Chicken Cobb Salad
This delicious Chicken Cobb Salad is full of crunchy bacon, creamy blue cheese crumbles, juicy tomatoes, and perfectly cooked hard-boiled eggs. Drizzle with the red wine vinaigrette for the most flavorful salad ever!
Cobb Salad with Chicken
This cobb salad with chicken is the go-to choice for a healthy, filling meal! If you often equate “salad” with “rabbit food,” this cobb salad is going to have you happily surprised! Sure, there’s still a bed of crisp romaine lettuce, juicy tomatoes, and red onions… But there’s also crunchy bacon, creamy avocado, creamy hard-boiled eggs, and tangy blue cheese. The red wine vinaigrette perfectly brightens up the entire salad and pulls it together into a dish you’re going to want to have on repeat!
Why You’ll Love it:
- Healthy – A cobb salad is a great way to incorporate more vegetables into your diet. It’s low in carbs (especially if you swap out the honey for sugar-free maple in the dressing) and works for tons of different types of diets.
- Super Filling – The combination of protein (from the chicken, bacon, eggs, and cheese), fat (avocado, cheese, bacon, and dressing), and fiber (lettuce, red onions, and avocado) are great at keeping you full for hours and hours.
- Meal Prep Friendly – While you don’t want to assemble these salads ahead of time, it’s easy to prep these for quick go-to meals for the week. Scroll down to read some easy tips for prepping salads for healthy readymade lunches.
Chicken Cobb Salad Ingredients
Here’s a quick overview of what you’ll need for this chicken salad recipe. Find exact measurements in the printable recipe card at the bottom of the page.
- Chicken Breasts – I used two 10-ounce breasts. If yours are uneven or unusually thick, feel free to butterfly them so that they will cook quicker and more evenly. If you prefer chicken thighs, those will work great in this as well.
- You’ll rub the chicken with your preferred oil (I used olive oil), then season the chicken with garlic powder, onion powder, and Italian seasoning.
- Romaine Lettuce – Perfect for a good crunch, and it holds up well if you’re prepping these salads in advance. Feel free to use iceberg, butter, or your favorite variety.
- Cherry Tomatoes (halved), Blue Cheese (crumbled), Hard-Boiled Eggs (sliced), Cooked Bacon (chopped), Red Onion (sliced), Avocado (sliced), and Chives (chopped) – You can leave out or swap these ingredients if you’d like. If you want a traditional cobb salad, you could omit the red onion and chives. Scallions would be a great addition as well.
- For the dressing, you’ll need Avocado Oil, Red Wine Vinegar, Honey*, Garlic Powder, Dijon Mustard, Onion Powder, Salt, and Pepper. If you’re watching your carbs, swap out the honey for sugar-free maple syrup.
BACON TIP: If you need to cook bacon quickly, try it in the air fryer! It’s fast, easy, and doesn’t leave bacon grease all over the kitchen.
How to make the BEST Cobb Salad
This easy, traditional salad recipe is simple and quick to make! Here’s a step-by-step guide to making this flavorful lunch or dinner.
Season & Cook Chicken
First, toss your chicken in the garlic powder, onion powder, and Italian seasoning. Set it aside while you warm up a grill pan or skillet to medium heat on the stove. Once hot, add in the chicken and cook for about 6-7 minutes per side. When it’s cooked through and the chicken reaches 165 degrees F, remove from skillet and allow to cool on a plate.
Make Dressing
While the chicken is cooking, bring out your dressing ingredients. Add them all to a small bowl and whisk until incorporated, or pour it all into a mason jar, close it tight, and shake vigorously. Set this aside for now.
Assemble Salads
Slice your cooled chicken, then assemble your salads. Add 1 cup of lettuce to each bowl, then add in 1/6th of the chicken, tomatoes, blue cheese, hard-boiled eggs, avocado, and red onion. Drizzle with the dressing, then sprinkle with chopped chives (or parsley if you prefer it), and serve!
What to serve with cobb salad
We enjoyed this cobb salad with a Keto Dinner Roll and a few leftover Spinach Stuffed Mushrooms for a super filling, low-carb meal that we loved.
- Baked Potatoes – You can save time by making them in the air fryer or Instant Pot! It’s a great way to stretch this meal further on a budget, and they’re easy to pack for lunch. Sweet Potatoes are a good option, too.
- Fritters – These easy Corn Fritters are delicious and work well with a salad! Use up that good garden squash with these low-carb Zucchini Fritters.
