Cobb Salad with Ranch Recipe

There’s no salad more satisfying (read: filling!) than a Cobb. With a base of leafy lettuce and a rainbow of toppings including grilled chicken, bacon, hard-boiled eggs, tomatoes, avocado and blue cheese, it’s everything you could ask for in an easy meal. Oh, and don’t forget the ranch!

Let’s be honest: salad can be boring. Really boring. In my opinion, the key to a great salad is plenty of different textural and flavor components. Instead of just raw vegetables, I like to incorporate some roasted vegetable component. Proteins always add plenty of texture and flavor, plus they have the added benefit of making the salad more filling! Grilled chicken, salmon, shrimp, even chickpeas or black beans – they all add more heft to a green salad.

A classic Cobb Salad has multiple sources of protein, including hard-boiled eggs, grilled chicken and even some bacon! To make things a bit easier and quicker to prep, we suggest buying pre-grilled chicken from the store. Or, grill it ahead of time and store in the fridge so you don’t have to do it while assembling the salad.

Let’s chat hard-boiled eggs quickly. Nobody wants an overcooked egg with a gray yolk. And is there anything more annoying than a hard-boiled egg that’s impossible to peel? The key is to slightly undercook the egg (I usually do 8-10 minutes in boiling water), then immediately transfer to an ice bath. Alternatively, you can run the eggs under cold water for about a minute. Either way, the important part is to stop the cooking process so the eggs don’t overcook!

While your eggs are boiling, grab a skillet, dice a few pieces of bacon and get them going over medium-high heat. In just a few minutes, you’ll have perfectly crispy bacon bits! Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon so you don’t get too much grease. You can also pat dry with a paper towel to remove any excess grease.

The remaining components are easy to assemble. Start with a bed of Fresh Express® Sweet Butter Lettuce. It’s the perfect choice – tender, leafy, and pre-chopped! Then, halve some NatureSweet® Cherubs® Tomatoes. They’re perfect for snacking and, of course, adding to your favorite salads. So fresh tasting!

Grab a ripe avocado, slice it up and add to the salad just before eating. Blue cheese is optional, but encouraged! Litehouse® Blue Cheese Crumbles are the perfect choice.

Last but certainly not least is dressing. A traditional Cobb Salad is made with a red wine vinaigrette, but you know what’s even better? Ranch. Litehouse® Homestyle Ranch brings this delicious Cobb Salad together. It’s creamy, flavorful, and perfectly complements the chicken, bacon and eggs!

Whip up this salad for dinner, or prepare all of the ingredients and assemble for a quick lunch. However you enjoy it, it will most definitely convince you that salad doesn’t have to be boring after all!