Growing up in the wild heat of Sacramento summers, cobb salad was a staple in my household. It wasn’t always made with the classic ingredients (read: it was an easy way to clean out the fridge), but this salad was my mom and I’s go-to, too-hot-to-cook dinner when neither one of us could bear standing in the kitchen for more than 15 minutes. Traditionally, the base of a cobb starts with a bed of lettuce and then all the toppings—the usual players include chicken, bacon, blue cheese, hard-boiled eggs, and tomatoes—are lined up in neat rows, and drizzled with a tangy red wine vinaigrette.
My Tex-Mex-inspired version keeps the chicken, swaps in queso fresco for the blue cheese, and dials up the veggies with lots of heirloom tomatoes, radishes, corn, and avocado. But, Asha, where’s the bacon!? As much as it pained me, I omitted the bacon bits for extra crunchy vegetables (standing over the stove and cooking bacon felt like too much on top of grilling the chicken in Sacramento’s 107°F heat when I was visiting last week!). BUT, if bacon is required for you to call this a cobb salad, feel free to cook up a few slices! Bacon and chicken aside, this Southwest Cobb can easily be made vegetarian, too—see my tips in the footnote of the recipe.
It wouldn’t be summer Big Salad Energy without a killer dressing. Vivacious, herbaceous, and tangy to the max, this tomatillo ranch is a mix of boiled tomatillos, buttermilk, sour cream, lime zest, lime juice, serrano peppers for a kick of heat, garlic powder, dehydrated onion flakes, and a touch of dill. This recipe is for paid subscribers only—subscribe now for access to this recipe and the full archive of From Head to Table recipes.
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