This chicken cobb salad is chock full of all of the typical cobb salad ingredients (hard boiled eggs, bacon, avocado, tomatoes, pickled onions) but topped with the most delicious, herby, creamy green goddess salad dressing. It’s delicious as a light dinner or prepped for a week’s worth of lunches!
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This recipe is…
This chicken cobb salad is not your average salad. Like most cobbs, it’s loaded with filling, delicious ingredients, but unlike other cobbs, it’s topped with the most delicious, creamy, herby green goddess salad dressing in existence!
This recipe is perfect for dinner but EVEN BETTER for an easy, grab-and-go, meal prepped lunch. Just store your dressing separately, and voila!, you’ve got one heck of a lunch ready for you each day.
If you’re looking for more meal prep lunch recipes, we’ve got you. These harissa honey chicken bowls are insanely delicious, these garlic parmesan chicken skewers are the perfect lunch paired next to fluffy quinoa and roasted green beans, and these beef gyros were an instant favorite around here.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- It’s perfect for meal prep – if you love a good meal prep recipe, this is for you. If you package the dressing separately, the rest of the salad will stay nice and crisp in the fridge for the week!
- It’s delicious – I love a good cobb salad as it is, but add this green goddess salad dressing to the mix, and wow, this salad is as good as it gets.
- It’s filling – raise your hand if you’re tired of boring salads that leave you hungry shortly after eating (I am!). This salad is anything but that! It’s not only delicious but also super filling.
Green Goddess Salad Recipe Ingredients
You’ll need a handful of ingredients for the green goddess salad dressing and then ingredients for the salad itself. Find ingredient notes (including substitutions and swaps) below.
- Tarragon – the green goddess dressing calls for fresh tarragon, but it can be really tricky to find, so if you’re having trouble finding it, skip it. The dressing will still be every bit as delicious!
- Mayonnaise – when it comes to mayo, we always opt for avocado oil mayo. Primal Kitchen and Chosen Foods both make great avocado oil mayo options!
- Chicken breasts – feel free to use chicken thighs, chicken tenders, leftover shredded chicken, or shredded rotisserie chicken instead of chicken breasts, if you’d prefer!
- Hard boiled eggs – follow our fail-proof hard boiled egg recipe for the perfect eggs.
- Pickled red onions – we made homemade pickled red onions, but you can absolutely buy a jar of them at the grocery store, if you’d like.
A full ingredient list with exact amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
Recipe Variations and Modifications
- Use a different dressing – I think that the green goddess dressing in this recipe steals the show and completely elevates the salad, but if it isn’t your thing, feel free to use any dressing you love. A simple homemade ranch dressing would be great, as would any of your store-bought favorites.
- Make it dairy-free – skip the yogurt (or sour cream) in the dressing and use extra mayo in its place, or, if you have a dairy-free yogurt/sour cream that you love, use that instead of the regular Greek yogurt.
- Make it grain-free – this recipe is grain-free as written, so no modifications needed.
- Make it gluten-free – same as above, this recipe is gluten-free as-is.
- Make it egg-free – skip the hardboiled eggs and use vegan mayo in this recipe to keep the entire thing egg-free.
How to Make a Green Goddess Salad
This recipe is incredibly easy to make! Follow along below.
Step 1: Put the parsley, tarragon, chives, lemon juice, mayonnaise, and sour cream (or Greek yogurt) into a blender and blend until smooth.
Step 2: Brush the olive oil over the chicken and then sprinkle with the salt and pepper. Cook over medium/high heat for 5-6 minutes on each side, cooking until the inner-most portion of the chicken reaches 165°F. Let it rest for 10 minutes, then slice into bite-sized strips.
Step 3: Assemble the salad by tossing the mixed greens with the romaine lettuce. Top with the tomatoes, avocado, chicken, pickled onions, egg, bacon, and dressing.
Recipe Tips
Make this recipe even easier by using leftover shredded chicken (or make your own shredded chicken in the Instant Pot) or shredded chicken from a rotisserie chicken.
How to Serve
This salad is a complete and delicious meal all on its own! It’s perfect for a summer dinner or for a tasty meal prepped lunch.
How to Store
If you’re making these salads ahead for the week, go ahead and store the greens, sliced chicken, tomatoes, avocados, pickled onions, hard boiled eggs, and bacon together in lunch containers. Then, store the dressing in separate, small containers. When it’s time to grab your lunch and head out the door, you’ll grab one salad container and one dressing container. Dress the salad just before eating and enjoy!
If you made this salad dinner-style and you have leftovers, feel free to store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. Because the salad is already dressed, expect the salad greens to be a little more wilted than when it was fresh.
Frequently Asked Questions
Cobb salads vary a bit depending on what restaurant you’re ordering from (or what recipe you’re looking at), but generally, they all include hard boiled eggs, bacon, tomatoes, and chopped avocado.
Cobb salads typically include high-fat ingredients like eggs, avocado, and bacon, making the salad higher in calories than other salads.
A few ways you could lighten up this Cobb salad are:
– Skip the egg yolks on the hard boiled eggs, using only the whites.
– Use full-fat Greek yogurt in lieu of the mayo + sour cream for the dressing. Note that this swap would also increase the protein content!
– Omit the bacon and/or avocado.
More Favorite Salad Recipes
If you tried this Green Goddess Salad or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below!
Green Goddess Salad Recipe
Ingredients
For the Green Goddess Dressing
- ½ cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, leaves and stems
- ¼ cup fresh tarragon leaves
- 4 fresh chives
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice (juice from about 1 small lemon)
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- ¼ cup sour cream or Greek yogurt
For the Salad
- 1¼ pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 5 cups mixed greens
- 1 head romaine lettuce, chopped
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 avocados, quartered
- ½ cup pickled red onions, store-bought or homemade pickled onions
- 2 hard boiled eggs, halved
- 6 ounces bacon, cooked and chopped
Instructions
- Put the parsley, tarragon, chives, lemon juice, mayonnaise, and sour cream (or Greek yogurt) into a blender and blend until smooth.
- Brush the olive oil over the chicken and then sprinkle with the salt and pepper. Cook over medium/high heat for 5-6 minutes on each side, cooking until the inner-most portion of the chicken reaches 165°F. Let it rest for 10 minutes, then slice into bite-sized strips.
- Assemble the salad by tossing the mixed greens with the romaine lettuce. Top with the tomatoes, avocado, chicken, pickled onions, egg, bacon, and dressing.
Recipe Notes
- Use a different dressing – I think that the green goddess dressing in this recipe steals the show and completely elevates the salad, but if it isn’t your thing, feel free to use any dressing you love. A simple homemade ranch dressing would be great, as would any of your store-bought favorites.
- Make this recipe even easier by using leftover shredded chicken (or make your own shredded chicken in the Instant Pot) or shredded chicken from a rotisserie chicken.
Nutrition
Quick question! Is this 926 calories per serving? Thanks!