In my house, there are two kinds of salads. The first is a slapdash affair of whatever type of greens I have on hand topped with various bits and bobs: yesterday’s leftover chicken; salsa or pesto thinned into salad dressing; leftover bread turned into croutons; the tail end of a bag of nuts. These salads are not very good, but they serve their purpose (cleaning out the fridge and staving off hanger).
The other kind of salad is very thoughtful—composed. Put together on purpose, often using ingredients that were bought specifically for the meal. I like to spend the too-hot-to-cook days of summer riffing on the classics. Caesar salad, but make it spicy. Nicoise, but trade the eggs for tofu and the anchovies for nori strips to make it vegan. This kind of ingredient-swapping is how I ended up with the Texas cobb salad.
A traditional Cobb salad—invented in California—is topped with avocados, bacon, blue cheese, chicken, chives, hard-boiled eggs, and tomatoes, arranged in distinct stripes or piles over red wine vinaigrette–dressed chopped romaine lettuce. It is visually striking, and it’s very easy to give it a little more . . . yeehaw.
I’ve kept the avocados, bacon, eggs, romaine, and tomatoes, but to give it a bit of the Southwest, I’ve added a buttermilk ranch, chopped cilantro, cotija cheese, and pecans candied with chiles de árbol and honey. And for the protein—what else but fried chicken? If you’re not a fan of frying (or if it’s truly too hot to cook), you could, of course, use premade fried chicken, rotisserie chicken, or smoked turkey from your local grocery store or barbecue joint. But these homemade buttermilk–and–hot sauce–marinated chicken bites are worth the effort.
Texas Cobb Salad
Make the classic Californian salad a bit more Texan with fried chicken and buttermilk ranch dressing.
Fried Chicken
- 2 cups buttermilk
- ¼ cup fermented hot sauce, such as Crystal or Tabasco
- 2 teaspoons salt, divided
- 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon cayenne
- 1 egg, whisked
- canola oil, for frying
Buttermilk Ranch
- ½ cup buttermilk
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- 1 clove garlic, grated
- ½ teaspoon dried dill
- ¼ teaspoon dried parsley
- ½ teaspoon dried chives
- ¼ teaspoon lemon zest
- salt, to taste
- freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Salad
- 6 strips thick-cut bacon, diced
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- 1–2 chiles de árbol (depending on spice preference)
- ¼ cup honey
- ½ teaspoon salt, plus more for seasoning the greens
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more for seasoning the greens
- 1 large or 2 small heads romaine lettuce, chopped into bite-size pieces
- 1 cup buttermilk ranch dressing
- 4 hard-boiled eggs, cut into ¼-inch-thick slices
- 1 cup cotija cheese, crumbled
- 3 Roma tomatoes, diced
- fried chicken
- 2 large avocados, diced
- ¼ cup chopped cilantro
Fried Chicken
-
Combine the buttermilk, hot sauce, and 1 teaspoon salt in a bowl. Add the raw chicken and stir to combine. Marinate for at least 1 hour, up to overnight.
-
When you’re ready to fry, pour the chicken into a colander in the sink and let drain while you prepare the rest of the equipment. Heat the oven to 200°F. Line a sheet pan with a baking rack. Heat at least 3 inches of oil in a heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven to 350°F.
-
In a small mixing bowl, combine the flour, pepper, and cayenne. Stir to combine, then add half of this mixture to a large mixing bowl.
-
Add the well-drained chicken to the large mixing bowl and toss to coat the chicken in the flour.
-
Add the whisked egg and again toss to coat.
-
Add the remaining seasoned flour to the chicken and again toss to coat.
-
Use a slotted spoon to add the chicken pieces to the hot oil, making sure to shake off as much excess flour as possible. Make sure not to crowd the pan. Depending on the size of your frying vessel, you may need to fry in two batches. (If so, let the oil come back up to 350°F between batches.)
-
Fry the chicken pieces until golden, about 5–7 minutes, then use a slotted spoon to move them to the rack-lined sheet pan. Keep warm in the oven while you fry the second half of the chicken and/or while you prep the rest of the salad.
Buttermilk Ranch
-
Whisk all ingredients together in a mixing bowl.
-
Refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving, to let the flavor of the dried herbs bloom.
Salad
-
Line two small plates with paper towels.
-
Cook the bacon in a cast-iron pan or skillet over medium heat, stirring, until crisp, 5–7 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to remove the bacon to one of the paper towel–lined plates, leaving the bacon fat in the pan. Let cool.
-
Pour off all but about 2 tablespoons of bacon fat from the pan. Add the pecans and chiles de árbol to the bacon fat and sauté for 1 minute. Add the honey, salt, and pepper and sauté until glossy, about 2 minutes. Use the slotted spoon to remove the pecans to the other paper towel–lined plate. Sprinkle with ½ teaspoon salt. Let cool.
-
To assemble the salad, toss the romaine in the buttermilk ranch and season to taste with salt and pepper. Put the dressed greens on a serving tray. One at a time, place each topping in a neat row on top of the greens in this order: eggs, bacon, cotija, tomatoes, chicken, avocados, pecans. Sprinkle the cilantro over everything and serve.
