Cobb Salad
This classic Cobb Salad is a big, filling salad chock full of your favorite flavors! I’m going to go on the record and say that I am not into dainty salads. If I’m going to eat a salad as a meal, I want a big salad full of tasty, hearty mix-ins. This Cobb Salad is that type of salad! Full of chicken, salty bacon, creamy avocado, hard-boiled eggs, and juicy tomatoes and tossed in red wine vinaigrette, this salad is sure to satisfy. It makes a great lunch or dinner for just 282 calories or 3 WW (Weight Watchers) Points! To view your current WW Points for this recipe and track it in the WW app or site, click here!
I kept my version of the Cobb Salad pretty classic, though I did decide against adding the traditional crumbled blue cheese. I personally like blue cheese, but I know it’s a polarizing ingredient. With the richness of the avocado and bacon, I don’t really feel like the salad needs it. If you feel like it’s missing, feel free to toss some blue cheese crumbles on top! This will of course change the nutrition information and WW SmartPoints listed below.
What type of cooked chicken works best?
You’ll want to make sure you’re using cooked chicken breast without the skin, but many different preparation methods will suit. This salad is a great way to use leftover grilled chicken breast, and I think grilled is my favorite type for salads. If I want to make chicken indoors for this salad, I’ll usually just spray a grill pan (you can also just use a skillet or griddle pan) with cooking spray and cook chicken tenderloins or thin chicken cutlets on the stovetop. Just sprinkle with salt and pepper before cooking! Alternatively, if you don’t feel like cooking chicken at all you can always buy a rotisserie breast, remove the skin and bones and chop up the meat. Any of these methods will work!
How to hard-boil an egg (stovetop or instant pot):
Stovetop: Place the raw eggs at the bottom of a large pot. Pour water in the pot until the water is 1-2 inches over the top of the eggs. Place the pot on the stovetop uncovered and turn the burner to high heat. Bring the water in the pot to a boil. When the water comes to a full boil, cover the pot with a lid and turn off the heat to the burner. Leave the pot on the burner, covered, for 11-13 minutes. While the eggs sit in the covered pot, fill a mixing bowl ¾ way with ice water. When the time is up on the eggs, use a slotted spoon to remove them from the pot and transfer them to the bowl of ice water to stop them from cooking. Leave them in the bowl of ice water for a few minutes until fully cold.
Instant Pot: Place the metal rack that came with your Instant Pot into the bottom. Pour in 1-2 cups of water. Place the uncooked eggs onto the rack in a single layer. Close the lid of your pressure cooker and make sure the steam valve is set to “sealed.” Use the manual setting to set your cooker for 5 minutes on high. Once your cooker has come to pressure and then cooked the eggs for 5 minutes, allow it to sit for five minutes with the steam valve still set to sealed for a natural release. During this time, fill a large bowl with cold ice water. After 5 minutes of natural release, turn the steam valve to “venting” to manually release any remaining pressure until the pin drops. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the eggs to the ice water. Leave them in the ice water for at least 5 minutes until fully cold.
Looking for more tasty, lightened up salad recipes? Check out my Caprese Salad, Superfood Salad, Barbecue Ranch Chicken Salad, Thai Chicken Chopped Salad with Peanut Dressing, Turkey and Pear Autumn Salad, Greek Chicken Quinoa Salad, Southwest Steak Salad, Avocado BLT Pasta Salad, Broccoli Salad, Strawberry Quinoa Salad, Taco Chicken Salad, and more in the Salads category of my recipe index.
Cobb Salad
Ingredients
- 4 slices center cut bacon
- 12 cups chopped butter lettuce or romaine lettuce
- 12 oz cooked boneless skinless chicken breast, sliced or chopped
- 2 large hard-boiled eggs, chopped
- ¾ cup chopped cherry tomatoes
- 4 oz fresh avocado, chopped
- 2 teaspoons chopped chives
- 8 tablespoons fat free red wine vinaigrette, (I used Wegmans Red Wine Vinegar dressing)
Instructions
- Cook the bacon to crisp according to package instructions. Transfer the bacon slices to paper towels to dry and then chop each slice into a separate pile.
- To build each salad, fill a salad bowl with 3 cups of lettuce and top with 3 ounces of chicken, half of a hard-boiled egg, 3 tablespoons of chopped tomatoes, an ounce of avocado and a slice worth of chopped bacon. Sprinkle with ½ teaspoon of chives and drizzle with 2 tablespoons of dressing. (Makes 4 salads)
Notes
7 per serving (PP calculated using a Weight Watchers PointsPlus calculator and the nutrition info below)
This loos absolutely delicious!
How many servings per points value?
Hi Elaine, this recipe makes 4 salads and the points listed are for each salad. Hope that helps!
I absolutely LOVE this salad!! However, I have a question, how do you pick a good avacado? Mine are either too ripe or too hard.
In response to Meg and the avocado:
Get a hard avocado and let it sit out until it gets soft enough to have a little bit of give when you press it (not too mushy), and then refrigerate it until you’re ready to use it. I can normally use mine about three days after buying a hard one. Avocados can be mysterious until once you figure out what a ready one feels like through trial and error,