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Summer Chipotle Chicken Cobb Salad with Cilantro Vinaigrette

80 reviews / 5 average

This juicy salad tastes like summer! With chipotle chicken, sweet corn, avocado, cilantro vinaigrette, bacon crumbles, and fresh strawberries for a pop of sweetness.

Summah summah summahhhhhhtime!

I kinda can’t believe it since here in Minnesota we were all “April Blizzard” a minute ago, but you guys, it’s totally here. And I totally had it for dinner last night.

Here’s what it tasted like:

  • juicy strawberries
  • crisp salty bacon
  • sweet green lettuce
  • bursts of sweet corn
  • creamy avocado chunks
  • and smoky chipotle grilled chicken! REPEAT: GRILLED!

How To Make Our Chipotle Cobb Salad:

What's Gaby Cooking Everyday California Food cookbook.

This dream team of ingredients better known as a Summer Chipotle Chicken Cobb Salad is coming to our hearts today from the What’s Gaby Cooking Cookbook.

Remember when I published those BEST EVER chicken tinga tacos and told you about my friend Melissa’s amazing book and then talked about how I hardly ever promote books? But then I turned around and told you how great THIS one was, too? LOL to me. It’s just dumb luck that both of these came out when they did.

We’re not paid for any cookbook promotions – I just like to show you the ones that we like and give you a sneak at their best recipes.

And this one is one that I like. And this might be one of its best recipes. Tied with the cilantro vinaigrette, which I couldn’t not use again for this salad. I know Gaby says to use the champagne vinaigrette with this salad, but GABY COME ON YOU CAN’T TEASE US LIKE THAT. One good lick of that cilantro dressing and you’re done. Goodbye. This is your life now.

Cilantro Vinaigrette in jar with spoon.

Okay, salad ingredients. As mentioned, there is a lot of fresh summery goodness going on here, and it looks like so:

Ingredients in bowls for Summer Chipotle Chicken Cobb Salad.

The more “involved” part of the recipe (if you can even call it that) is just plopping your chicken in some spices and a few chipotle peppers and letting it marinate for a while before grilled.

WORTH IT, you guys! So worth it.

Also probably more normal to take a picture of the grilled chicken rather than the raw marinated stuff, but who said anything about normal.

Raw chicken in a bowl with seasonings.

Bjork and I ate this salad on the deck on a random Tuesday night and we both mega-loved every lip-lickin juicy bite.

It’s a little spicy, a lot crunchy, and those bites of sweetness in between are so super rewarding.

Closeup of Summer Chipotle Chicken Cobb Salad.

Thank you, Summer Chipotle Chicken Cobb Salad, for making all our dreams come true.

Print
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Spinach salad full of corn, strawberries, avocado, and chicken in a bowl on a table with a tablecloth.

Summer Chipotle Chicken Cobb Salad with Cilantro Vinaigrette


  • Author: Lindsay
  • Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
  • Yield: 46 servings 1x

Description

This juicy salad tastes like summer! With chipotle chicken, sweet corn, avocado, cilantro vinaigrette, bacon crumbles, and fresh strawberries for a pop of sweetness. Recipe republished from the What’s Gaby Cookin’ cookbook!


Ingredients

Units Scale

For the Chipotle Chicken:

  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 2 chipotle chiles in adobo, finely chopped
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoon oregano
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt (I added this – not in original recipe)
  • 34 chicken breasts or thighs

For the Summer Cobb Salad:

  • 34 cups greens (see notes)
  • 4 strips bacon, cooked and crumbled
  • 810 strawberries, quartered
  • 2 ears corn on the cob, kernels removed
  • 12 ripe avocados, sliced
  • salt and pepper
  • cilantro vinaigrette! so yummy.

Instructions

  1. Prep the chicken: Combine the oil, chipotles, garlic powder, cumin, oregano, black pepper, and salt in a bowl. Place the chicken in the bowl and toss to coat the chicken in the marinade. Place in the fridge and let it marinate while you prep your other ingredients.
  2. Prep salad: Prep all your salad ingredients (cook the bacon, slice the strawberries, cut the corn off the cob, etc.).
  3. Grill the chicken: Heat an outdoor grill (or grill pan) to about 400 degrees. Place chicken on the grill and grill for 5-6 minutes per side, until cooked through. Remove the chicken from the grill and let rest for ten minutes. Slice against the grain.
  4. Salad: Arrange the greens on a large platter and top with the bacon, strawberries, corn, avocado, and grilled chicken. Season with salt and pepper. Toss with the cilantro vinaigrette and serve!

