Cobb Salad [Video]
The mighty Cobb Salad! Don't skip the blue cheese. It's what makes this a Cobb Salad, and not just another chicken salad. I love the presentation on a big platter with the ingredients in neat rows. Serve Dressing on the side for everyone to help themselves (better than tossing each item individually).
Servings: 4
Ingredients
Chicken:
- 400 g/14 oz chicken breast (2 pieces)
- ¼ tsp cooking/kosher salt
- ¼ tsp black pepper
Cobb Salad:
- 200 g/7oz streaky bacon strips (streaky bacon is just regular bacon in the US)
- 4 x 9 minute boiled eggs quartered
- 12 cups cos / romaine lettuce (1 large head, 2 small, chopped - or other crispy lettuce)
- 2 large tomatoes (cut into 8 wedges then halved - or 250g/8oz cherry tomatoes halved)
- 2 avocados cut into large pieces
- 200 g/7oz Gorgonzola dolce my favourite or Roquefort (traditional), crumbled (or other blue cheese – Note 1)
- 2 Tbsp chives finely chopped
Dressing:
- 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
- 5 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 5 Tbsp apple cider vinegar sub white wine or red wine vinegar
- ¾ tsp cooking/kosher salt
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- 2 Tbsp eschallot (US: shallot) very finely minced
- ½ tsp white sugar
Instructions
- Dressing: Shake ingredients in a jar.
- Flavour chicken: Poach chicken. Cool to room temperature then cut into 2cm / 0.75” cubes. Toss with salt, pepper and 2 tablespoons of Dressing. Set aside.
- Crisp bacon: Place bacon strips in a non-stick pan (not heated, no oil). Turn heat onto medium high – as the pan heats up, the fat will begin to melt. Cook for 2 minutes until golden, turn and cook the other side for 1 1/2 minutes until golden. Drain on paper towels. Once cool and crisp, chop into 1.5cm / 0.6" pieces.
- Assemble: Spread lettuce on a large platter. Arrange the ingredients on top in the Cobb Salad signature neat rows: egg, bacon, avocado, tomato and chicken. Crumble blue cheese across the top, sprinkle with chives. Pour dressing into a jug.
- Serving: Let everybody help themselves to the salad and Dressing!
Notes
Blue cheese – It ain’t Cobb Salad if it ain’t got blue cheese on it! I love using creamy gorgonzola because it smears on everything so it sort of becomes part of the dressing. Hence why the dressing is a little tangier than traditional vinaigrettes – you need it, to cut through the richness of blue cheese.
Blue cheese newbies – I suggest using a milder blue cheese like Blue Castello. Adamantly against blue cheese? Feta or goats cheese would be my picks, and suggest adding an extra tablespoon of oil into the dressing to make it a little less tangy.
Nutrition per serving. Shave off 60 calories by using turkey or lean bacon. And the blue cheese accounts for 130 calories. Totally makes it!!