- Bread – A warm slice of Gouda Jalapeno Bread or a Cheddar Cornbread Muffin would be perfect with a salad! These Garlic Bread Chaffles or Zucchini Breadsticks are great keto options if you’re watching your carbs.
- Soup – Adding a cup of tomato soup with salad instantly makes it a comforting meal! Cheesy Potato Soup or this Keto Mushroom Soup would be perfect, too.
Storage Instructions
It’s always best to store a salad like this with the components separated. Romaine lettuce will easily wilt with moisture, so consider using compartmentalized containers like these to easily keep things fresh. The chicken should be fine in the fridge up to 3-4 days, or you could make several batches and freeze them for storage up to 6 months.
Meal Prep Salad Tips:
- Only slice what you need. It’s convenient to go ahead and slice all of the chicken at once, then distribute into containers. However, chicken dries out quicker once it’s sliced. If you’re prepping salads for 4 days, I recommend only slicing enough for 1-2 dayss, then leaving the remaining chicken breasts whole to slice later.
- Keep chicken juicy. Another way to prevent the sliced chicken from drying out is to store each portion of sliced chicken with 1-2 teaspoons of chicken broth.
- Keep bacon crispy. When you’re batch cooking bacon for salads, you want to try to preserve the crispy texture. To do this, make sure to blot excessive grease with paper towels and allow bacon to cool completely before placing in an airtight container in the fridge.
- Don’t peel eggs until you’re ready. While hard-boiled eggs can be cooked up to one week ahead of time, they only stay fresh that long if you keep them in the shell. If you’re making salads for the week, just peel and slice one of the eggs, allowing the second egg to stay nice and fresh for the last half of the week.
- Keep lettuce fresh. Chopped romaine will stay fresh for a week in the fridge if you store it loosely (not packed) in an airtight container with a paper towel (to absorb moisture). Supposedly you can breathe into the container right before storing it to slow down spoilage–The carbon dioxide from our exhalation is supposed to keep lettuce fresh longer.
If you like this healthy recipe, you’ve got to try these salads!
- Buffalo Chicken Cobb Salad – If you want to add a crunchy, tangy twist, you’ll love this cobb salad with keto buffalo chicken tenders!
- Spicy Thai Salad with Chicken – We loved the (sadly) discontinued Panera salad so much, we had to make a copycat recipe for it! You will LOVE the peanut dressing!
- Kale Salad with Pecan Chicken – This healthy salad is brightened with juicy blueberries and blackberries, and the creamy gouda perfectly complements the vinaigrette.
- Italian Chopped Salad – If you don’t want to cook for your meal prep this week, this charcuterie-based salad is perfect for you!
- Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad – This classic chicken salad has that tasty, tangy dressing that is perfect with juicy chicken and salty parmesan!
Chicken Cobb Salad
Ingredients
Chicken:
- 2 large chicken breasts butterflied if they're very thick
- 2 tbsp oil
- 2 tbsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp onion powder
- ½ tsp Italian seasoning
Dressing:
- ½ cup avocado oil
- ¼ cup red wine vinegar
- 1 ½ tsp honey or sugar-free maple syrup if low-carb/keto
- ¾ tsp garlic powder
- ½ tsp Dijon mustard
- ½ tsp onion powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- ⅛ tsp pepper
Salad:
- 6 cups romaine lettuce chopped
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes halved
- ½ cup bleu cheese crumbled
- 2 hard-boiled eggs sliced
- 4 slices bacon cooked and chopped
- 1 large avocado sliced
- ½ red onion sliced
- 2 tbsp chopped chives
Instructions
- In a large bowl, toss the chicken in garlic powder, onion powder, and Italian seasoning and set aside.
- Heat the 2 tbsp oil in a grill pan or skillet over medium heat. Add the chicken, and cook for 6-7 minutes per side, or until cooked through and the chicken reaches 165 degrees. Set aside on a plate and allow to cool. Once cooled, slice the chicken.
- Meanwhile, stir together the dressing ingredients in a small bowl or mason jar and set aside.
- Assemble the salads equally with the cooked chicken, lettuce, tomatoes, bleu cheese, eggs, bacon, avocado and red onion. Drizzle with the dressing and sprinkle with chopped chives or parsley. Serve!
Notes
Store leftover dressing in the fridge for up to a week! This recipe makes 6 salads, and each one has 6.2 net carbs when the dressing is made with sugar-free maple syrup.
