Serving And Storage Instructions
Like any salad, its best to serve our Cobb Salad fresh. But this salad makes a great meal prep, too, and thats the beauty of this recipe. Oh yes!
- Cook the chicken and bacon as instructed.
- Mix the dressing and keep it in a glass jar or any clean and dry airtight container. You can keep it safe in the fridge for up to three months. Notice that the dressing may separate, but thats okay just give it a little shake, and its good to go.
- Assemble the salad in an airtight container, and it will keep in the fridge for up to four days.
- Drizzle the dressing on your salad when ready to serve.
ProTip: If you intend to make the Cobb Salad ahead, dont slice the eggs and avocado just yet to prolong their shelf life. Or you can squeeze some lemon juice over sliced avocado to prevent discoloration.
Should You Toss Your Cobb Salad
Tossing your salad before serving ensures all the ingredients are evenly coated in the dressing. Scott recommends tossing the greens with vinaigrette on their own, then adding the other ingredients before drizzling on some additional dressing.
Many restaurants neatly arrange the toppings into rows on top of the lettuce, but if you want your ingredients evenly distributed, you can toss them all in a large salad bowl before plating.
The Origin Of The Cobb Salad
Cobb salad was originally created in 1937 in the Hollywood restaurant Brown Derby by the owner named Robert Cobb. The story goes that Robert Cobb was looking for a snack in the restaurants kitchen, and grabbed whatever ingredients he could find: lettuce, hard-boiled egg, avocado, tomato, chicken, onion, bacon and blue cheese. He chopped the ingredients and mixed it to make himself a quick meal, and it tasted so good that he put it on the restaurants menu, and thats how Cobb salad was born. And the rest, as they say, is history.
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Assemble The Cobb Salad
What Dressing Goes On Cobb Salad
Cobb Salad is traditionally served with a red wine vinaigrette. A vinaigrette is a great option for Cobb Salad because its super easy to make and has lots of tangy flavor to balance all the rich ingredients in the salad. But we dont have to limit ourselves here, try out these other dressing ideas!
- Creamy Buttermilk Ranch Dressing this is a personal favorite. I mean ranch is just classic with BobCobb.
- French Dressing
When I told Eric I was making a Cobb Salad recipe, I asked him what dressing he would choose to go with it. Without hesitating he answered Honey Mustard. Who am I to deny such confidence? So thats why Ive included a quick Honey Mustard Dressing in the recipe below. Ive also included the Red Wine Vinaigrette recipe in the notes.
Homemade dressings make a big impact, but if youre short on time a store bought salad dressing is going to do you just fine. Dont let some food blogger tell you what to do.
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Present Our Classic Cobb Salad Tableside Letting Guests Serve Themselves And Dress The Salad To Their Liking
This recipe for a CLASSIC COBB SALAD is famous for a good reason: it gets top marks for presentation, flavour and versatility. Read on and find out why this spectacular salad needs to make an appearance on your table in the very near future.
We know this post will be popular, so best to PIN the recipe to a favourite salad board on Pinterest. We further suggest you the recipe with friends theyre bound to love it as much as you will.
The creation of this salad has a bit of movie magic about it, as it was named after Robert Howard Cobb, owner of Hollywoods famous Brown Derby Restaurant head HERE to read the Wiki article about it. I love the way they call it a main-dish American garden salad. Remember that when you make it at home, this salad can work for brunch, lunch and dinner plans.
How To Make A Cobb Salad In Advance
This recipe makes enough toppings for eight classic Cobb salads, perfect for feeding a crowd or for meal prepping a week of lunches. Ensuring the salads stay fresh is really a matter of keeping the salad dry pack the dressing separately, and leave the avocado off until just before serving. Layering the ingredients as directed below will keep the salad fresh for several days if stored covered in the fridge until ready to eat.
Make the red wine vinaigrette.
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Measuring Vegetables For A Cobb Salad
Chopped vegetables in a Cobb salad typically include avocado and tomato. You can use approximately 1/2 cup of vegetables in total for a standard Cobb salad per person.
- 4 people = 2 cups, or 16 ounces of chopped vegetables
- 6 people = 3 cups, or 24 ounces of chopped vegetables
- 12 people = 6 cups, or 48 ounces of chopped vegetables
- 20 people = 10 cups, or 80 ounces of chopped vegetables
When calculating how many avocado slices you will need for one salad, consider the size of the Cobb salad you intend to serve. Use anywhere from 5-7 thin slices of avocado for each individual traditional standard-sized Cobb salad you make.
Brown Derby Cobb Salad History Faq
Where did Cobb Salad get its name?
