This down home Southern Cobb Salad will put a smile on your face and get you coming back for seconds. It’s like a blue-plate special in salad form. Fried chicken, black-eyed peas, pecans, deviled eggs, and a pimento cheese dressing put lots of southern flavors in this cobb salad.
What is a Cobb Salad?
Cobb Salad is an Amarican salad that was born around 1937 at the Hollywood Brown Derby Restaurant in California. It’s become such a popular salad that there are countless variations.
Traditional Cobb Salad is made with chicken, blue cheese, hard-boiled eggs, avocado, and bacon. But who wants traditional when you can have the untraditional? This fun, southern version of a Cobb Salad has tons of personality. A creamy Pimiento-Cheese Dressing replaces the blue cheese. Deviled Eggs made with a little of the Pimiento-Cheese Dressing are much more interesting and yummy than plain old hard boiled eggs. Black-eyed peas, fried chicken breast, and pecans round out the southern ingredients.
Ok, so maybe it isn’t very Cobb Salad like. But it is delicious.
Southern Cobb Salad is a hearty dish that works well as a main dish. So put a little southern in your salad with this delicious Cobb Salad. It’s one of the most unique salads you will ever eat!
More Southern-Style Salad Recipes
Southern Cobb Salad
Ingredients
Pimento Cheese Dressing
- 1 cup finely shredded Cheddar cheese
- 1/2 cup light mayonnaise
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 (2-ounce) jar diced pimientos,, drained
- 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
Salad
- 4 hard-boiled eggs
- 2 skinless,, boneless chicken breast halves
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 1 teaspoon tabasco sauce
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
- 1 (15-ounce) can black-eyed peas,, rinsed and drained
- 1 large head or 2 small heads of Bibb lettuce
- 1 red sweet pepper,, cut into strips
- 1/2 red onion,, thinly sliced
- 4 bacon slices,, cooked and crumbled
- 1/3 cup pecan halves,, toasted
Instructions
- To make Pimiento-Cheese Dressing, let cheddar cheese stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. In a medium bowl, using a wooden spoon, stir cheese and mayonnaise together until cheese is incorporated into mayonnaise. Gradually add in milk, stirring well to combine. (Instead of waiting 30 minutes, you can process the cheese, mayonnaise and milk in a blender until smooth.) Add in drained pimientos and cayenne pepper, salt, and black pepper.
- Halve eggs lengthwise and scoop out yolk. Place yolk in a small bowl and add in 1 to 2 tablespoons of the Pimiento Dressing. Mash and mix together using a fork, until smooth. Spoon into egg halves and refrigerate.
- Place chicken a in large plastic bag and pound until 1/2-inch thick. (Or you can butterfly the chicken.) Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- In a shallow bowl or pie plate, whisk together the egg, milk, and Tabasco sauce. Place flour in another shallow dish. Dip chicken in egg mixture and then dredge in flour.
- Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large nonstick skillet. Cook chicken 3-4 minutes per side, or until cooked through. Let chicken cool 5 minutes and slice into strips.
- In a medium bowl, combine black-eyed peas with 1 tablespoon of oil and cider vinegar.
- To serve, place lettuce leaves on a platter, top with chicken, red peppers, red onion, black-eyed peas, deviled eggs, bacon, and pecans. Drizzle with Pimiento-Cheese Dressing.
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Recipe Source: adapted from Better Homes and Gardens
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
Great looking Cobb salad and nice twist to the classic dish. Love that you went the extra mile and made deviled eggs and pimento cheese dressing.
Thanks Trevor! The deviled eggs and pimento cheese dressing make it extra yummy 🙂
Oh, this looks so delicious! So many wonderful ingredients. With chicken and eggs, this salad would be so filling, you could it as a meal for lunch or dinner.
If I’m going to go to the trouble to make a salad, I love to make a whole meal out of it!