California Cobb Salad

Cook Time: 20 minutes | Total Time: 30 minutes | Serves 2-4

We love this California take on a classic salad, swapping fresh fruit in place of the tomatoes. We recommend using strawberries or nectarines. With the weather warming up, a hearty salad that hits the major food groups is just what we want to *toss* together at the end of a long day.

Ingredients

• 8 slices of uncooked Rusty Hinges Ranch Pasture-Raised Bacon
• 4 large pasture-raised eggs
• 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts
• Olive oil
• Kosher salt & ground black pepper, for seasoning
• 1 large head romaine lettuce
• 6-8 strawberries
• 1 avocado
• 1 cup crumbled chevre or blue cheese

For the Dressing:

• ⅔ cup extra virgin olive oil
• ¼ cup red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon oregano
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon whole grain mustard
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
2. Whisk the extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, oregano, garlic, Dijon, salt, and pepper together in a small bowl. Set aside.
3. Place the bacon pieces on a rimmed baking sheet and bake in the oven for about 15 minutes, or until golden and crispy.
4. Use tongs to move the bacon to a paper-towel lined plate & let cool.
5. While your bacon is cooking, set the eggs in a saucepan and cover with cold water.
6. Put the pot on the stove & warm over high heat until the water comes to a rolling boil.
7. Once boiling, turn off the heat, cover the pot, and let sit for 10 minutes. Remove the eggs from the pot & run under cool water then set in the fridge to cool completely.
8. While your bacon cooks and eggs boil, cover a large cutting board with plastic wrap & place the chicken breasts on them. Cover with a second layer of plastic wrap.
9. Use a meat mallet to pound the breasts to roughly ¼ inch thickness.
10. Discard the plastic wrap, drizzle the cutlets with olive oil, then season liberally with salt & pepper.
11. Heat a grill or skillet on high heat.
12. Add the pounded chicken breasts & cook about 4 or 5 minutes on the first side, and just a minute or two on the second side (until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165°F).
13. Remove from the grill or skillet and let cool.
14. Cut the head of romaine into bite-sized pieces for the salad. Wash the salad pieces well, and spin dry in a salad spinner or pat dry with paper towels. Set aside.
15. Cut nectarines and avocados in half and remove pits, then cut into slices. Set aside.
16. Prep all the cooked salad ingredients: Crumble or chop the bacon into pieces, slice the hardboiled eggs into rounds, and slice the chicken into thin strips.
17. Fill each bowl with one quarter of the lettuce, and top with ¼ of the chicken, 1 sliced egg, ½ avocado, a few slices of nectarine, ¼ of the bacon and ¼ cup cheese.
18. Drizzle with salad dressing, and enjoy!