One fact we know is that the first cobb salad was named after Robert Howard Cobb, the Hollywood Brown Derby restaurant’s owner. Many stories exist about how the famous salad was invented and became the signature dish.
What’s in Cobb Salad?
The Cobb Salad became iconic with Brown Derby customers and was made from 4 lettuces , hard-boiled eggs, blue cheese, tomatoes, bacon, chives, avocado, and Roquefort cheese. The Cobb Salad dressing is a French Dressing similar to a vinaigrette.
Where does Cobb Salad come from?
The famous Cobb Salad’s official story has many legends. But most agree it came out of the golden age of Hollywood and most agree that it was a late-night snack quickly tossed together with ingredients found in the Brown Derby restaurants cooler in Hollywood, California in 1937.
Who first made the Cobb Salad?
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Cobb Salad Recipe Ingredients
This salad is full of protein and packs a lot of flavor!
- Chicken: Use sliced or chopped cooked chicken breast. Leftover chicken works well here, or see below for options for how to cook the chicken.
- Hard Boiled Eggs: Cook them on the stove or make Instant Pot Hard Boiled Eggs.
- Bacon: You cant beat the savory, salty flavor that bacon brings to a salad. Cook the bacon in the oven or make Air Fryer Bacon.
- Romaine Lettuce: I love using romaine in cobb salad because its crisp texture stands up well to all of the other salad components.
- Avocado: A ripe, creamy avocado is one of my favorite salad ingredients.
- Tomatoes: Use cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes or chop up whole ripe tomatoes.
- Red Onion: Slice it thinly so that it doesnt overpower the other flavors.
- Blue Cheese: A classic cobb salad ingredient, the blue cheese packs a punch of flavor. Feel free to substitute feta cheese if you prefer.
- Fresh Parsley or Chives: Adding fresh herbs is optional, but I love the fresh pop of flavor that they bring to the salad.
Cobb Salad Recipe Variations
- My family actually prefers this with this homemade ranch instead of the vinaigrette. The vinaigrette is just more traditional. I love both, just go with what you prefer.
- Replace a few handfuls of romaine lettuce with watercress.
- Opt for a tablespoon or two of minced chives in place of red onion.
- Use cheddar cheese in place of blue cheese. Roquefort or feta are other good options.
- Hard boil eggs in water instead of steaming if you prefer that method.
- Add nuts or sunflower seeds for a light crunch.
- Finish with croutons.
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Make The Salad Dressing
Once the salad is assembled, prep the dressing. Whisk together the olive oil, Dijon mustard, red wine vinegar, and honey in a small bowl to combine. Season it with salt and pepper to taste.
Dalton notes, ” is a lovely tangy and sweet dressing,” and remarks that it “works really well with the saltiness of the bacon and the blue cheese.”
Classic Cobb Salad Recipe
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Classic Cobb Salad is just a quintessential home-bred American created salad! Its deceptively filling thanks to the array of toppings and the perfect dinner option in warm weather and when you want to use up the contents of your fridge. Its really simple to make at home too, just like my Homemade Caesar Salad and Caesar salad dressing recipes.
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Authentic Cobb Salad Tips
The Brown Derby Cobb Salad is so beloved California Food all over the United States. The original recipe was printed in the LA Times. My Mom clipped it out and made it often for our family on hot summer days in Southern California. We had it out by our pool, at the beach house, on dessert vacations and it always hit the spot…
What Youll Need To Make Cobb Salad
A traditional Cobb salad is made with lettuce, chicken, bacon, avocados, tomatoes, hard-boiled eggs, blue cheese, and red wine vinaigrette. There are various accounts of how the salad came to be, but according to most, the story goes that one night in 1937, Robert Cobb, the owner of the Brown Derby restaurant in Hollywood, CA was hungry after all the restaurant patrons had left. He went digging in the fridge late-night and pulled out a variety of leftovers lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, cheese, and hard-boiled eggs. He also grabbed some bacon to add to the mix, tossed everything together with some dressing, and created what we now know to be a Cobb salad. Supposedly, it became the one of the restaurants signature dishes.
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Get The Ingredients For This Classic Cobb Salad
For six servings, you’ll need six slices of cooked bacon , two cooked chicken breasts , and four hard-boiled eggs . Depending on how suddenly the desire for this salad hits, you may need to cook the ingredients first, or else make use of leftovers from previous meals. Dalton notes, “I like to cook the bacon beforehand, chop it up, and use it the next day for this salad.” She adds that it’s a good way to make use of leftover chicken from a meal too.
