This barbecued chicken cobb salad is the main dish salad your whole family will love. Tangy grilled chicken slathered in barbecue sauce, crisp smoky bacon, diced avocado, veggies and dehydrated corn for crunch. Trust me, everyone will be asking for seconds!
Barbecued Chicken Cobb Salad
I love cobb salads. A variety of delicious ingredients, almost always including chicken, bacon and avocado, laid out in pretty sections over a bed of lettuce, what’s not to like? And this barbecued chicken cobb salad is a great twist on the classic. The tangy barbecued chicken is a perfect summer update. And there’s a new, fun ingredient to add crunch and sweetness, dehydrated corn! Trust me, you’ll love it and you can find it in your produce section.
Have you ever wondered why it’s called a cobb salad? Most experts (are there really salad experts?) agree that the cobb salad was first made in 1937 at the Hollywood Brown Derby restaurant in Los Angeles. The chef named it after the restaurant’s owner, Robert Cobb. Mystery solved!
The Cobb Ingredients
This salad is full of grilled chicken in spicy barbecue sauce (or not spicy, your choice), diced avocado, hard boiled eggs, diced cheese, smoky bacon, scallions and corn. And yes, that’s the dehydrated corn we were talking about! If you haven’t tried dehydrated corn, you are going to love it as a salad topper. It adds a nice sweetness and crunch to the dish. You can order it online, or find it in the produce section of your grocery store, usually where the raisins and that kind of stuff are sold.
If you list the classic ingredients in a cobb salad, it’s pretty easy to see why it’s so universally popular. Bacon, eggs and avocado to name just three! Diced chicken breast is another classic ingredient on most cobb salads, so when I was thinking of how to prepare the chicken, I thought that grilled chicken glazed with spicy barbecue sauce would be perfect. And it gave me another reason to use the most delicious bottled barbecue sauce I’ve ever had, Trader Joe’s sriracha and roasted garlic BBQ sauce. If you haven’t tried it, I highly recommend it! Otherwise, use your favorite store bought or homemade barbecue sauce.
Get Grilling
Because cobb salads use chicken breast meat, you’ll want to make sure they’re cooked quickly, evenly and stay tender. To help achieve this, I put each piece of chicken in-between sheets of plastic wrap, then pound them with a meat tenderizer. You can also use a heavy saucepan, or even a rolling pin or can to do this. Because you’re pounding the chicken breasts before grilling them, you won’t have that annoying thing happen where the small end is over-cooked and dry, while the thicker, bigger end isn’t even cooked through. It’s a small step, but makes a huge difference. It also helps to tenderize the breast meat, which can get tough. And a bonus is that you can work out some aggression. #gamechanger
After pounding the chicken, you can see how even it is. This will cook up beautifully even.
To cook the chicken I used a grill pan, but this is even better on an outdoor grill if you feel like hanging out on the patio. Start your grilling without barbecue sauce, then when the chicken is almost done, start basting with the sauce. This way the sauce won’t burn before the chicken is cooked through. I love my silicone basting brush for grilling, it’s safe to use in high heat cooking and won’t leave little fibers behind the way traditional basting brushes can.
Besides grilling the chicken, the only other cooking you’ll need to do for the barbecued chicken cobb salad is to fry the bacon and hard boil the eggs. Once you have your ingredients prepped, you can start your assembly. First put your chopped lettuce into a shallow serving bowl (you want to see the layers!). Next you’ll start layering your ingredients over the top. Cobb salads are known for the way the ingredients are kept separate on top of the lettuce, creating a beautifully delicious effect. Make sure you let everyone see your hard work before you toss the salad and serve!
Beautiful and Delicious
And finally, what can make or break a beautiful salad? The dressing of course. In my opinion, avocado ranch dressing works perfectly here! The ranch flavors compliment the tangy barbecued chicken, and pretty much everything else in the world. Seriously, put ranch dressing on anything and it’s delicious, right?
So get grilling! You’ll convert even the salad haters in your house with this barbecued chicken cobb salad.
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Barbecued Chicken Cobb Salad
- Yield: 6-8 1x
Description
This barbecued chicken cobb salad is the main dish salad your whole family will love. Tangy grilled chicken slathered in barbecue sauce, crisp smoky bacon, diced avocado, veggies and dehydrated corn for crunch. Trust me, everyone will be asking for seconds!
Ingredients
- 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 1/2 cup barbecue sauce, your favorite brand, or homemade
- 8 cups chopped lettuce, I used romaine
- 6 strips of bacon, fried crisp and chopped
- 1 ripe avocado, diced
- 2 hard boiled eggs, peeled and diced
- 6 scallions (green onions), white and light green parts, sliced
- 1/2 cup freeze dried corn, or thawed, frozen roasted corn kernels
- 1 cup cheddar or cojack cheese, small dice
Instructions
- Pound the chicken breasts to an even thickness. Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper. Grill for 5 minutes on each side, then start basting with the barbecue sauce. Grill until the chicken is cooked through. Set aside to rest for 10-15 minutes. Once the chicken is cool, dice into large pieces.
- While the chicken is grilling, fry the bacon until crisp, then chop into large pieces. Try not to eat all the bacon – it’s for the salad!
- Place your chopped lettuce in your serving bowl and start layering your ingredients over the top.
- Let everyone see your hard work before you toss the salad and serve!
Notes
Avocado ranch dressing is perfect with this salad, but honey mustard and blue cheese are also good options.
