlic, and mustard in a food processor, then slowly drizzle the oils and blend until emulsified. You can also hand whisk or use a wide-mouth mason jar and immersion blender as shown below.
2. Taste test and season with salt and pepper as needed.

3. Heat a large pot with enough salted water to submerge the chicken breasts by at least 3 inches of water. Once boiling, add the chicken, cover, return to a boil, and once boiling, remove the pot from the heat and set aside, keeping it covered for at least 20 minutes.
4. Remove the chicken from the pot and chop into chunks. You can either cool the chicken, or you can add it warm to the salad later on.
5. Cook the bacon in a pan over medium heat until crisp, then place on a paper towel-lined plate to drain and break up the bacon pieces. In a large bowl, toss the iceberg lettuce and endive with half of the dressing and season with salt and pepper to taste.

6. Transfer the lettuce mixture to a large bowl or platter and arrange the tomatoes, eggs, blue cheese, bacon, chicken, and avocado in rows on top of the greens. Top with the chives and drizzle more dressing on top, and serve with dressing on the side as well.

More hearty salads

If you love Cobb Salad, give these others a try.

• Loaded Italian chopped salad
• New York diner-style Greek salad
• Spinach salad with hot bacon dressing