Cobb Salad with Ranch Dressing
Our crowd-pleasing take on the classic Cobb salad recipe is simple and flavorful. Cooking the chicken breasts in a little of the fat rendered from the bacon adds both convenience and flavor. And ranch dressing keeps both the blue cheese ratio and the highbrow-to-lowbrow ratio of this recipe just right.
Servings: 4
Calories: 672kcal
Ingredients
- 10 cups (750 grams) chopped or torn lettuce (see note 1)
- 2 cups (340 grams) small tomatoes, such as cherry or grape
- 4 hard-boiled eggs
- 2 ripe Haas avocados
- 16 ounces (454 grams) thick-cut bacon
- 2 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (about 1 ½ pounds/(680 grams) total)
- 3 ounces (85 grams) good blue cheese (such as Gorgonzola dolce), crumbled
- Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Flaky sea salt such as Maldon
- Bottled or homemade ranch dressing
Instructions
- Chop bacon into bite-sized pieces and place in a large frying pan over medium heat. Cook, stirring frequently, until browned and crisp. Remove bacon to paper towels to drain and pour off all but two tablespoons or so of the bacon fat from the pan.
- Season chicken breasts well with salt and pepper and place in pan. Cook uncovered until nicely browned on the underside, about five minutes. Then flip and cover pan. Continue cooking until chicken breasts are just opaque all the way through.
- Halve or quarter tomatoes depending on size and place in a strip across serving bowl. Quarter the hard-boiled eggs lengthwise and arrange next to tomatoes.
- Halve, pit, and slice avocados and arrange in a strip. If you like, sprinkle with some freshly squeezed lemon juice for both taste and longevity.
- Arrange bacon and blue cheese, if using, on salad. Dice chicken and place onto salad.
- Sprinkle some fine sea salt over both the eggs and the avocado, and then hit the whole salad with some freshly ground black pepper and flaky sea salt. Drizzle with dressing and serve with more dressing to pass at the table.
Notes
- Any crisp, mild lettuce or combination that you like is great. In the photos I've used "Blooming Brooklyn Iceberg" from Gotham Greens, a which has a great ratio of crunch to leafiness.
- For the tomatoes, the more colorful the merrier. I like to mix a few different types of bite-sized tomatoes.
- This recipe is naturally keto-friendly and gluten-free.
- You can do most of the work for this recipe in advance. Cook the bacon, the chicken, and the hard-boiled eggs, and cut them all. Prep the lettuce. Even halve the tomatoes and crumble the blue cheese ahead of time. Keep everything separate until ready to serve, and then assemble it, slicing the avocados just before serving.
- Leftovers will keep for a day or two in an airtight container in the fridge.
- One of my all-time favorite moves is to substitute shrimp for the chicken in this recipe. Instead of the chicken, peel and devein 1 ½ pounds of jumbo shrimp, leaving the tails on. Season with salt and pepper and cook them in a little bit of the bacon fat for a minute or two per side, until just opaque throughout. Keep everything else the same.
Nutrition
Calories: 672kcal | Carbohydrates: 15.4g | Protein: 46.8g | Fat: 47.5g | Fiber: 7.4g