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The best Cobb Salad recipe is loaded with classics like bacon, hard boiled eggs, chicken, and tomatoes, smothered with a creamy homemade blue cheese dressing. Enjoy this hearty salad as a main dish, or serve it as a side dish at your next dinner get-together.
For those who love variety in their salad choices, check out my tasty chef salad and the robustly flavored steak salad, both perfect for any type of dining.
The Cobb salad, created by Robert Cobb at Hollywood’s Brown Derby in the 1930s, stands out with its ingredients neatly arranged in rows over romaine lettuce, combining creamy avocado and eggs with salty bacon for a rich taste.
I make a variety of salads, from my tomato burrata salad to Jennifer Aniston’s bulgur salad; there are plenty of easy salad recipes to go around. A classic Cobb salad, however, is my favorite because it doubles as dinner! It’s chock full of chicken, bacon, eggs, tomatoes, blue cheese, and creamy avocado.
The best part is my homemade dressing! It’s not a buttermilk dressing, as the classic should be, but it is made with a tangy combination of plain yogurt, Dijon, and blue cheese. When made on the fly, a Cobb salad is the best solution to a bunch of leftovers. Even better, you can roll this salad up into a wrap for an easy meal on the go!
Why You Need This Cobb Salad Recipe
Light and Filling: My version of a Cobb is an easy take that doesn’t skimp on flavor. It’s the perfect big salad that leaves you feeling full without the heaviness.
Homemade Dressing: Veering away from the traditional buttermilk and sometimes red wine vinaigrette, I opt for a zesty blend of plain yogurt, Dijon mustard, and blue cheese.
Convenient: Cobb salad is my favorite way to turn leftover ham into a flavorful meal, offering a fresh and satisfying twist compared to my usual pinwheel sandwiches.
What You’ll Need
With a few ingredient swaps, this version hits all the notes we love about a classic Cobb salad. Here’s an overview of what you’ll need to make the best salad ever, with the full amounts available in the recipe card further down the page.
- Plain Yogurt: Non-fat plain yogurt is a great light option, but you can use regular plain yogurt.
- Oil and Vinegar: The basis for any decent salad dressing is a nice quality extra virgin olive oil and vinegar. I like to use white wine vinegar, red wine vinegar, or cider vinegar.
- Dijon Mustard: I love the creaminess of Dijon mustard, though regular yellow mustard will also work.
- Blue Cheese: I keep this dressing light with low-fat, crumbled blue cheese or Roquefort. Feel free to use full-fat if you prefer. If you’re not a fan of funky blue cheese, other good options are crumbled feta cheese or goat cheese.
- Salt and Black Pepper: To enhance the flavors of the salad dressing.
- Mixed Salad Greens: Pick up a bag of mixed greens from the grocery store, or use any combination of your favorite salad leaves. Crisp romaine lettuce, iceberg lettuce, swiss chard, frisée, arugula, and/or radicchio are all good options.
- Chicken: Use cooked and shredded tender chicken breast. I almost always use leftover chicken or get a store-bought rotisserie chicken.
- Bacon: Crumble up cooked crispy bacon, and you can also use turkey bacon if you’d prefer.
- Eggs: Make a batch of perfect hard boiled eggs, then peel and slice them.
- Tomatoes: I love cherry tomatoes for their sweetness, but regular diced juicy tomatoes will also work.
- Avocado: Evenly sliced.
How to Make A Cobb Salad
I really enjoy a good classic salad recipe. This salad blends convenience with flavor, making it an ideal choice for quick meals or dinner parties. Let’s get started on creating this dish that’s as nutritious as it is satisfying.
- Prepare the Dressing: In a bowl, whisk together the yogurt, oil, vinegar, mustard, blue cheese crumbles, salt, and pepper until thoroughly combined.
- Assemble: Next, add your mixed greens to a large platter or a large bowl. Arrange the rest of the salad ingredients over the top, then crumble a sprinkle of blue cheese. You can arrange the toppings in pretty rows or pile them in any way you like.
- Finish: Finally, give the whole thing a generous drizzle of delicious dressing. All that’s left to do is dig in!
Recipe Tips
- Make extra dressing. I love this homemade blue cheese salad dressing so much, I double the batch whenever I make it. It’s easy to shake it up in a mason jar, then store it in the fridge for up to one week. Just give it another shake before you use it.
