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. You can still get this salad at Disney’s Hollywood Studios Brown Derby.
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 an old-fashioned French dressing made at the restaurant.
This salad became known as the Brown Derby Cobb Salad nationwide and beyond.
Difference between Cobb Salad and Chef Salad
There is 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 Romaine, iceberg lettuce, 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.
- Divide the greens equally into two salad bowls.
- Arrange the chives, tomatoes, chicken, bacon, avocado, eggs, and crumbled Roquefort 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.
What to serve with a Cobb Salad
The classic Hollywood Brown Derby Cobb Salad is quite delicious on its own, but you may want to round out your meal with the following:
- Bread – some crusty bread like the no-knead bread would be perfect.
- Soup – you may like a light soup with this, like a fresh homemade tomato soup.
How to Store Cobb Salad
If you prepare the ingredients for the salad in advance, the components are best stored individually.
If you think you will have leftover salad, the first suggestion is to store the ingredients separately. The second best option is to assemble the salad and not pour the salad dressing over the salad.
Finally, you could store the salad leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge. 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 made with chopped lettuce, chopped tomato, crispy bacon, cooked chicken breast, hard-boiled eggs, avocado, and Roquefort cheese. Typically this salad is laid out in neat little rows. This combination of ingredients laid out neatly in separate lines 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 initially served with a vinaigrette made with Dijon, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, and more. You can get the original cobb salad dressing recipe. You could use whatever salad dressing you prefer. Blue cheese is the most commonly used dressing for a cobb salad.
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
Salad Dressing
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 3/4 teaspoon dry mustard
- 1/2 clove garlic minced
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 3/4 cup vegetable oil
Salad
- 1/2 head iceberg lettuce finely chopped
- 1/2 head romaine lettuce finely chopped
- 1/2 bunch watercress finely chopped
- 1 small bunch curly endive finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons 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 eggs peeled and diced
- 1/2 cup Roquefort cheese crumbled
Instructions
- Combine all the salad dressing ingredients and mix well. Store the dressing in an air-tight container in the refrigerator. Shake well before serving.
- Mix the salad greens together in a large wide bowl.
- Arrange the chives, tomatoes, chicken, bacon, avocado, eggs, and cheese in rows over the greens.
- Before serving, pour 1/2 cup of the prepared dressing over the salad and toss to combine.
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.
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.
I have the actual Brown Derby Cookbook.
Loved this salad! It’s filling and easy to make!
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.
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.