Cobb salad

The benchmark for a salad that eats like dinner: chicken, bacon, hard-boiled egg, avocado and blue cheese laid out in rows over chopped lettuce and tomato. Most accounts trace it to Robert Cobb at the Brown Derby in Los Angeles in 1937, though the date and creator are disputed. The work is in the prep rather than the cooking, roughly half an hour of boiling, frying and chopping, so it rewards making extra chicken and eggs for the week. The original paired it with a sharp red wine vinegar and mustard dressing rather than ranch, and that bite is what keeps all the richness from turning heavy. Pack the dressing separately and it travels well.