This is our favorite Cobb Salad complete with hard-boiled eggs, creamy avocado, crisp center-cut bacon, juicy cherry tomatoes, buttery edamame, sweet corn, and rich goat (or feta) cheese. Finish the salad with a drizzle of a simple blender vinaigrette made with fresh herbs. This tangy homemade dressing is the star of this salad — everyone goes crazy for it!
Try our Spring Cobb Salad next; it’s packed with seasonal produce and topped with a luscious creamy balsamic dressing.
Cobb Salad
Cobb salads are always one of my “go-to” choices when ordering a restaurant lunch salad — I love a good Cobb Salad! So, I’ve combined all of my favorite ingredients from past salads to bring to you my take on the ultimate Cobb Salad.
Cobb Salads can be taken in so many different routes — there are practically endless ways to make it. This version features loads of eggs, creamy ripe avocados, crispy bacon, and lots of veggies.
Included in the recipe is how to add some delicious marinated chicken (it marinates in the dressing — easy!), but you could also make this salad vegetarian and leave out the meat and bacon entirely. Alternatively, steak or shrimp can take the chicken’s place — truly the possibilities are endless with this salad! We’ll discuss more variations below.
quicktip]Legend says that Cobb Salad was invented in 1937 at the Hollywood Brown Derby restaurant by the restaurant’s owner, Robert Howard Cobb. He is said to have mixed together a hodgepodge of leftovers he found in the restaurant kitchen and tossed it with their house dressing. [/quicktip]
Cobb Salad Variations
This salad recipe is very forgiving; you can add in just about any seasonal produce you like and it will work well as long as the quantities remain consistent. Use any combination of seasonal produce or your favorite Cobb Salad additions.
Here are some suggestions:
- Protein: This salad has quite a bit of protein in it: chicken, bacon, and hard-boiled eggs. You can do all three or just choose one or two to add to the salad. Other ideas: add cooked salmon, shrimp, or steak.
- Cheese: feta or bleu cheese crumbles
- Other veggies: cucumbers, roasted carrots (cooled and chopped) or raw shredded carrots, sweet peas, red, green, or yellow onions, green beans, sweet bell peppers
- More greens: add a handful of micro greens to the top of this salad
Recipe Short-Cuts
This salad can be a bit time consuming to make, so I’m always on the lookout for ways to make it come together quicker. Here are a few of the short-cuts I like to employ:
- Either leave out the chicken or add rotisserie chicken. Rotisserie chicken saves time and energy, plus it’s delicious and tender. You can also use any leftover grilled chicken.
- Use store-bought hard-boiled eggs. While hard-boiled eggs are simple to make, they can be time consuming and sometimes frustrating to peel. A lot of stores sell prepared hard-boiled eggs if you’d like to cut down on some prep time.
- Microwave the bacon. Another shortcut is to buy pre-cooked bacon for this salad. Warm it through, according to package directions and it’s ready to go.
Salad Storage
Cobb Salad doesn’t sit very well with all of the dressing, bacon, eggs, and avocado mixed into it. If you aren’t planning to eat the entire salad at one sitting, toss and add dressing to the amount you’ll be eating at this time.
If you keep the dressing and toppings separate, this salad can store in the fridge for up to 3 days (with the exception of the avocado). The avocado browns and takes on an odd texture, so I add half the avocado one day and place the other half in a plastic bag (squeeze some lemon or olive oil on the exposed side) in the fridge until I’m ready to prepare another serving. Assemble smaller salad portions, adding dressing to each portion, as you enjoy it throughout the week.
Quick Tip
Leftover dressing will likely separate and solidify a bit, which is completely normal. Olive oil solidifies at cold temperatures. Simply let the dressing stand at room temperature for about 20 minutes, shake to re-combine, and it’s ready to drizzle over this salad.
Cobb Salad FAQs
Cobb Salad is a main-dish American garden salad typically containing lettuce, veggies, hard-boiled eggs, avocado, cheese, chicken, and either a vinaigrette or a bleu cheese dressing.
Nowadays there are hundreds of variations on this salad including the one I’m sharing today. This one has a few unique ingredients and the most flavor-packed herby vinaigrette.
The two are very similar as they both have lettuce, cheese, and meats (typically bacon, chicken breasts, and/or ham), and hard-boiled eggs. However, a Cobb salad usually also has avocados and tomatoes.
More history on the differences between the two salads can be found here.
