Chef Salad brings together crisp veggies, and hearty ingredients that fill you up. This salad tastes like a meal with each forkful.
Sometimes the best meal is a simple, refreshing salad. For more of our favorite salads, try Thai Beef Salad, Avocado Tomato Corn Salad, and Classic Cobb next.
Sabrina’s Chef Salad Recipe
Chef Salad is an amazing salad that you can make in a matter of minutes. I’ve included ingredients for making homemade ranch dressing to go with this, but store bought is also fine. Use different kinds of veggies, cheese, and meat, like leftover Shredded Chicken. Rather than using it as a side dish, this salad is delicious and satisfying enough to be your main course. I especially love making this on a hot day when I don’t feel like turning my oven on. Don’t forget to check out the variations below, so you can fully customize your meal.
Recipe Card
Ingredients
Ranch Dressing:
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/2 teaspoon dried chives
- 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
Salad:
- 6 cups romaine lettuce , chopped
- 4 large eggs , hard boiled and quartered
- 3 cups cooked ham , chopped
- 8 ounces cheddar cheese , cubed
- 8 ounces Swiss cheese , cubed
- 2 vine tomatoes , chopped
- 1 cucumber , peeled and chopped
Instructions
Ranch Dressing:
- In a medium bowl whisk all the ingredients together.
Chef Salad:
- Add the lettuce, eggs, ham, cheddar cheese, Swiss cheese, tomatoes and cucumber.
- Add ranch dressing, mix gently and serve.
Nutrition
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Chef’s Note
I love to cut these ingredients into bite sized pieces to make the salad easier to eat, and I end up getting a little bit of everything in each bite. Prepping the ingredients like this and thoroughly tossing them makes for a great balance of all the flavors.
Table of contents
Can this be made ahead of time?
Yes. If you want to meal prep this, you can make the ranch dressing and store it in an airtight container in the fridge. Chop the fresh veggies, cheese, ham, eggs, combine the ingredients, and keep them covered in the fridge. Wait to add the dressing until right before serving. If you want an easy meal-prepped lunch for the week, divide the recipe into serving-sized airtight containers. Then split the dressing into sealable condiment bowls, and put in the container with the salad so that your packed lunch is ready to go.
How to Store
- Serve: After combining, don’t leave it sitting out at room temperature for more than an hour or two.
- Store: To store for later, cover in plastic wrap or transfer it to an airtight container to store in the fridge. Undressed, it can keep well for 3-4 days. But if you’ve already added the ranch, then I wouldn’t recommend keeping this recipe for more than a day before eating.
- Freeze: Unfortunately, fresh vegetables won’t maintain their texture after being frozen and thawed. You’re much better off making it from scratch.
Variations
- Vegetables: You could mostly stick to the original recipe with a few small changes, like swapping out the vine tomatoes for cherry or grape tomatoes, or change the slicing cucumber for an English cucumber. You could also add entirely new vegetables like sliced green onions, corn, black olives, or shredded carrots. Mix the romaine lettuce with a few cups iceberg lettuce, red leaf lettuce, or butter lettuce for a bit of variety in the salad base.
- Meat: Cold meats like turkey or chicken are good alternatives to cubed ham. You could also crumble a little bacon over the top before serving.
- Dressings: When it comes to the dressing, people serve this a lot of different ways. You’ll often find it made with creamy ranch dressing, as I used for this recipe, but there are lots of other favorite dressing options that you could try. Blue cheese, chipotle ranch, vinaigrette, or French dressing would all taste amazing.
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