Chipotle Chicken Cobb Salad with Peaches - Video

Serve this healthy Chipotle Chicken Cobb Salad with Peaches, Avocado and Bacon at any summer party! It's a Cobb salad with Sweet Peach Dressing that makes a complete dinner.

Chipotle Chicken Cobb Salad with peaches, avocado, bacon and tomatoes! It's a summer party salad that makes a complete dinner for a warm night.

I make this often for summer dinners and it's always a hit. The combination of flavours is amazing! Spicy chipotle chicken, sweet peaches, salty crisp bacon bits, summer tomatoes and mild creamy avocado slices balance it all. It's my newest favourite chicken dinner salad.

But that's not all! Tossed with an amazing creamy sweet peach salad dressing, this is a dinner salad to remember (and one to make again and again.)

Peach and chipotle flavours are absolutely delicious together. Every summer, I make this Easy Peach Chipotle Glazed Chicken and this Avocado Grilled Peach and Chipotle Shrimp Salad, two of our favourite meals with peaches and chipotle.

One of the best things about serving a Cobb Salad to your friends or family is that they can choose what they like and avoid what they don't! Not a fan of bacon? No problem. Don't like tomatoes? No worries.

As written, this recipe will serve four people. For a crowd-sized Cobb salad, the recipe can easily be doubled or tripled. Use a large platter, add extra greens and pile on the other ingredients!

Ready to make this Cobb salad? Here's what you'll need:

Ingredients 

• chicken thighs:  8 meaty thighs. You can use chicken breasts, if you'd prefer. I find that it's hard to overcook chicken thighs on the grill, while chicken breasts can quickly become overdone, dry and chewy.
• a simple marinade: using ground chipotle pepper, olive oil, lemon and lime zest and lemon juice
• bacon:  nitrate-free, hormone free.
• cherry tomatoes: or other tomatoes, sliced. I used a variety of different cherry tomatoes.
• peaches:  I used white peaches, but yellow peaches would be equally as delicious and often have even more flavour. Choose firm peaches. If they're too soft, they won't hold their shape on the grill. There's no need to peel them. Leaving the peel on helps them to keep their shape when they're grilled. You'll need two peaches for the salad and half of another peach to make the dressing. (Peaches are on the Dirty Dozen list, so choose organic if you can.)
• avocados: two
• lettuce:  or mixed greens
• more lemon, olive oil and honey: for the Sweet Peach Salad Dressing

Instructions

1. First, combine the dressing ingredients in a blender or small food processor until very smooth. Set aside to allow flavours to blend. (Honestly, you're going to love this dressing so much, you might want to double the recipe for another salad later in the week!)
2. Next, combine the Chipotle Chicken marinade ingredients. Add to the chicken thighs in a marinating container or ziplock bag, massage to coat all the chicken pieces. Refrigerate until ready to grill. You can marinate it for as little as 20 minutes or up to 8 hours.
3. While the chicken is marinating, cook the bacon, drain, pat dry with paper towels, crumble or chop. * See recipe notes below for how to cook bacon in the oven and avoid the mess of stove-top cooking.
4. Grill the chicken until it is no longer pink inside and has reached an internal temperature of at least 165°F. Watch carefully to prevent scorching or burning. Remove from heat and slice.
5. While the chicken is cooking, grill the peaches (if desired.) They won't take long to develop grill marks. Turn with tongs and grill on the other side, then remove from the heat while still firm.
6. And finally, arrange the Cobb Salad on a large platter. Start with a bed of lettuce or mixed greens. Add chicken, cherry tomatoes, grilled (or fresh) peaches, avocado and bacon. Drizzle with Sweet Peach Salad Dressing.

If you're at all like me, you like feeling super organized when you're planning to have friends for dinner? This Chipotle Chicken Cobb Salad recipe lets you make much of it ahead of time.