This Brown Derby Cobb Salad copycat recipe is a wonderful take on the famous Hollywood Brown Derby Cobb salad. This Cobb Salad ingredients include bacon, avocado, fresh crisp lettuce, chicken, hard-boiled eggs, and a special dressing.
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Original Hollywood Brown Derby Cobb Salad Recipe
The Cobb salad originated at the Brown Derby restaurant in Hollywood, CA. The owner’s name was Robert Cobb.
This salad was made with chopped Romaine and iceberg lettuce, crisp bacon, hard-boiled egg, tomato, chives, chicken breast, Roquefort cheese, and avocado. It was topped with a homemade French dressing made at the restaurant.
This salad became known as the Brown Derby Cobb Salad all across the country and beyond.
Difference between Cobb Salad and Chef Salad
There is just a slight difference between a traditional cobb salad and a chef salad. Both salads feature lettuce, cheese, bacon, chicken breast, ham, and hard-boiled eggs. But a Cobb Salad also includes both Romaine and iceberg lettuce plus avocados and tomatoes.
Cobb Salad Ingredients
What everyone loves about a cobb salad is the ingredients never change.
Here’s what you’ll need:
- Iceberg Lettuce
- Romaine Lettuce
- Curly Endive
- Watercress
- Chives
- Tomatoes
- Chicken Breast
- Bacon
- Avocado
- Hard-boiled Egg
- Roquefort Cheese
- Brown Derby French Dressing
How to Make Brown Derby Cobb Salad
- Chop iceberg lettuce, romaine lettuce, watercress, and endive, into small pieces.
- Toss the salad greens together in a large bowl.
- Arrange the chives, tomatoes, chicken, bacon, avocado, eggs, and cheese in rows on top of the greens.
- Pour the French dressing over the salad and toss to combine.
Cobb Salad Recipe Tips and Notes
- The chicken can be boiled, roasted, or grilled. Do not use fried chicken because it doesn’t work well in this salad.
- Roquefort cheese is a must. You can substitute another blue cheese or gorgonzola if you cannot find Roquefort.
- For a low-carb and keto-friendly version, use blue cheese dressing instead of French dressing.
- To prepare the salad ahead of time, put it together without the dressing. Cover and refrigerate it until serving. Add the dressing and toss the salad right before you eat it.
How to store Cobb Salad
If you are going to prepare the ingredients for the salad, but the ingredients are best stored individually. If you think you are going to have leftover salad, the first suggestion is to store the ingredients separately. The second best option is to assemble the salad and do not pour the salad dressing over the salad. Finally, you could store the salad in an airtight container, this salad will last for a couple of days before it needs to be eaten.
Frequently Asked Questions
Cobb salad is a traditional American garden salad that is made with chopped lettuce, chopped tomato, crispy bacon, cooked chicken breast, hard-boiled eggs, avocado, Roquefort cheese, and typically this salad is laid out in neat little rows. This combination of ingredients and layout it out neatly in rows is what makes a cobb salad so distinct.
The answer is so simple, this salad is named after the Chef, Robert Cobb, who created this salad at the Orignal Hollywood Brown Derby Restaurant. After a long evening of service, he put together these leftover ingredients and served them with a salad dressing.
This was originally served with a vinaigrette made with Dijon, lemon juice, and Worcestershire sauce and more. You can get the recipe here. You could use whatever salad you prefer.
Favorite Salad Recipes
- Brussel Sprouts and Kale Salad
- Cucumber Onion Salad
- Green Goddess Salad
- Waldorf Salad
- Wedge Salad
- Wendy’s Strawberry Salad
- Wendy’s Apple Pecan Salad
Popular Restaurant Copycat Recipes
- Cracker Barrel Hashbrown Casserole
- Olive Garden Salad
- Olive Garden Soup
- Red Lobster Shrimp Scampi
- Texas Roadhouse Rolls
- Unos Pizza
Check out more of my easy salad recipes and the best copycat restaurant recipes here on CopyKat!
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Original Hollywood Brown Derby Cobb Salad
Ingredients
- 1/2 head iceberg lettuce
- 1/2 head romaine lettuce
- 1/2 bunch watercress
- 1 small bunch curly endive
- 2 tablespoon minced chives
- 2 Roma tomatoes seeded and diced
- 4 ounces chicken breast cooked and shredded
- 6 slices bacon cooked and diced
- 1 avocado peeled and diced
- 3 hard-boiled egg peeled and diced
- 1/2 cup Roquefort cheese crumbled
- 1/2 cup French Dressing
Instructions
- Chop the iceberg lettuce, romaine lettuce, watercress, and endive, into very fine pieces.
- Mix the salad greens together in a large wide bowl.
- Arrange chives, tomatoes, chicken, bacon, avocado, eggs, and cheese in rows over the greens.
- When serving, pour French dressing over the salad and toss to combine.
Jacquelyn Hall
In the book, it states Robert Cobb went into kitchen after close of dining hours, looking for something to eat. He noticed leftovers romaine, tomatoes, cucumbers and a few other left from prep. He chopped these and added some leftover chopped chicken, bavon and ham. He mixed it all together in a bowl adding a version of ranch dressing. The lines of topping likely are more visually appealing, but his was all in one bowl. I make it his way in a big salad bowl, using ranch or roquefort dressing.
Stephanie Manley
That sounds like my kind of salad. I think the lines thing evolved over time because it is more visually appealing to your average person in a restaurant.
Jacquelyn Hall
I have the actual Brown Derby Cookbook.
Sharon Jefferson
Loved this salad! It’s filling and easy to make!
Enid Chavez
This is what I read as to the creation of the Cobb Salad. The famous actress Norma Shearer was married to Irving Thalberg who happen to have a sensitive stomach. So, she asked the chef in the Brown Derby if he could create something that a baby could eat. Viola! The Cobb Salad was born.
Patti at Camp Blogaway
You can actually say the Cobb Salad WAS created by the Hollywood Brown Derby. Several years ago, my PR agency created the Dole Museum of Salad in NYC, and we highlighted the origins of classic salads like Cobb, Caesar, Waldorf. So… Howard Cobb, owner of the Brown Derby was closing up one evening when a group of high-profile customers came in. He went into the kitchen and either he or his chef (debates about credit) took whatever could be found, gave all the ingredients the same size chop to produce this beautiful salads.