This traditional cobb salad is brimming with fresh ingredients and protein-packed with grilled chicken breast, crispy bacon, hard-boiled eggs, and blue cheese along with the perfect homemade balsamic vinaigrette dressing in a large bowl for serving! A hearty dinner salad that satisfies.
Looking for an easy dinner solution to cut through the weeknight chaos? This Original Cobb Salad recipe never disappoints. Some of our other favorite dinner salads include BBQ Chicken Salad, Mediterranean Salmon and Avocado Salad, and Winter Fruits Salad.
What’s the best thing about a salad? The toppings, of course! The Cobb is a palette pleasing medley of all the greatest hits, including blue cheese crumbles, egg halves, avocado, and bacon.
Ingredients
Below is an overview of the specific toppings I use for my traditional Cobb salad recipe and any substitutions:
Romaine Lettuce: Chopped romaine lettuce is the best foundation. Green leaf lettuce or Iceberg lettuce could be substituted but it doesn’t complement the salad quite as well.
Hard boiled Eggs: These are easy to make yourself or purchase pre-made hard boiled eggs from your local market.
Tomatoes: Choose halved Roma, Grape, or Cherry tomatoes. Other options include diced Heirloom, Beefsteak, or Campari tomatoes.
Avocados: Creamy Hass avocados are the most commonly used variety. The best way to determine if an avocado has ripened is by feel. It will give slightly when pressure is applied to the skin with your thumb. If it’s mushy, it’s over ripened.
Blue Cheese Crumbles: Creamy Danish and Gorgonzola will have the mildest flavor. The recipe can easily be tweaked by substituting goat cheese, feta, or gorgonzola. Stilton blue cheese will be slightly stronger. If you prefer a pungent blue cheese flavor, Maytag is best.
Chicken: This salad makes perfect use of a store-bought rotisserie chicken. Cool and debone, shredding meat with two forks into bite-sized pieces.
Bacon: Extra bacon is never a bad call, thick or thin. Turkey bacon is a good substitute if you’re watching calories.
Balsamic Dressing: Although vinaigrette is the classic pairing, Ranch, Blue Cheese, or Italian may be substituted.
What’s the difference between Cobb Salad and Chef’s Salad?
- Protein: Cobb salad typically features grilled chicken while a Chef’s salad features turkey and ham. Hardboiled eggs can be a feature of both.
- Cheese: Cobb salad is crowned with blue cheese rather than a mixture of white and cheddar cheeses.
- Dressing: A Chef’s salad is dressed with something creamy, whereas a traditional Cobb salad is dressed in an oil-based dressing like a vinaigrette.
- Lettuce: Although variations may exist, Chef’s Salad consists of Iceberg lettuce and Cobb salad usually consists primarily of Romaine lettuce.
Toppings and Variations
I like to serve this dish family style with a cruet of homemade Balsamic dressing. The ingredients look beautiful arranged in individual rows across a bed of chopped Romaine.
What I love about salads is how easy it is to modify ingredients to suit your personal preferences:
- Cheese: Blue cheese, Feta, Goat, or shredded Cheddar can be substituted in equal amounts.
- Croutons: You can add about a cup of store-bought or homemade croutons for crunch.
- Onions: Red or chopped green onions are delicious on Cobb salad. They compliment the tanginess of the blue cheese and vinaigrette perfectly.
- Protein: Add to the chicken or swap it out with grilled steak, salmon, or deli sliced turkey and ham.
- Olives: Add an element of brininess to your Cobb salad with about ½ cup of sliced black or green olives.
Recipe Tips & Tricks
- This salad makes great use of rotisserie chicken from the grocery store.
- Season with salt or pepper. Freshly cracked pepper on a salad makes the flavors pop!
- Keep all of the ingredients bite sized. You can finely chop the bacon, but everything else should be about the same size for the perfect bite.
How to Store
Extra salad can be stored for up to 4 days in a tightly covered container, with the dressing separate. The balsamic vinaigrette dressing can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks.
More Delicious Salad Recipes
If you love this recipe, try some of my other favorite salads and homemade dressings.
FAQs
The beauty of this salad is that it’s a filling stand-alone dish. Also pairs well with crusty french bread, baked potatoes, or a pot of soup such as French Onion, Chicken and Wild Rice, or Broccoli and Cheddar.
If you’d like to get a head start on this recipe, prepare extra chicken the night before and precook your bacon and hard-boiled eggs. That way you can grab everything you need from the fridge and whip up this salad!
Yes! This can be eaten as leftovers for a few days if kept in a sealed container in the refrigerator with the dressing separate. I recommend keeping the avocado separate to prevent oxidation. Also, if you plan to make it for prepped meals, make sure the chicken is cool.
The idea of healthy is subjective. This salad is low carb, gluten-free, and has quite an array of nutrients from all the different ingredients, plus lots of protein and healthy fats. However, depending on your ratio of ingredients and choice of salad dressing, it can have a lot of calories and fats.
Typically, you will find a basic vinaigrette paired with a Cobb salad. Another popular Cobb salad dressing would be a homemade ranch dressing.
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Cobb Salad
Ingredients
Salad
- 10 ounces chopped romaine
- 1 ½ cup grape tomatoes sliced in half
- 8 ounces cooked chicken fried or grilled, sliced
- 1 cup blue cheese crumbles
- ½ avocado chopped or sliced
- 6 oz cooked bacon slices about 6 slices
- 4 hardboiled eggs peeled and quartered
Balsamic Dressing
- ½ cup light tasting olive oil
- 4 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 2 teaspoon honey
- 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
- 1 garlic clove minced
Instructions
- Combine all the balsamic dressing ingredients in a bottle or mason jar. Close the lid and shake vigorously. If you do not have a bottle with lid, whisk in a bowl. Store at room temperature until needed. Re-shake if the ingredients have separated.
- [Pre-prep] Sauté chopped bacon in a skillet until browned and crisp (5 min), then transfer to a paper-towel-lined plate to cool. Peel and quarter hard-boiled eggs. Grill the chicken to preferred doneness. Allow to rest and cool. Chop the chicken into bite-sized pieces.
- Chop, rinse and spin romaine lettuce and arrange on a platter or in a large salad bowl. Arrange remaining salad ingredients (avocado, chicken, eggs, tomatoes, blue cheese, and bacon) in rows over lettuce.
- Drizzle dressing just before serving or serve on the side and allow guests to add their own.
Recipe Notes
- You can use a variety of dressings, from blue cheese or French to vinaigrettes. Just be sure to wait to add the dressing just before serving.
- Season with salt or pepper. Freshly cracked pepper on a salad makes the flavors pop!
- Keep all of the ingredients bite sized. You can finely chop the bacon, but everything else should be about the same size for the perfect bite.
Regina says
used a raspberry vinaigrette instead since I don’t like balsamic, and it was absolutely delicious!!
Sherry says
Made this salad last night and it was absolutely delicious. The balsamic was nice.
Janey says
I used italian dressing since I don’t like balsamic but it was really good.
Megan says
My family loved this salad recipe.
Alex says
This dressing is to die for. My new go to for salad night.
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Can’t wait to try this recipe! Thank you so much for updating!!