Savor the timeless charm of Cobb Salad with crisp salad greens, tender chicken, crispy bacon, sweet juicy cherry tomatoes, creamy avocado, and tangy blue cheese. Our Cobb Salad recipe is topped with a savory shallot dressing, making it a true culinary masterpiece.
Why We Love This Cobb Salad Recipe
I love a good salad. Especially a good, hearty main dish salad. So much flavor, texture, and nutrition all piled up on a plate. Not too mention the endless ingredient combinations. Despite all of the options out there… there are some combinations that just rise above and become classics. Cobb Salad is one of those. It was originally created in 1937 by a California restaurant owner who was rifling through the leftovers in the kitchen refrigerator looking to make a late night snack. The result was a delicious, satisfying, flavor-bomb of a salad that has arguably become one of the most popular salads in the country.
While there have been plenty of variations over the years, we happen to think the original is pretty dang delicious. Crispy romaine lettuce is topped with grilled chicken, hard-boiled eggs, juicy tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, crunchy bacon, creamy avocado, and salty feta. Then the whole thing is drizzled in a simple and fantastic homemade shallot dressing. The end result is a light yet filling masterpiece that is the perfect meal for warm summer nights. And with this simple but impressive presentation, it’s totally company-worthy too.
Ingredients You’ll Need for this Cobb Salad Recipe:
- Romaine Lettuce– Romaine lettuce is hearty and crispy, making it the perfect base for this hearty salad.
- Chicken Breast– We love using grilled chicken in our cobb salad, but rotisserie chicken would work also.
- Hard-Boiled Eggs– Check out this post for our favorite way to hard-boil eggs.
- Bacon– We love the convenience of precooked bacon.
- Cherry Tomatoes– Cherry tomatoes are the sweet and juicy component.
- Feta Cheese– The original calls for blue cheese, but we prefer using feta.
- Red Onion– Red onion adds a nice sharp bite.
- Avocado– Avocado adds a creamy and mellow flavor to the salad.
- Cucumber– We like to use English cucumbers. No need to peel or deseed.
Shallot Dressing:
- Shallot– If you’ve never used shallots, here’s your chance. They have a sweet, delicate onion flavor.
- Red Wine Vinegar– We like the flavor of red wine vinegar in this dressing because it’s not quite as pungent, but you could use your favorite vinegar.
- Dijon Mustard– Besides adding flavor, mustard helps to emulsify your dressing and bind the oil and vinegar together.
- Avocado Oil– Olive oil also works here.
- Sugar– Just a touch of sugar helps to balance the flavor in the dressing.
- Salt & Pepper– Add to season.
How to Make Cobb Salad:
- Cook the eggs. Hard boil the eggs. Allow to cool, then peel and slice
- Cook the chicken. Grill or pan fry the chicken, seasoned liberally with salt and pepper. You can also use leftover or rotisserie chicken.
- Prep the veggies. Chop the lettuce, slice the tomatoes in half, quarter and slice the cucumbers, dice the avocado, and thinly slice the red onion.
- Make the dressing. Finely dice the shallot. Add to a bowl along with the rest of the ingredients; whisk to combine.
- Assemble the salad. On a large serving platter, add a generous layer of lettuce. Top with the rest of the ingredients, adding them in layers if desired. You can also just throw it all in a big bowl!
- Serve. Serve up the salad topped with the shallot dressing. Enjoy!
Tips & Suggestions:
Make-Ahead Convenience
I love prepping the ingredients for my Cobb Salad recipe ahead of time. It only takes minutes to get dinner on the table, and we can also have a healthy and delicious lunch ready to go all week long. The only things that I have to do before serving are peeling and slicing the eggs, and cubing the avocado. Everything else will last 3-4 days in the fridge.
Variations & Substitutions
- Try replacing the chicken with turkey, salmon or chickpeas.
- Instead of romaine, you can substitute spinach, butter lettuce or iceburg lettuce.
- Replace the feta with bleu cheese, shaved pecorino, or cubed cheddar cheese.
- Add different veggies like sugar snap peas, bell peppers, sliced radishes, or jicima.
- Try adding a sweet element like dried cranberries, blueberries, or diced apple.
More Delicious Salad Recipes:
Cobb Salad
Ingredients
Salad:
- 2 large eggs hard-boiled
- 2 large chicken breasts cooked and sliced
- 6 slices bacon cooked until crispy
- 1 medium avocado
- 1 medium English cucumber diced into quarters
- 1/4 medium red onion thinly sliced
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes halved
- 6 cups romaine lettuce rinsed and chopped
- 1/2 cup blue or feta cheese
Dressing:
- 1 small shallot finely diced
- 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
- 1/3 cup avocado or olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Hard boil the eggs, allow to cool. Peel and slice; set aside.
- Season chicken with salt and pepper. Heat a large skillet over medium heat and drizzle with olive oil. Add chicken and cook on both sides for approximately 4-5 minutes or until center is no longer pink. Allow to rest for 5 minutes and then cut into strips. Set aside.
- Cook bacon in the skillet you used to cook the chicken until brown and crispy. Set aside to cool and then chop into small pieces.
- Dice avocado and cucumber. Slice the red onion and cut cherry tomatoes in half.
- Rinse romaine lettuce and chop into bite size pieces. Pat to dry.
- To Assemble Salad: Arrange chopped lettuce on a platter to create a base layer. Arrange the boiled eggs, chicken slices, bacon pieces, avocado, cucumber, red onion, and cherry tomatoes in lines on top of the lettuce. Sprinkle cheese crumbles over the top, or add them in a line next to the other ingredients.
For the Dressing:
- In a small bowl, whisk together the shallot, vinegar, dijon mustard, oil, sugar, salt and pepper. Serve the dressing on the side, or drizzle over the top of your salad just before serving. Enjoy!
