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How to make cobb salad – recipe | Felicity Cloake's Masterclass

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July 5, 2026 · 1:18 PM
How to make cobb salad – recipe | Felicity Cloake's Masterclass

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Felicity Cloake’s cobb salad. Photograph: Robert Billington/The Guardian. Food stylist: Loïc Parisot.

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Felicity Cloake’s cobb salad. Photograph: Robert Billington/The Guardian. Food stylist: Loïc Parisot.

Felicity Cloake's masterclassFood

How to make cobb salad – recipe

Its origin story may be full of holes, but there’s no disputing this American classic’s status as a world beater when it comes to a tasty, satisfying salad

Felicity Cloake

Sun 5 Jul 2026 08.00 EDT

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A ccording to the US Institute for Culinary Education, the cobb salad is an embodiment of “the spirit of American ingenuity”, thanks to a strangely familiar creation myth involving a restaurateur (in this case, at Hollywood’s Brown Derby) throwing it together for a late-night snack. It’s also perfect game-day food: satisfying, flavour-packed and, crucially, easy to eat while all eyes are on the pitch.

Prep 30 min

Cook 30 min

Serves 4, and easily scaled up or down

**2 skinless chicken breasts

Salt and black pepper

2 eggs

4 rashersstreaky bacon2 heads****cos lettuce

100g watercress

2 heads****chicory

12 cherry tomatoes

100g blue cheese** (roquefort, ideally), crumbled

1 ripe avocado

1 small bunch chivesFor the dressing

½-1 tsp sugar, or honey (optional)

**3 tbsp red-wine vinegar

1 tbsp dijon mustard

1 small garlic clove

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

80ml light olive oil**, or other neutral oil

1 A note on tradition

Classically, a cobb salad contains meat and dairy. However, you could easily substitute grilled tofu (smoked would be good) or seitan, slices of grilled vegetables (courgettes, aubergine, sweet potato), artichoke hearts, toasted walnuts or drained chickpeas or beans (personally, I’d steer clear of grilled halloumi because of the blue cheese element, but to each their own).

2 Cook the chicken

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Poach the chicken breasts from cold in lightly salted water for 10-15 minutes, until they’re cooked through. Alternatively, and my preferred option, fry them in the bacon pan, so see step 5. If you go down this latter route, put the breasts between two pieces of baking paper and use a meat mallet (or similar) to bash them to a fairly even thickness. Sprinkle lightly with salt on both sides and leave for 30 minutes before cooking as in step 5.

3 Boil the eggs

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Put the eggs in a small saucepan and cover with about 3cm water. Bring to a boil over a high heat, then cover, take off the heat and leave to sit for 10 minutes (if you prefer a softer boil, give them seven minutes). Meanwhile, fill a large bowl with cold water. When the eggs’ time is up, lift them out of the pan and put in the bowl so they cool in the water.

4 Make the dressing

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Dissolve the sugar (or honey), if using, in the vinegar, add a pinch of salt, then stir this mix into the mustard. Peel and crush the garlic, stir that in, too, then add the lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce. Finally, whisk in the oil. Taste and adjust the seasoning as required.

5 Fry the bacon

Fry the bacon until crisp in a griddle or frying pan, then set aside. Its fat should have greased the pan, so if you haven’t poached the chicken breasts in step 2, cook them in the same pan for 10-15 minutes, until just done (check by cutting through one of the breasts; you’ll be slicing them later anyway, so this won’t ruin the look), turning them once halfway through. Take them off the heat and leave to rest.

6 A note on the leaves

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Photograph: Robert Billington/The Guardian. Food stylist: Loïc Parisot.

The original recipe from The Brown Derby Cookbook calls for four different leaves. Feel free to simplify my recipe further, if you like, or substitute the watercress for rocket or the chicory for shredded cabbage or something else equally crunchy. Whatever you use, wash and dry the leaves very well, then finely slice (or chop, in the case of the watercress).

7 Prep the tomatoes, cheese and chives

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Cut the cherry tomatoes in half (or use any very flavourful tomatoes and dice them instead, if need be). Crumble the blue cheese – roquefort is the classic option here, but stilton or any crumbly blue cheese will do. If you don’t care for it, consider substituting feta, a crumbly goat’s cheese or small cubes of another cheese of your choice. Roughly chop the chives.

8 Peel and chop the eggs

Peel the eggs by rolling them against a hard surface to crack the shells, then peeling them in a bowl of cold water. Dice the egg whites and crumble the yolks (or, if you’ve soft-boiled them, simply cut the peeled eggs in half). Crumble the bacon and slice the chicken. All this can be done up to a day ahead and refrigerated.

9 And assemble …

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When you’re ready to serve your cobb salad, peel and dice the avocado. Put the salad leaves and chives in a large bowl, toss with just enough dressing to coat, then arrange on a platter or divide between individual bowls. Top with lines of tomato, chicken, bacon, cheese and avocado, then season the tomato and avocado lightly. Serve with the extra dressing on the side.

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  • [Crispy01](https://profile.theguardian.com/user/id/105798786) [7 minutes ago](https://discussion.theguardian.com/comment-permalink/175078323)   [Crispy01](https://profile.theguardian.com/user/id/105798786) [7 minutes ago](https://discussion.theguardian.com/comment-permalink/175078323)      0     Thanks, Felicity, sounds great. Shame match day was yesterday. ;-) [Reply](https://profile.theguardian.com/signin?returnUrl=https://discussion.theguardian.com/comment-permalink/175078323&componentEventParams=componentType%3Didentityauthentication%26componentId%3Dsignin_to_reply_comment)

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