Notes

Greens: We used spring greens in the pictures on this post, but we love this with just spinach too depending on what you have on hand!

  • Prep Time: 1 hour
  • Cook Time: 10 mins
  • Category: Dinner
  • Cuisine: American

Keywords: chipote chicken, chipotle chicken cobb salad, cobb salad

Nutrition label does not include the Cilantro Vinaigrette – head to the recipe to find its nutritional information!


One More Thing!

This recipe is part of our best sugar free recipe page. Check it out!

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166 Comments

  1. Pinch of Yum Logo

    This looks great. Do you have a suggestion for another dressing for people who don’t like cilantro

    1. Pinch of Yum Logo

      I’m guessing you could probably substitute parsley instead? Different flavor profile obviously but I’d think it would work.

      1. Pinch of Yum Logo

        Hi! Can you suggest another oil instead of vegetable? Just am not supposed to consume vegetable oils during this cleanse am doing.. would avocado oil work?

    2. Pinch of Yum Logo

      I do not like cilantro, but magically, I LOVE this cilantro salad dressing. It is so amazing on this salad. You have to try it!

      1. Pinch of Yum Logo

        I made this salad with the Pinch of Yum honey mustard dressing since my partner is one of those people who isn’t a fan of cilantro! It was delicious

  2. Pinch of Yum Logo

    This sounds awesome! I was just wondering what to serve for book group on Thursday. This is it! Thank you!!

  3. Pinch of Yum Logo

    Love this!! Although am I going crazy ,- I can’t see the note about the greens? 🙂

  4. Pinch of Yum Logo

    Made this recipe exactly as written and it was absolutely delicious! The cilantro vinaigrette with it was such a wonderful summer meal. Love your recipes thank you and congratulations on your growing family!

  5. Pinch of Yum Logo

    I made this salad last night and it was unbelievably good! All the best things going on in there!

    I’ve been religiously following you for over 3 yrs and have never commented but your creativity and love for food has inspired me in SO many ways and my husband and kids think I’m the best cook ever 😉 You have some committed Canadian mom fans rooting for you! xo

    1. Pinch of Yum Logo

      Is this salad spicy hot? I want to make for individual who does not like it too spicy hot.

  6. Pinch of Yum Logo

    This was absolutely awesome! I did grill my corn first. Also, the hubs can’t have strawberries so I figured mango or pineapple…I used mango, grilled it first too, and it worked great! Thank you so much! That dressing rocks!

  7. Pinch of Yum Logo

    Faaaaantastic! Smoked the chicken thighs instead of grilled the chicken but either would be awesome. Dressing is amazing! Also I wasn’t sure if the corn should be cooked so I smoked it after the chicken was done.

  8. Pinch of Yum Logo

    Love this idea so much that I made these for lunches this week (without the bacon). Delish!

    Also, I think you may have forgotten to include the notes section!

  9. Pinch of Yum Logo

    I’m not sure if it’s just me or not but I’m not able to see the nutrition information on my chrome mobile browser. I’ve been looking and looking for it on your recipes lately and just tried it in Firefox and there it is! Would love to know if it’s just a setting or something.

  10. Pinch of Yum Logo

    Bring this recipe to 6 stars by adding feta and chives then wash it down with Whole Food’s Blood Orange Italian Soda.
    Soooo good my 2yo ate an adult size portion and I didn’t notice because I was in salad dream land.

    1. Pinch of Yum Logo

      The chicken was great and I will make it again, but the dressing…it tasted like a mix of cilantro and garlic, which I know is what it’s made of, but the flavors didn’t pull together and meld well. My dressing also turned into a paste. I left out the bacon and corn and added blackberries, but as a whole it didn’t work for me. The chicken though! It was good on its own so I would make it just to eat that and nothing else, lol. I used thighs and they were very tender and juicy.

  11. Pinch of Yum Logo

    Made this (with 2 chicken breasts and 3/4 of the dressing) and it was delicious! Can’t wait till peak corn season so I can make it again!