Wendy's Is Adding A New Grilled Chicken Cobb Salad To The Menu

One thing we've always appreciated about Wendy's is the wide variety of salads on offer. It's always nice to have a lighter fast food option to choose from that isn't just your typical burger and fries. While some of Wendy's salads are seasonal, like the Summer Strawberry Chicken Salad and the autumnal Harvest Chicken Salad, the latest one to join the lineup is going to be on the permanent menu: the grilled chicken Cobb. The chain has had a Cobb salad in the past, but it's been a while — the BLT Cobb dropped off the Wendy's menu in 2014.

Wendy's new Cobb salad is made with grilled chicken, of course, and it also includes chopped hard-boiled eggs, shredded cheddar cheese, bacon bits, chopped tomatoes, and fried onions all arranged in neat little piles on a bed of mixed lettuce and topped off with Wendy's creamy ranch dressing. This entrée salad itself comes in at 430 calories, while the dressing adds an additional 250 calories for a grand total of 680 in all.

So iconic is the Cobb salad that the Institute of Culinary Education has devoted an entire class to its history and composition. The salad, which dates back to 1937, was most likely the invention of Brown Derby restaurateur Bob Cobb. He threw it together from ingredients he had on hand in the fridge, then added the pièce de résistance: bacon. The first person to eat the salad was Sid Grauman, and if his name sounds familiar, it's because the theater that once bore his name is also the site of the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Enough with the history — what does a classic Cobb salad have in common with Wendy's version? Not too much, as it turns out. Cobb salad is made with romaine lettuce and has blue cheese crumbles instead of cheddar. While the chopped tomatoes and grilled chicken are authentic, as is the bacon, the original Cobb has green onions instead of fried ones and also contains chopped avocados. The most significant difference, though, is that Bob Cobb's salad was dressed with a light vinaigrette instead of Wendy's far heavier ranch. This is something you can easily remedy, however, as Wendy's allows you to choose your own salad dressing. This means you can swap out the ranch for pomegranate vinaigrette – not only does this switch get you closer to the Brown Derby Cobb, but it will also save you some calories.