Chicken Cobb Salad With Chipotle Ranch & Grilled Pineapple
Looking for a tasty twist on the classic Cobb salad? Try my dairy-free and paleo-friendly chicken Cobb salad with chipotle ranch dressing and grilled pineapple. This hearty and satisfying dish is bursting with flavors and colors, making it perfect for a main meal or a potluck dish at your next picnic, barbecue, or dinner party.
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Why Is it Called A Cobb Salad?
Curious about the origins of the Cobb salad? Legend has it that Robert Howard Cobb, owner of the Brown Derby restaurant in Hollywood, CA, whipped up this salad in 1937 using leftover ingredients and French dressing. Since then, the Cobb salad has become a popular dish with numerous variations, often served in a layered fashion on a platter.
Cobb Salad Ingredients
The traditional Cobb salad features chopped salad greens like iceberg, watercress, endives, and romaine lettuce, along with tomato, crispy bacon, chicken breast, hard-boiled eggs, avocado, chives or scallions, blue cheese, and a red-wine vinaigrette.
While there are many versions of the Cobb salad, my Whole30 and paleo cobb salad adds a Tex Mex twist with seasoned chicken, caramelized grilled pineapple, and a creamy chipotle ranch dressing. This dairy-free option skips the cheese, but feel free to add blue or Cheddar if desired.
Step-by-step photos for this salad can be found below the recipe card.
How To Make Chicken Cobb Salad (Photos)
Follow these step-by-step photos to recreate the recipe below.
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Indulge in this delicious and healthy chicken Cobb salad with chipotle ranch dressing and sweet grilled pineapple. This dairy-free, gluten-free, and paleo-friendly dish is packed with colors and flavors, making it a satisfying main meal option.
For the chipotle ranch dressing
If using eggs in this salad, pop them in a pot of boiling water and cook for 7 minutes for hard-boiled (with a slightly jammy yolk). Once done, strain and place the eggs in cold water for a couple of minutes. Set aside.
Cut the chicken breasts into three pieces (cut the thicker part into two thinner pieces and cut off the tenderloin). Place on a cutting board or a plate and season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika, and cumin. Massage spices into the meat on both sides and set aside.
Heat a large frying pan with a couple of tablespoons of oil (macadamia, avocado, coconut, or olive oil) over medium-high heat. Once hot, add the chicken pieces and cook for 5 minutes on each side. The thicker pieces might need 6-7 minutes, or you might even need to cut them a little thinner. Once cooked, allow the meat to rest for a few minutes before slicing into bite-size pieces.
While the chicken is cooking, prepare the pineapple. Peel off the skin and remove any brown bits. Cut through the middle into quarters and then cut each quarter into 5-7mm slices. Heat another frying pan with a little oil over medium-high heat. Add pineapple slices and cook for 2-3 minutes on each side until charred. Remove to a bowl.
The final bit of cooking is bacon. Pan-fry until crispy, pat excess oil onto some paper towel and dice into chunky cubes or strips. Set aside.
Whisk all chipotle ranch dressing ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
Now that our cooked ingredients and the ranch dressing are ready, prepare the fresh salad ingredients such as lettuce, cherry tomatoes, peppers, onions, and avocado. Peel and cut the eggs into quarters or halves. If making this salad ahead of time, you can pre-cook the protein and pineapple and keep those in the fridge overnight.
Let's build the salad. Start with a bed of lettuce and place sliced chicken in four separate piles. Arrange the sliced peppers all over. Place the remaining ingredients in small piles evenly around the chicken: grilled pineapple, bacon, diced avocado, eggs, cherry tomatoes, and sliced red onion. You can also arrange it in strips on a longer platter, which is a very classic way to build a Cobb salad; each food is placed on its strip.
By the way, you can also mix it all in a large bowl.
For the dressing, you can use chipotle peppers from a can such as these or chopped chipotle puree like this. Smoked paprika works well as well.
Calories: 558kcal | Carbohydrates: 31g | Protein: 42g | Fat: 31g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 9g | Monounsaturated Fat: 12g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 270mg | Sodium: 1169mg | Potassium: 1493mg | Fiber: 10g | Sugar: 16g | Vitamin A: 14627IU | Vitamin C: 92mg |