As for fresh ingredients, measure and slice 1 ½ cups of baby tomatoes, slice 2 avocados, roughly chop a head of romaine lettuce, measure out 2 cups of watercress, and ½ cup of crumbled blue cheese.
Finally, for the dressing you’ll need cup of virgin olive oil, 3 tablespoons of red wine vinegar, 1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard, 1 tablespoon of honey, and some salt and pepper to season. If that doesn’t sound quite to your liking, Dalton indicates that “you could use any of your favorite dressings” and lists ideas: “Caesar salad dressing, or a blue cheese dressing, or even a French vinaigrette.”
Recipe Tips And Tricks
- If you want to get a head start on your prep for this recipe, make some extra chicken the night before and cook your bacon ahead of time. That way you can grab everything you need from the fridge and whip up this salad whenever a craving hits!
- This salad will taste great with a variety of dressings, from blue cheese or homemade ranch to vinaigrettes. Just be sure to wait until serving to add the dressing or the lettuce will wilt and become mushy.
- Dont forget to make some hard boiled eggs ahead of time so you can add them to your salad. Cook a few extra so you can whip up some egg salad for lunch the next day.
- Season with salt and pepper. This is one of those things that everyone forgets to do but can make a huge taste difference.
- Keep all of the ingredients bite sized. You can finely chop your lettuce, but you want everything to be about the same size for the perfect bite.
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How To Calculate How Many Greens To Buy For A Cobb Salad
Calculating how much Cobb salad per person for a big group requires calculating a few ingredients separately So that you know what to buy and how much of each ingredient.
When measuring greens for individual Cobb salads, estimate that each guest who is having a Cobb salad will have 2.5 ounces or 1 cup of greens for a standard-sized salad.
For any greens you use for your Cobb salad mix, use the following measurements:
- 4 people = of greens you need 4 cups, or 10 ounces
- 6 people = of greens you need 6 cups, or 15 ounces
- 12 people = of greens you need 12 cups, or 30 ounces
- 20 people = of greens you need 20 cups, or 50 ounces of greens in total
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Cook The Bacon & Chicken
In a medium nonstick skillet over medium heat, cook the bacon.
Stir occasionally until crisp, 6 to 8 minutes.
Use a slotted spoon to transfer the bacon to a paper towel-lined plate to drain, leaving the fat in the pan.
Season the chicken with the salt and add to the bacon fat in a single layer.
Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until cooked through, 3 to 5 minutes. Using the slotted spoon, remove the chicken to a plate and set aside to cool.
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What Is Cobb Salad
At its essence, the Cobb Salad combines chicken, avocado, tomato, crumbled blue cheese , onions and hard boiled eggs with lettuce dressed with a simple vinaigrette.
Chefs have created slight recipe variations over the years. Some call for thin bacon cooked crispy. Others feature thickly sliced bacon cooked well done. French Laundry Chef Thomas Kellers recipe contains croutons.
Most chefs serve their Cobb Salads with mural-like strips of ingredients laid over a bed of greens while others present bowls that are already mixed. All chefs cut the vegetables differently depending on their preference and style.
A mouthful of Cobb Salad is a beautiful thing and, once the elements of the salad are mixed, you never know what youre going to get with each bite. After traveling the world for a few years, the taste of a Cobb Salad is something that always makes us think of the USA.
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Cobb Salad Frequently Asked Questions
What does Cobb mean in a salad?
It was named after Robert Howard Cobb the owner of the Brown Derby restaurant in Hollywood.
What makes Cobb salad different?
The difference is the ingredients used to make the salad as well as the way they are laid out in rows on a platter or plate.
What is the difference between a chef salad and a cobb salad?
Many of the ingredients are the same but the salads are plated differently. Additionally, a chefs salad often includes diced ham while a Cobb salad is usually made with cubed chicken. Also, Cobb salads include avocado and the cheese is traditionally crumbled blue cheese.
Why Is It Called A Cobb Salad
Rumor has it that the salad was invented in the late 1930s at the Brown Derby restaurant in Los Angeles, California. Owner Robert Cobb found himself hungry and surrounded by leftovers. He put a little of this and a little of that on a bed of lettuce. The resulting salad was so delicious, he shared it with his friend Sid Grauman. Grauman came back asking for the Cobb salad, and before long, it was a favorite among movie stars and celebrities.
It landed on the menu at the Brown Derby, where it was prepared tableside. Part of the appeal was the spectacle of seeing a salad come together right in front of your eyes. Today, the salad usually comes prearranged, displaying strips of ingredients that you mix together in the bowl. The visual appeal is strong, but the flavors are what really set this salad aside. Its smoky, savory, creamy, crunchy and salty, all at once.
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