It’s believed that the origins of this salad came from Hollywood, CA in 1937 from the Brown Derby. Chef Robert Cobb threw a bunch of leftover ingredients together with a French dressing and that night the “Cobb Salad” was born.
It all depends on what is on the salad!
The version I’m sharing today is certainly a healthier version of a Cobb Salad. One of the biggest determining factors on the healthiness of this salad is the dressing used.
A full-fat blue cheese dressing will add a lot of fat and calories while an olive-oil-based vinaigrette is a much lighter option with better-for-you fats.
Not all fats are equal — if you’re using olive oil you’re getting MUFAs (monounsaturated fatty acids). MUFAS are considered healthy dietary fat (and important in a balanced diet). If you replace saturated and trans fat (typically present in a blue cheese dressing) with MUFAS you can gain many health benefits.
As mentioned above, there are practically endless varieties of dressings that can be paired with a Cobb Salad.
In this particular recipe, I’m sharing a tangy herb olive-oil-based vinaigrette that is one of the best dressings I’ve ever tasted! It’s loaded with fresh herbs, olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic, Dijon mustard, a little sugar (to balance acidity), and of course, some salt and pepper.
While homemade dressings may seem intimidating, this one whips together so quickly — we just combine everything in a small blender!
The Chick-fil-A Salad is topped with their famous nuggets (sliced) on top of Romaine lettuce and baby greens, shredded red cabbage and carrots, roasted corn kernels, a cheese blend including Cheddar and Monterey jack, crumbled bacon, diced eggs, grape tomatoes, and charred crispy red bell peppers. You can choose the dressing for this salad — typical recommendations are either the fat-free honey mustard dressing or their avocado-lime-ranch dressing.
My Cobb Salad recipe is pretty different from the Chick-Fil-A salad, but it’s easy to make a copycat using my recipe’s general guidelines for ingredient amounts and the ingredients I’ve listed above. You can then purchase either the honey mustard or avocado lime ranch dressing at the store or make your own.
Here’s my similar recipe to Chick-Fil-A’s avocado-lime-ranch dressing:
Ingredients:
- 1 lime (juiced and zested)
- 2 tablespoons prepared ranch seasoning mix (dry mix)
- 1/2 to 1 full teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 tomatillo, husk removed and coarsely chopped
- 1/2 of a 1 large bunch of cilantro
- 1/2 of 1 jalapeño (seeds removed for milder dressing and left for spicier dressing)
- 1/2 cup full-fat mayo
- 1/2 cup fat-free buttermilk
Instructions
- Zest and juice 1 lime. Add the juice and zest to the blender along with the prepared ranch seasoning mix, minced garlic, chopped tomatillo, and cilantro (Just cut off the large stems, but the rest is fine).
- Add 1/2 a jalapeño (a full one for more kick) and the mayo.
- Add some seasoned salt and pepper to taste (I use probably 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper).
- Blend until completely smooth. Taste and adjust to personal preference (more lime, more garlic, salt/pepper).
- Blend in the buttermilk and serve over the salad!
Yes! In fact, we typically add some grilled chicken to this salad!
Here’s how to do that: Take about 1/3 of the dressing recipe and pour it in a large plastic bag. Add a few thinly sliced chicken breasts, to the bag, and store in the fridge. Marinate the chicken for at least 30 minutes up to 4 hours. Any longer than 4 hours and the acid from the dressing will start to dry out the chicken.
When you’re ready to eat, drain off and discard the marinade, grill the chicken, and serve it (slightly cooled) on this salad.
Using the dressing to marinate the chicken results in some seriously flavorful chicken!
