Sun-Dried Tomato Chicken and Avocado Cobb Salad with Tahini Ranch.

Keeping things fresh and simple today with this Sun-Dried Tomato Chicken and Avocado Cobb Salad with Tahini Ranch. Smoky paprika seasoned chicken, roasted with bacon and served up Cobb salad style with fresh greens, a mix of both sun-dried tomatoes and cherry tomatoes, avocados, eggs, and made even better with homemade tahini ranch dressing. This easy Cobb salad dinner comes together in less than an hour. It’s colorful, healthy, and the best part? This is a salad that can be made any time of year!

 

I have been cooking so much lately. Think every single day, 7 days a week. It’s been A LOT. I have to say that I’m excited for a bit of a break next week while I am in LA. But, that means cramming to get so much done this week. It’s all great though, I love getting a lot done. Lately I have been making a ton a cozy foods though. It’s left me craving some lighter dishes that are more fitting for spring. And yes, I’m well aware that we still have a good few weeks until it’s actually spring, especially up here. However, I don’t see any harm in jumping forward a bit and diving into bright and fresh spring salads.

Enter this Cobb salad, which is honestly great for all seasons.

Here’s the deal, I love a good salad. I like to pack mine full of color, flavor, and texture. A salad made simply of lettuce and tomatoes is not for me. But a loaded salad, now that’s totally my kind of salad. I’ve said this before, but no boring salads around here.

I’ve been really into Mediterranean flavors lately, so I decided to season the chicken with a mix of fresh dill and smoky paprika. I then roasted the chicken alongside some bacon. This is quite a convenient step. It saves you from having to cook the bacon on the stove-top, which saves a lot of mess. I don’t know about you guys, but I hate cleaning the stove after cooking bacon, it’s truly the worst.

While the chicken and bacon roast in the oven, toss together the salad, and cook up some eggs. This is the soft-boiled egg recipe I follow, and it works every time. I prefer more of a “jammy egg”. If you do too, do about a 6 minute egg. If you want more hard boiled, go for 7-8 minutes.

Another tip for perfect hard boiled eggs? Use older eggs. I recently learned this trick and it’s made a world of difference. Especially when it comes to peeling the shells away from the egg itself. Since we have chickens, our eggs are usually super fresh and only days old. These fresh eggs were making it SO difficult for me to peel the shell away from the egg. Once I started reserving older eggs for boiling, the shells came right off. So if you have issues with peeling your eggs, try using older eggs!

And don’t ask me why this works, I just remember reading about it somewhere. So I tried it and it worked. Sometimes I don’t ask questions, I just do. Oh wait a minute, I just found this article on the topic!

Moving along. The salad is a simple mix of romaine lettuce, baby arugula, cherry tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, and avocado. Currently loving this combo of greens, sun-dried tomatoes, dill, and avocado. It’s fresh, but hearty, and pairs perfectly with the paprika and lemon seasoned chicken.

For the dressing, I did something a little un-traditional, tahini ranch. As a kid I always loved dipping baby carrots into ranch dressing. I would often come home from school and eat an entire bag of baby carrots with a side of ranch for dipping. Yes, the whole bag, and oddly, no, my stomach never hurt. Again, I was that weird child that really liked vegetables.

Point, I used to love ranch, but stopped eating the store-bought a long while ago. I now much prefer this tahini ranch. It has slight hints of toasted sesame, is so creamy, and tastes very similar to that classic ranch we all know and love. BUT, it is better.

Well, in my opinion at least.

As soon as the chicken is done, I shred it and toss everything together. Since it’s cold outside, I really love enjoying this salad with warm chicken. It makes for the perfect warming winter salad that’s light and fresh, both at the same time.

Also, this is a great salad to make for meal prep. All the components will last 2-3 days in the fridge. Just make sure to add the greens and dressing the day of serving. That way nothing gets soggy!

PS. if you wanted to make this a bit heartier, I recommend roasting up some oven fries while the chicken and bacon cook. Oven roasted french fries are my very favorite salad topping.

Delicious, and highly recommended by me!

If you make this Cobb salad, be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. And of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to also tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!