Easy Cobb Salad with Penne Pasta

Angela Morris

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This Cobb Salad Recipe uses pasta instead of lettuce, then it’s piled high with all the delicious cobb salad ingredients we love, like chicken, avocado, and bacon.

» You might also like Avocado Egg Toast or Fennel, Avocado and Blood Orange Salad.

I love a traditional cobb salad, but when I ventured out and replaced the lettuce with penne pasta, I loved it even more. The chewy pasta is a great combination for these flavorful ingredients. With so many great ingredients a cobb salad is easy to customize. Try this fall harvest cobb salad for something a bit different.

With so many ingredients, you might think it takes too long to make a Cobb Salad, but it’s actually quick and easy if you cook and chop things all at once. I’ve also found that it’s super easy to make these salads in bulk, especially when using a whole chicken or rotisserie chicken.

If you do meal prep, add this one to your rotation. Making 5 salads at once saves time!

Cobb Salad Ingredients

What ingredients you choose to use in your Cobb Salad can vary. I often go with the typical ingredients in my salad, but one change I make, that is reflected in this recipe, is substituting the lettuce with pasta.

A Cobb Salad typically has these ingredients:

• Chicken
• Tomatoes
• Hard-boiled Eggs
• Bacon
• Avocado
• Blue Cheese
• Lettuce

You don’t have to have all of these ingredients in the salad. Mix and match however you like to form your favorite salad.

How to Make Cobb Pasta Salad

The trick to making this salad quickly is to prepare everything at the same time.

If you have left over chicken, that will save even more time. But if you don’t, it won’t take a lot of extra time to cook up some chicken breast.

Put 2 chicken breasts in a pot of water to simmer for 20 minutes. At the same time, put the eggs in a small pan and cover with water. Bring it to a boil, then cover and remove from heat. Leave the eggs covered for 10-12 minutes. You can also cook perfect hard-boiled eggs in the Instant Pot. Finally, in another pan, bring water to a boil, add salt, and cook the pasta to al dente, around 8 minutes.

While the chicken, eggs, and pasta are cooking, add the strips of bacon to a pan and fry for around 4 minutes per side. When done, move them to a paper towel to soak up the grease.

Chop the avocado, tomatoes and blue cheese.

Now your chicken, eggs and pasta will be ready. Drain them all. Add the eggs to a bowl of ice water to chill for about 5 minutes before cracking and peeling. When they have sufficiently cooked down, chop the chicken and eggs.

Add the pasta to the serving bowls. Distribute the chopped ingredients among the bowls. Then top with blue cheese dressing or Ranch salad dressing using this recipe.

If you’re not a fan of ranch dressing, you can use this green goddess dressing, or even an apple cider vinaigrette.

You might like these other salad recipes:

• Classic Wedge Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing
• Pear & Gorgonzola Salad
• Shaved Asparagus Pesto Salad
• Golden Beet Salad with Toasted Spice Vinaigrette
• Fennel & Carrot Salad

Tips and Notes

• Add the avocado just before serving to avoid it turning brown before you can eat it.
• If you don’t like blue cheese swap it out for feta or cheddar cheese.
• We used penne pasta but you could use any shape that you like.
• You can make this salad up ahead of time, just don’t add the avocado until ready to serve. Add a bit more dressing as pasta tends to soak up dressing as it sits.

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Cobb Salad with Pasta

This Cobb Salad pasta is piled high with chicken, tomato, avocado, blue cheese and bacon.

5 from 6 votes

Print Pin Rate

Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes minutes

Servings: 2 Servings

Calories: 600kcal

Author: Angela Morris

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup cooked penne pasta
• 2 slices bacon chopped
• 1 avocado chopped
• 3 ounces chicken breast cooked and diced
• 1 small tomatoes diced
• 2 large large eggs hard boiled and chopped
• 1 ounce blue cheese crumbled
• 3 tablespoons Blue Cheese or Ranch dressing

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Instructions

• Put a chicken breast in a pot of water to simmer for 20-25 minutes, until cooked through. Put the eggs in a small pan and cover with cold water. Bring the pot to a boil, then cover and remove from heat. Leave the eggs covered for 10-12 minutes. In a third pan, bring water to a boil, add salt, and cook the pasta to al dente, around 8 minutes.
• Add bacon to a pan and fry for around 4 minutes per side. When done, move them to a paper towel to soak up the grease.
• Chop the avocado, tomatoes and blue cheese.
• As the chicken, eggs and pasta finish cooking, drain the water. Add the eggs to a bowl of ice water to chill for about 5 minutes before cracking and peeling. Chop the eggs and the chicken.
• Add the pasta to the serving bowls. Distribute the chopped ingredients among the bowls. Then top with Blue Cheese or Ranch dressing.

Nutrition

Calories: 600kcal | Carbohydrates: 23g | Protein: 26g | Fat: 46g | Saturated Fat: 12g | Cholesterol: 271mg | Sodium: 729mg | Potassium: 911mg | Fiber: 8g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 940IU | Vitamin C: 18mg | Calcium: 126mg | Iron: 2mg

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Angela Morris

Angela’s passion for discovering and experimenting with new flavors and recipes is at the heart of her culinary philosophy. Residing in a quaint Oregon town, she finds joy and inspiration in her kitchen. Angela has a lot of expertise in cooking and she eagerly shares her discoveries and unique creations with you.