Fall Cobb Salad

This Fall Cobb Salad is a hearty mix of roasted butternut squash, roast chicken, apples, smoky bacon, and crumbles of blue cheese overtop a bed of mixed greens. Drizzled with an apple maple dijon dressing its a colorful and flavorful salad perfect for fall months.

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Ingredients

• Butternut Squash – Half of a medium sized squash is going to work best.
• Apple – This can be whatever apples you enjoy eating! It will simply be diced up and then served on top of the salad.
• Eggs – Like in a classic cobb salad these will be hard boiled. You can follow the insructions below to hard boil them or you can buy pre-hard boiled eggs at the grocery store.
• Blue Cheese Crumbles – If you aren’t a fan of blue cheese feel free to substitute with an aged sharp cheddar cut into small cubes or crumbled goat cheese.
• Chicken Breasts – Also in a classic cobb salad these will be roasted in the oven along side the butternut squash.
• Bacon – I found the easiest way to cook this is by adding it to the sheet pan with the cooking chicken, if you would rather you can cook it on the stovetop.
• Dried Cranberries – These give a great nice sweetness while also helping with the fall flavors.
• Pumpkin Seeds aka Pepitas – These can be in the shell or shelled, I actually use both in the salad and both worked great.
• Mixed Greens – Any sort of mixed green will really work for this salad. Traditionally Cobb Salad actually uses romaine lettuce and you can certainly use that, really whatever you like as far as greens go!
• Olive Oil – For both roasting the squash and chicken but also making the vinaigrette dressing as well.
• Apple Cider Vinegar – For the vinaigrette, this gives the dressing a sweet apple not which pairs well with all the fall flavors.
• Maple Syrup – To sweeten the dressing, just a little goes a long way to help with the flavor.
• Dijon Mustard – Also for the dressing, the mustard adds flavor and helps give the dressing a creamy consistency.
• Salt & Pepper – For flavoring the chicken as well as the dressing.

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400ºF.

Add ½ tablespoon of the oil to the diced butternut squash. Add salt and pepper to taste and add to a sheet pan.

Add another ½ tablespoon of the oil to the chicken breasts, season with salt and pepper, and add to sheet pan in-between pieces of the diced butternut squash. 

Transfer to the oven and roast 10 minutes. Toss and flip chicken. Lay the strips of bacon over top the chicken breasts. Transfer back to the oven and cook another 20 minutes. While everything cooks prepare the rest of the salad.

Make the hard boiled eggs using one of the following methods. Once cooled down you can peel the eggs and cut them in half or quarters for serving. 

For Pressure Cooker: Add a trivet and 1 cup of water to the pressure cooker pot. Lay eggs on trivet. Seal lid, turn steam vent to sealing, and select manual/pressure cook. Set to high pressure for 3 minutes. Quick release, when the float drops carefully open the lid and transfer the eggs to a bowl of ice filled water to cool down. 

For Stovetop: Add eggs to the bottom of a pot. Add cold water to the pot until the eggs are fully covered. Transfer the cold pot to the stovetop and heat to medium-high. Wait for the water to come to a boil, once the water comes to a rolling boil, cover, remove the whole pot from the heat and let sit for 10 minutes. After the waiting period transfer the eggs to a bowl of ice filled water to cool down. 

Make the dressing by mixing the olive oil, apple cider vinegar, maple syrup, Dijon mustard, and salt and pepper. You can use a bowl with a whisk or a glass jar and a tight fitting lid to shake the dressing together. 

Once the chicken, bacon, and butternut squash is finished cooking (the chicken should reach an internal temperature of 165ºF) let the chicken rest for 5 minutes before cutting into pieces. Cut the bacon into pieces as well. 

Build your salad by laying down the mixed greens. Top with the pumpkin seeds, dried cranberries, diced apple, blue cheese crumbles, bacon pieces, chopped chicken, roasted butternut squash, and hard boiled eggs. Drizzle the dressing over top the salad before serving. Enjoy!

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