Grilled Chicken Cobb Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette

This is a magical salad that works well for both lunches and dinners. It's also an incredible dinner party or brunch dish to serve, especially during the summer when you want something bright and fresh while also being filling enough. This recipe serves 2, but it easily scales for a much bigger group. For this version of a Cobb I use grilled chicken - you could sub rotisserie or poached chicken, or skip the chicken all together and just use the jammy eggs and bacon. To make this vegetarian, skip the chicken and bacon.

When I'm meal prepping this salad, I don't add avocado in advance - it will brown before you get the chance to eat it. So slice or dice and add an avocado just before eating if you'd like to add one.

The other thing I love about this salad is it can all be served cold - so it's the perfect dish to prep all the ingredients ahead and plate whenever you're ready to eat. Literally every part of the salad can be prepped ahead (soft boiling eggs, blanching green beens, cooking bacon, grilling chicken, chopping tomatoes, and making the vinaigrette). Each part of the salad can be stored in the fridge for a few days, so if you like it on night one it's great for leftover lunches later during the week or for meal prep!

When I boil the eggs (7 minutes for a perfectly jammy center), I tend to boil more than I need for the salad and use the jammy boiled eggs for a snack or quick breakfast or lunch later in the week. As long as all the eggs are submerged in the boiling water, you can cook as many of them as you like at once.

The vinaigrette for this salad is one of my favorites - a bright and acidic balsamic vinaigrette with a. little dijon. The vinaigrette keeps for a week in the fridge, so if you have extra left over you can use it on pretty much anything!

For the chicken, you can grill it on a grill, grill pan, or just sear it in a cast iron pan.

Serves 2, but scales up easily.