Cobb Salad

I love a good salad, have I mentioned that before?  They are easy to make and can be as hearty or as light as you wish.  This Cobb salad is a great, hearty meal to take to work when you make everything in advance.  You simply throw it together and head out the door.  For a weeknight meal, it is a little bit of prep work but you can prep through step 6 at any point and then refrigerate until ready to eat. 

Cobb salad

• homemade ranch dressing
• 1 lb bacon, chopped
• 6 eggs
• 1 lb chicken breasts, trimmed of fat
• 1 cup blue cheese or Gorgonzola crumbles
• 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
• 2 tomatoes, diced
• 2 avocados, diced
• 4 romaine hearts or two heads of leafy romaine, roughly chopped

1. Mix up some homemade ranch dressing as much in advance as possible.  If you don’t want to make it completely from scratch, the packet dressing mix is still better than the thick bottled stuff.
2. Heat a grill pan or frying pan over medium heat.  Add oil to coat the bottom.
3. Salt and pepper both sides of chicken breasts then grill or pan-fry until cooked through, about 1o minutes per side if thick.
4. Cook your chopped bacon over medium heat until well browned and crisp.
5. While chicken and bacon are cooking, add eggs and enough cold water to cover them in a medium pot.  Bring to a rolling boil then cover and remove from heat.  Let stand ten minutes, then rinse eggs under cold water.
6. Drain bacon, remove chicken to a cutting board to rest, and peel and slice hard boiled eggs.
7. Toss lettuce with enough dressing to coat (if desired, or serve dressing alongside).
8. Roughly chop chicken breast.
9. Arrange on top of each plate or bowl of lettuce a row each of chicken breast, bacon, eggs, blue cheese, tomato, avocado, and red onion.
10. Serve!