More Delicious Salad Recipes
- Panzanella Salad with a balsamic vinaigrette
- Mango Salad with a cinnamon yogurt dressing
- Quinoa Fruit Salad with a citrus vinaigrette
- Chipotle Chicken Salad with a chipotle vinaigrette
- Thai Quinoa Salad with a peanut dressing
Cobb Salad with Herb Vinaigrette
Ingredients
Herb Vinaigrette Dressing (See Note 1)
- 6 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 tablespoon fresh flat-leaf Italian parsley
- 1 tablespoon fresh cilantro OR fresh basil
- 2-1/2 tablespoons white granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- Fine sea salt and black pepper
Optional Grilled Chicken Addition (See Instruction #1)
- 2 large boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 1/3 of the dressing recipe
Salad
- 8 cups mixed green lettuce (we use 50/50 blend spinach and spring mix leaves)
- 2-3 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and diced or sliced
- 1/3 cup crumbled center-cut bacon (~6-7 slices)
- 1/3 cup frozen shelled edamame, or sweet peas
- 2/3 cup grape tomatoes, halved
- 1 large avocado, diced
- 1/2 cup corn (fresh corn you've grilled, or fire-roasted canned corn, or thawed frozen corn)
- 1/2 cup goat or feta cheese (goat is our favorite)
- Optional: 1-2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Instructions
- OPTIONAL RECIPE SHORTCUTS: *Either leave out the chicken or add rotisserie chicken. Rotisserie chicken saves time and energy, plus it's delicious and tender. You can also use any leftover grilled chicken. *Use store-bought hard-boiled eggs. While hard-boiled eggs are simple to make, they can be time consuming and sometimes frustrating to peel. A lot of stores sell prepared hard-boiled eggs if you'd like to cut down on some prep time. See Note 2. *Microwave bacon. Another shortcut is to buy pre-cooked bacon for this salad. Warm it through, according to package directions and it's ready to go.
- DRESSING: See Note 1. Add the red wine vinegar, dijon mustard, garlic, parsley, cilantro, salt and pepper (I use about 1/2 teaspoon each; add to taste preference), and sugar to a small blender container. Blend until smooth and then add in the olive oil. Pulse to emulsify, being careful to not over-blend; as soon as it's incorporated stop blending. Taste and adjust the dressing to personal preference (salt, pepper, sugar). Transfer to a jar and refrigerate until ready to use. Shake before topping the salad.
- OPTIONAL GRILLED CHICKEN: Place the chicken breasts (halved horizontally) in a large plastic bag and pour 1/3 of the dressing (just eyeball it) on top. Seal without air and knead the dressing into the chicken. Refrigerate for 30 minutes up to 4 hours. (Don't do longer than 4 hours or the acidity from the vinegar starts to "cook" the chicken.)
- OPTIONAL GRILLED CHICKEN CONT.: Remove the chicken from the bag and discard the marinade. Cook on a grill (or in a grill pan) over medium-high heat for 4-5 minutes on each side or until the juices run clear (160 degrees F on a food thermometer). Remove the chicken from the grill and tent with foil. Let it rest and cool a bit for about 10 minutes and then slice or chop into bite-sized pieces. See Note 1.
- PREP SALAD TOPPINGS: Peel and dice or slice the hard-boiled eggs (See Note 2), cook and crumble or finely dice the bacon, boil the edamame according to package directions and drain, halve the grape tomatoes, and dice the avocado. (Optional: squeeze some fresh lemon to keep from browning.), Prepare the corn (drain from can, grill fresh corn, or thaw frozen corn -- See Note 3). Place the lettuce in a large bowl or platter.
- SERVE: Layer ingredients on the lettuce. Add feta or goat cheese. Drizzle dressing, adding to preference, right before eating (do not dress anything you want to keep leftover, as the dressing doesn't sit well with this salad -- See Note 4).
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Wow, this Cobb salad looks incredibly refreshing and flavorful! The addition of the herb vinaigrette is genius – I can almost smell the aromatics. Can’t wait to try this out this weekend!
I’m so excited for you to give it a try! Let me know what you think!
PLEASE, please, please, figure out how to coy cat Chic-Fil-A’s Charred Tomato Crispy Red Bell Peppers! Alone, they don’t taste that great but for some reason when you put it in the salad, it tastes just like BACON! (Have you noticed that?) I know there are dried Crispy Bell Pepper packs in the grocery store next to the salad aisle, but none of them taste like Chicks. It may be because of the smoked flavoring and the charred tomato. Thanks! Luv your articles.
Thanks Anne!! I can add that to the list of things to work through! 🙂
Wasn’t sure why there was no egg or avocado, plus there was fried instead of grilled chicken on my Cobb Salad from the drive-thru. A little disappointed. ????
From Chick-fil-A?
This is absolutely the best salad my husband and I have ever had. It’s a weekly request in my household!
I’m so glad to hear this! It’s a favorite at my house too! I hope you continue to enjoy! 🙂
I’m always looking for fresh and healthy salads to put in my lunch box. Looks like this fits the bill. Thanks!
I’m a sucker for a good salad; It’s all we’ve been eating for dinner lately. I’m excited to try this one! Thanks for sharing this recipe!
I can never say no to a delicious salad! I love all the flavors you used