Chicken Tostada Cobb Salad

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It’s finally getting chilly here. I am equal parts sad and excited about this meteorological development. On the one hand, I’m glad to be not continuously sweating. And I’m chuffed to make friends with my hoodies again. But on the other hand, I know what fall leads to. It leads to winter and because I live in Canada, that is a less-than-appetizing thought. I saw someone on Instagram describe autumn as the seasonal equivalent to the “Sunday Scaries” and I think it fits. But there’s nothing I can do to keep the winter at bay, so I can at least find solace in the cozy comfort foods I love. Now, obviously, today’s Chicken Tostada Cobb Salad doesn’t fall under that category. But I thought I’d squeeze one last summer-friendly meal in before I bid adieu to summer.

This Chicken Tostada Cobb Salad borrows the format from the iconic dish but switches up the casting. This salad features shredded BBQ chicken, creamy avocado, sharp cheddar, juicy cherry tomatoes, jalapeño slices, pickled red onion, fresh cilantro, and blue corn tortilla chips served on a bed of baby gem lettuce. The salad is accompanied by an addictive spicy Chipotle Sour Cream Dressing.

This isn’t the first time I’ve played with the Cobb salad format (remember this California roll situation?) and I can guarantee it won’t be my last. I think I’m drawn to the Cobb because it’s obviously visually appealing, but it also puts all the salad toppings exactly where I can see them. When you toss every ingredient together in a bowl, the heavier items tend to fall to the bottom, so you wind up with a plateful of lettuce and have to go on a deep dive to find the bit of avocado. But with the Cobb, you can load up your plate with your preferred lettuce-to-topping ratio, whatever it may be.

While I did dub this salad as summer-friendly, you can easily make it all year long. It mostly relies on vegetables that can be grown in greenhouses. And when do you not have a face for Mexican flavors? I generally tire of flavor combos if I have them more than twice in a row. But you could feed me Mexican food morning, noon, and night and I would not complain. But I’m getting ahead of myself. 

Although this Chicken Tostada Cobb Salad doesn’t look like a complicated affair, it does take two days to make. Yes, I know. How can a salad take two days? Well, it can take two days. There is a workaround for those of us who aren’t into delayed gratification. I say this without an ounce of disapproval. The last place you should be feeling stressed is in your home kitchen. If you’re a 30-minute or less kind of cook, live your life, queen. But if you’re like me and take great pleasure in the joy layaway system, this next part is for you.

This recipe starts with a dry rub. You’ve seen it before. It’s my favorite all-purpose dry rub. I make a giant batch and keep it on hand for moments like these. I originally developed the rub for pork but I prefer it on chicken. Rub this legendary rub all over a spatchcocked chicken. If you’re unfamiliar, spatchcocking is removing the backbone from a chicken before opening it like a book. Season the chicken thoroughly front to back. Place it on a cooling rack inside a baking sheet and leave it to chill uncovered for a minimum of 8 hours. Overnight is better. Is the two-day thing starting to make sense?

You can of course skip this dry brining interlude but there are benefits for taking your time here. Dry brining does give you a more flavorful bird with crispier skin, so I want you to think long and hard before making any rash decisions. If you’re not keen on waiting, dry brining, or even roasting your own chicken, that’s why they invented the grocery store rotisserie chicken. And you know what? There is no shame in that game. 

While the chicken is dry brining, we can get a few other things out of the way. I mean, you’re standing up in the kitchen – we have to make the most of this visit. Let’s pickle some red onion. Now, these fuchsia beauties pack a punch and I can’t find a red onion that isn’t huge, so I typically only use half of one for this. Slice your onion into thin half-moons. Place the slices in a bowl and add salt, sugar, and dried oregano. Cover the onion with water and white vinegar. Normally, I would say you can use whatever vinegar you prefer here and you can. But I would urge you to use white vinegar. White vinegar will not impact the color of the finished pickle at all. And when pickled red onions look as good as this, you want them as unadulterated as possible. 

Leave the onions to pickle overnight, which is perfect because you’re already waiting on the chicken. Again, if you’re in the “no waiting” camp, you can either skip the onions or leave them to pickle slightly at room temperature. You will have to wait a minimum of one hour to have anything you could reasonably call a pickle. But it’s still faster than the alternative.

Another thing you can make on day one is the dressing. And the dressing is far from a chore. Pop all the ingredients into a blender and blitz. The dressing will keep in the fridge for up to a week. And if you dry brine the chicken, pickle the onions, and make the dressing on day one, day two is pretty much cake. All you have to do is roast and shred the bird, chop some veg, and plate as carefully or haphazardly as you please. See? You do get an easy weeknight meal in the end.

And that’s everything you need to know about this Chicken Tostada Cobb Salad. It’s bright, light, and completely satisfying with enough spice to keep you warm even as the nights get a little cooler and longer.

Enjoy!