CEiMB: Cobb Salad

I am a Cobb salad connoisseur. Big time. Obsessively.

Yet, for some reason, I've never made one at home. I attribute that to the long list of ingredients. But I know that if I did keep everything on hand, I would probably eat a Cobb salad daily.

Needless to say, I was pretty excited to try this recipe. Plus, it hot as an oven here right now (101 degrees yesterday, a virtual inferno for us tender Pacific Northwesterners), so a salad was a perfect dish to 'cook' (or not cook).

Though I did have to boil some eggs. That was rough.

I made a few substitutions. First of all, I do not like ham. I simply need BACON on my Cobb salad. Sorry. It's true and it's an abomination to leave out the bacon. End of story.

And, I used lettuce from my garden, which is butter, I believe, and used spinach in lieu of watercress to up the nutrition factor.

Here is the original recipe.

Here's my version:

For the Dressing:

3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon Dijon Mustard
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 small clove garlic, microplaned
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For the salad:

5 strips bacon, crumbled
2 hard-boiled eggs
6 cups butter lettuce (about 6 ounces) torn into bite sized pieces
2 cups baby spinach
2 medium tomatoes, seeded and diced (about 2 cups)
1/2 avocado, diced (about 3/4 cup)
1 cup cooked diced chicken breast 1 (6-ounce) breast
1/2 cup crumbled Roquefort or Blue cheese (about 2 ounces)

Directions In a small bowl, whisk together all of the dressing ingredients and set aside.

Remove and discard the yolk from 1 of the hard boiled eggs. Chop the remaining egg white and whole egg and set aside.

In a large bowl toss the lettuce and spinach with 2/3 of the dressing. Put the dressed greens onto a large serving dish. Place the tomatoes on top forming a row down the middle. In strips on either side of the tomatoes place the avocado, chicken, cheese, diced egg, and the bacon on top of the greens. Drizzle with the remaining dressing and serve.

So, I have to admit I'm not crazy about the dressing. I like a blue cheese dressing with my Cobb. I think what threw me off was the Worcestershire - I usually love it, but it was a little too strong in the dressing.

That said, overall, very good salad. A good staple recipe to pull out on hot days.

A few notes:

- I did my bacon on the grill - 300 degrees, flipping every 5 minutes. This got rid of a ton of fat, the bacon was super crispy, and my house didn't smell like a Denney's.

- Use a rotisserie chicken! I was so glad I picked one up, there was no way I wanted to cook chicken in this heat!

P.S. Excuse my picture. I was ravenous and couldn't be bothered to take a proper, in focus photo!