🥓 Classic Cobb Salad
Ingredients
- 2 chicken breasts
- 4 slices bacon
- 2 eggs
- 1 head romaine
- 1 avocado
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes
- Blue cheese crumbles
- 2 tbsp olive oil (pantry staple)
- Salt & pepper (pantry staple)
Instructions
- Hard-boil eggs; crisp bacon; sear seasoned chicken and slice.
- Arrange everything in rows over chopped romaine.
- Dress with oil, vinegar, salt, and crumbled blue cheese.
Tips
- Arrange in rows rather than tossing. It isn't only presentation — it lets people take what they want and stops the blue cheese coating everything.
- Start the eggs in already-boiling water and shock them in ice water afterwards. Cold-start eggs are harder to peel, and the ice bath prevents the grey-green ring around the yolk.
- Dress it at the table. Avocado and romaine go soggy fast under dressing.
Substitutions
- Blue cheese
- Feta, goat cheese, or grated cheddar. Blue is traditional but assertive — serve it on the side if it's divisive.
- Chicken breast
- Rotisserie chicken, leftover turkey, or grilled prawns. Skip the meat and add extra egg and avocado for vegetarian.
- Bacon
- Pancetta, or omit it — toasted nuts give similar salty crunch in a vegetarian version.
- Romaine
- Any sturdy leaf: little gem, iceberg, or a mix. Avoid soft leaves like butter lettuce, which collapse under the toppings.
Storage & reheating
Undressed components keep 3 days separately, and hard-boiled eggs keep a week in the shell. Assembled and dressed it doesn't keep at all — the avocado browns and the leaves wilt within an hour.
Common questions
What makes a salad a Cobb?
The specific combination — chicken, bacon, egg, avocado, tomato and blue cheese on lettuce, arranged in rows. It was invented at the Brown Derby in Hollywood in the 1930s.
How do I get jammy rather than chalky yolks?
7 minutes for jammy, 9–10 for fully set. Cobb traditionally uses hard-boiled, but 8 minutes is a good middle ground.
How do I stop the avocado browning?
Toss it in lemon or lime juice and cut it last. Keeping the stone in helps marginally, but acid is what actually works.