Copycat Texas Roadhouse Salad (With the Famous Croutons)

Copycat Texas Roadhouse house salad is a steakhouse side salad made with iceberg and romaine lettuce, sharp cheddar cheese ribbons, chopped hard-boiled egg, grape tomatoes, and buttery garlic croutons served with dressing on the side.

The Texas Roadhouse house salad is one of those side dishes that sounds basic on paper until you are actually eating it and cannot stop. The combination of cold crisp lettuce with warm croutons and a generous pour of ranch is what makes it worth recreating at home. I have been making this copycat for a while now and the crouton recipe is the part I am most proud of.

The croutons are where this recipe earns its keep. I keep them warm for the table in a Lodge 5-inch Pre-Seasoned Mini Cast Iron Skillet, which holds heat through the whole meal and looks great next to the plate. For the cheddar, I shave wide ribbons off a block using my OXO Good Grips Y-Peeler instead of using pre-shredded, and it gives you those glossy ribbon-style pieces you see at the restaurant.

The other thing that makes the restaurant salad stand out is that the lettuce is always bone dry and ice cold. I use an OXO Good Grips Salad Spinner to pull every drop of water off before building the salad, and I chill the plates in the freezer for five minutes first. Both steps take almost no extra time and they are the difference between a salad that feels like a restaurant and one that just looks like one.

Key Takeaways

• The croutons are the most important component, and buttery, garlicky, homemade beats store-bought every time
• Texas Roadhouse uses a blend of iceberg and romaine, not one or the other
• Sharp cheddar shaved from a block with a Y-peeler gives you wide ribbons instead of the fine shreds that clump
• Chilling the plates before serving is the restaurant detail that keeps everything cold from first bite to last
• Ranch is the most-ordered dressing pairing but the signature sweet Italian is what makes Texas Roadhouse unique
• One serving with ranch dressing is about 505 calories

What Is the Texas Roadhouse House Salad

The Texas Roadhouse house salad is a starter side served before the main course and it is one of the chain’s most underrated menu items. The official menu describes it as fresh greens, cheddar cheese, tomato, egg, and croutons for $4.99. What makes it stand out is that Texas Roadhouse makes almost every salad component from scratch in each restaurant location.

Their croutons, ranch dressing, and salad greens are all prepped in-house daily. The one exception is the low-fat ranch, which is the only dressing on the menu they do not make from scratch. Every other dressing, including the regular ranch, is made fresh at each location every day.

I find this salad genuinely satisfying as a side and with warm croutons and a creamy ranch it passes as a light lunch on its own. The components are simple but the details are what separate a great version from a forgettable one.

What You Need

The lettuce base is equal parts iceberg and romaine. Iceberg provides the crunch and cold refreshing quality the salad is known for, while romaine adds structure and a slight bitterness. Some Texas Roadhouse locations also include small amounts of shredded carrot and red cabbage in the mix, which I add here since they add color and match the actual restaurant spec more closely.

For the cheese, grab a block of sharp cheddar and use the OXO Good Grips Y-Peeler to drag wide ribbons off the long side of the block. Pre-shredded cheddar has an anti-caking coating that dulls flavor and prevents those clean glossy pieces you see on the restaurant salad. The Y-peeler takes about 30 extra seconds and the result looks completely different.

For warm tableside crouton service, a Lodge 5-inch Mini Cast Iron Skillet holds heat well enough to keep the croutons crisp through the whole meal and looks the part next to the plate. It is under $15 and one of the most useful small pans you can own. For drying the lettuce, the OXO Good Grips Salad Spinner is worth having if you do not already. Wet lettuce dilutes the dressing and turns warm croutons soggy faster than anything else.

Ingredients (serves 4)

For the salad

• 3 cups iceberg lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces
• 3 cups romaine lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces
• ¼ cup shredded carrot (optional, for restaurant accuracy)
• ¼ cup shredded red cabbage (optional, for restaurant accuracy)
• 1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shaved into ribbons with an OXO Y-Peeler
• 2 large hard-boiled eggs, chopped
• 1 cup grape or cherry tomatoes, halved
• 2 cups buttery garlic croutons

For the buttery garlic croutons

• 4 cups day-old French bread or sourdough, cut into ¾-inch cubes
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• ¾ teaspoon garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley
• ¼ teaspoon onion powder

For the copycat ranch texas roadhouse salad dressing (makes about 1¾ cups)

• 1 cup mayonnaise
• ½ cup buttermilk
• ¼ cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley
• ½ teaspoon dried dill
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon onion powder
• ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• ¼ teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• ½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

How to Make the Croutons

Step 1: Start with the right bread

Day-old French bread, sourdough, or thick-cut Texas Toast all work well. Fresh bread holds too much moisture and goes gummy in the center instead of crisping through. If your bread is fresh, spread the cubes on a sheet pan and dry them in a 300°F oven for five minutes before you start.

