Classic Cobb Salad

About This Recipe

The Cobb salad is one of the great American restaurant salads — a visually dramatic, deeply satisfying arrangement of precisely chopped ingredients laid in parallel rows over crisp romaine lettuce: grilled chicken, crispy bacon, hard-boiled egg, creamy avocado, ripe tomato, crumbled blue cheese and sliced olives, finished with a red wine vinaigrette. It was created at the Brown Derby restaurant in Hollywood, California, in 1937 and became the defining salad of mid-century American dining. What sets the Cobb apart from ordinary salads is the discipline of preparation — every component is individually prepped and arranged in neat rows, so diners can see exactly what they're getting and choose their own combination with each forkful. The blue cheese dressing or red wine vinaigrette must be applied at the table, allowing diners to dress their portion as they prefer. This is a main-course salad that requires no apologies for being a salad — it is deeply satisfying, nutritionally complete, and beautiful on a large platter. It is perfect for entertaining because most components can be prepped ahead and the final assembly takes minutes. It represents American cuisine at its best: pragmatic, generous, unfussy and genuinely delicious.

Ingredients

Serves 4

• 2 headsromaine lettuce(chopped)
• 2 cupsgrilled chicken breast(diced)
• 8 stripsthick-cut bacon(cooked and crumbled)
• 4 largeeggs(hard-boiled and diced)
• 2ripe avocados(diced)
• 2large tomatoes(seeded and diced)
• ½ cupblue cheese(crumbled (Roquefort or Gorgonzola))
• ¼ cupblack olives(sliced)
• 3 tbspred wine vinegar
• 1 tspDijon mustard
• 1 clovegarlic(minced)
• 6 tbspextra-virgin olive oil
• salt and black pepper(to taste)

Instructions

1. 1

   Prep all components

   Grill chicken, cook bacon, hard-boil eggs, dice avocado (toss with lemon juice to prevent browning), dice tomatoes. All components can be prepped up to 4 hours ahead and refrigerated.

2. 2

   Make the vinaigrette

   Whisk red wine vinegar, Dijon, garlic, salt and pepper. Slowly whisk in olive oil until emulsified.

3. 3

   Arrange the salad

   Spread chopped romaine on a large platter. Arrange all toppings in separate parallel rows: chicken, bacon, egg, avocado, tomato, blue cheese, olives.

   The row arrangement is what makes a Cobb a Cobb. Each row should be clearly distinct in color and texture.

4. 4

   Dress and serve

   Drizzle vinaigrette over the salad just before serving. Alternatively, serve dressing on the side and let diners dress their own portions.

Variations

• •

  Turkey Cobb: substitute grilled turkey for chicken.

• •

  Shrimp Cobb: grilled gulf shrimp in place of chicken with an avocado-lime dressing.

• •

  Vegan Cobb: replace animal proteins with chickpeas, smoked tofu, baked tempeh and cashew blue cheese.

Storage

Dress the salad just before serving. Prepped individual components keep refrigerated up to 2 days (except avocado, which should be cut fresh).

Frequently Asked Questions