- Customize the ingredients. Any worthy salad recipe is easy to customize, and this one’s no exception. Try changing up the ingredients to suit your personal preference(s). Add olives and feta to make Mediterranean Cobb salad, or include an oven-baked salmon filet as I do in my salmon Cobb salad.
- Make a vegetarian Cobb salad. For an easy vegetarian version of this recipe, swap out the bacon and chicken for tofu, roasted chickpeas, beans, grilled halloumi cheese, and/or coconut bacon.
- Make Cobb Salad Wraps. Spread about 2 tablespoons of the dressing over a flour tortilla. Place a few salad greens in the middle of the tortilla. Add some chicken, a bit of crumbled bacon, a couple of slices of eggs, some tomatoes, and a slice of avocado, then sprinkle with crumbled blue cheese and drizzle with dressing. Roll it up tightly; cut it in half and serve.
Serving Suggestions
This Cobb salad recipe lives rent-free in my kitchen as a main dish, an easy lunch, or an anytime snack. It’s already a meal all-in-one, but if you’re looking for something equally delicious to serve alongside it, consider pairing it with my easy and quick low carb keto breadsticks, these sweet potato wedges, or my famous baked zucchini chips.
If you’re serving this salad at a dinner party, add grilled shrimp skewers or this juicy oven grilled steak to the menu!
How to Store Leftovers
As with all salads, this salad is at its best the day it is made. However, if you have leftovers, store them in an airtight container without the dressing. Close the container and store it in the refrigerator for 2 days. To serve the leftover salad, remove it from the fridge and let it sit at room temperature for a few minutes before serving.
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Cobb Salad
Ingredients
For the Blue Cheese Dressing
- ¾ cup non-fat plain yogurt
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon white vinegar
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons reduced-fat crumbled blue cheese
- salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
For the Salad
- 10 cups mixed salad greens
- 12 ounces shredded cooked chicken breast
- 4 slices bacon, cooked to a desired crispness and crumbled
- 3 large hard boiled eggs, sliced
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 avocado, thinly sliced
- ½ cup reduced-fat crumbled blue cheese, for garnish
Instructions
- Make the dressing. Prepare the dressing by combining yogurt, oil, vinegar, mustard, bleu cheese, salt, and pepper in a mixing bowl; whisk together until thoroughly combined. Set aside.
- Make the salad. Arrange the salad greens on a large plate. Arrange chicken, bacon, egg, tomatoes, avocado, and blue cheese on top of the salad greens.
- Add the dressing. Drizzle the salad with the prepared dressing and serve.
Equipment
Notes
- Lettuce: Use crisp, fresh lettuce and ripe tomatoes and avocados.
- Add protein: Grilled or roasted chicken, eggs, and bacon are common ingredients in a Cobb salad, but you can also try adding cooked salmon, beans, tofu, or even shrimp!
- Dressing: I like to make my own lightened-up bleu cheese dressing to use in this Cobb salad, but if you’d like to use something lighter and not creamy, I suggest mixing up some lemon juice with olive oil and season it with salt and pepper.
- Add-ins and swaps: While the traditional ingredients of a Cobb salad are amazing, you can also try adding other things to give the salad more variety. You can include diced bell peppers, sliced cucumbers, radishes, or diced vegetables.
- Assemble the salad just before serving: To prevent the salad from becoming wilted or soggy, it is best to assemble the salad just before serving. This will also help to keep the ingredients fresh and vibrant.
Nutrition
Nutritional info is an estimate and provided as courtesy. Values may vary according to the ingredients and tools used. Please use your preferred nutritional calculator for more detailed info.
Love it all except the dressing. Hubby said it tasted strange. I didn’t try it since dairy doesn’t agree with me. He ended up using store-bought blue cheese dressing we had in the fridge. Next time I may look for a different homemade blue cheese dressing. Otherwise, I’ll be making salad this again!
Looks absolutely fantastic! I would love to make this!
I hope you enjoy it! Thank you so much! 🙂
Definitely satisfied my salad cravings!!
I hope you love it! Thank YOU! 🙂
This salad is so rich and delicious! My new favorite!
I’m very happy you loved it! Thank YOU! 🙂
One of my favorite salads, this recipe never gets old!
I hope you love it! Thank YOU! 🙂
This looks incredible and easy! A must make!
Thank YOU! I hope you love it! 🙂
Filling and flavorful. I love the dressing and avocado combo
Thank YOU! I hope you’ll love it! 🙂