BBQ Chicken Cobb Salad

I don't know about all you fine folks, but after all the amazing desserts and expensive fine dining Valentine's Day brings, the only thing I feel like eating is a big salad!

For me, the more colorful the salad, and the more difference in texture, the better. This salad fit that bill perfectly! The bold southwestern flavors, with the soft avocado and eggs, topped with a few crunchy bites of bacon and red onion made this seemingly-harmless salad a HUGE filling dish!

Normally, Ryan and I eat our salads dry-as-a-bone. We're just not big on salad dressing or vinaigrettes (unless they're more of a supporting role to the flavors, versus the dominant). But a sweet little drizzle of that zesty BBQ sauce over the chicken transforms the overall experience! It was so simple, but made a huge impact. You could even toss the BBQ sauce with the chicken before adding it to the salad to get even more flavor!

What I love about this salad, as well, is that it's super easy to prep in advance. You can make a bunch of it, keep the different ingredients in separate baggies or small tupperware in the refrigerator, and all you have to do before lunch or before you head to work in the morning, is throw a small handful of each ingredient in a tupperware or plate and you're all set! The ingredients keep for a couple days (with the exception of the avocado), so you can stretch it over a few last-minute meals.

You can completely make this salad your own! Change it up with different kinds of bacon (we used turkey bacon this time - it was half the cost), different types of BBQ sauce, use ham or turkey instead of chicken, add a handful of pepper jack or sharp cheddar, or toss in whatever other ingredients floating around in your kitchen that are begging to be eaten. This salad is so versatile, and gives you so much freedom to make it your own! I think it would be super fun to arrange the ingredients in a rainbow (adding orange peppers maybe?), and serving this up on St. Patrick's Day next month!

xo, 

blondie

BBQ Chicken Cobb Salad

makes 2 servings

ingredients:

4 sliced bacon, cooked crisp & crumbled 

1/4 C red onion, diced

3 red plum tomatoes, diced and seasoned with salt and pepper

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 can sweet corn, drained

3 C rotisserie chicken (BBQ is best, but original is fine), shredded

1 avocado, diced

3 hard boiled eggs, diced

4-6 pieces of green leaf lettuce, rinsed

BBQ sauce

*favorite dressing (optional)

method:

1. On two large plates, arrange a few pieces of green leaf lettuce. Layer with bacon, onion, seasoned tomatoes, beans, corn, chicken, avocado, and eggs. Drizzle with BBQ sauce and your favorite creamy dressing. 

recipe adapted from: damn delicious