California Cobb Salad

This may not be the healthiest salad you could imbibe in, but it's sooooo worth it.

There is so much good stuff in this salad. The hubby walked in the door last night to this:

and immediately said, "Chicken Cobb Salad! Yes!"

I'll take it.

I must say, this salad does take some time to prep. Unless you keep hard-boiled eggs on hand, you'll need to hard-boil some eggs early in the afternoon so they have a chance to cool before dinner time. You do need to prepare a chicken breast. You do need to cook and crumble some bacon. The time spent preparing will be so worth it when you fall in love at first bite though.

I like to set the toppings out so we can make our own salads. Also, the hubby doesn't like to put avocado on his salad. He's craaaazy. More for me!

He does like to put most of the egg on his salad though :)

I seared my chicken on the stove, 3 minutes on each side, and then baked it in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes. It yielded a pretty good chicken breast. I definitely prefer grilling the chicken. However, there was a mass of bees out yesterday so there was no way I was going outside to grill. Stupid bees.

Here's what I do put in my big salad bowl. Romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes, and blue cheese crumbles which I toss with some fat-free Italian dressing. I heart blue cheese crumbles.

After tossing the salad with the dressing, everyone is free to make their own, custom salad. Yum!

Ingredients:
1 large chicken breast
Olive oil
salt, pepper, and garlic powder
5 cups romaine lettuce, chopped
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 cup blue cheese crumbled
3 hard boiled eggs, roughly chopped
1 avocado, diced
3 bacon strips, crumbled
1/4 cup fat-free Italian dressing

Directions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Drizzle chicken breast with olive oil. Season chicken breast with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Coat a small, oven safe skillet with cooking spray and heat skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken to pan and sear 2-3 minutes on each side, or until chicken is browned. Cover skillet and place in 350 degree oven. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until chicken reaches 160 degrees. Remove chicken from heat, and let rest for 10 minutes. Slice chicken, and set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine romaine, tomatoes, and blue cheese.
3. Place egg, avocado, and bacon in little serving bowls, and set aside for everyone to add to their own salad.
4. Toss lettuce mixture with the salad dressing. When combined, divide lettuce mixture among individual plates. Top salad with egg, avocado, bacon, and sliced chicken.
5. Dare yourself not to eat it all. But you will :)

Adapted from Cooking Light