Step 2: Make the seasoned butter mixture

Preheat the oven to 375°F and line a rimmed sheet pan with parchment. Whisk the melted butter, olive oil, garlic powder, salt, parsley, and onion powder together in a small bowl. Always use garlic powder, not fresh garlic. Fresh garlic burns at 375°F before the bread has time to crisp, and burned garlic ruins the entire batch.

Step 3: Coat and rest

Place the bread cubes in a large bowl and drizzle the seasoned butter over them slowly while tossing so every cube gets an even coat. Let the cubes rest in the bowl for five full minutes before baking. This rest lets the bread absorb the butter all the way through instead of just coating the surface.

Step 4: Bake in a single layer

Spread the cubes on the lined pan with space between each one. Crowding traps steam and prevents crisping, so use two pans if needed. Bake 12 to 15 minutes, tossing once at the 7-minute mark, until the cubes are deeply golden and feel dry on the outside but give slightly when squeezed. They finish crisping as they cool.

Step 5: Cool completely before storing

Spread on the pan and let them cool all the way before moving to a storage container. Storing them warm traps moisture and makes them go stale quickly. They keep for two weeks at room temperature in an airtight container and reheat at 350°F for 3 to 4 minutes when you want them warm.

How to Make the Salad

Step 1: Make the dressing first

Whisk all the ranch dressing ingredients together in a bowl until smooth. Cover and refrigerate for at least two hours before serving, overnight if possible.

The herbs need time to hydrate and the flavors need time to settle. A ranch made an hour before tasting flat just needs more time in the fridge, not more seasoning.

Step 2: Hard-boil the eggs

Place the eggs in a saucepan and cover with cold water by one inch. Bring to a rolling boil over high heat, cover the pan, remove from the heat, and let sit for 12 minutes.

Transfer immediately to an ice bath for 10 minutes. Peel under running water and chop into half-inch pieces.

Step 3: Dry the lettuce and chill the plates

Tear the iceberg and romaine into bite-size pieces, wash in cold water, then spin completely dry in a salad spinner. Put four salad plates or shallow bowls in the freezer for five minutes while you finish prepping.

Texas Roadhouse serves this salad on chilled plates and it is the detail that keeps everything cold and restaurant-quality from start to finish.

Step 4: Assemble Texas Roadhouse-style

Divide the lettuce evenly across all four chilled plates, about 1½ cups per plate. Top each with a quarter of the chopped egg, cheddar ribbons, and halved tomatoes.

Add half a cup of warm croutons to each plate right before serving. Bring the dressing on the side in a small ramekin, or tip the croutons over the salad from the mini cast iron skillet at the table for the full restaurant effect.

The Dressings

Texas Roadhouse offers nine dressing options and ranch is the most popular by a wide margin. The recipe above is a faithful copycat that gets better the longer it sits in the fridge. Make it the night before and it will taste much closer to the restaurant version than one made the same morning.

The other dressing worth making at home is their signature sweet Italian, which is tangy and a little sweet in a way that regular bottled Italian dressing does not match.

To make it: whisk together ¾ cup apple cider vinegar, ¼ cup sugar, 1 teaspoon each of garlic powder, onion powder, and white pepper, ½ tablespoon each of dried basil and oregano, ⅓ cup honey, and ¼ cup yellow mustard, then stream in 1½ cups of neutral oil slowly while whisking until emulsified. Refrigerate 30 minutes before serving. It keeps two weeks in the fridge.

One thing worth knowing: Texas Roadhouse makes every dressing from scratch in each restaurant location except the low-fat ranch. Regular ranch, honey mustard, blue cheese, honey French, Caesar, and Italian are all made fresh daily, which is why the flavors at the restaurant taste more developed than a bottle from a grocery store.

Tips for Getting It Right

Use block cheddar, not the bag. Pre-shredded cheese has a powdery anti-caking coating that prevents the glossy ribbon look and mutes the flavor. Fifteen seconds with a Y-peeler gives you restaurant-style pieces that look completely different from the fine shreds in a bag.

Never dress this salad in advance. Texas Roadhouse brings the dressing on the side for a reason. Once dressing hits the lettuce it starts breaking it down, and once it hits the croutons they go soft within minutes. Dress each portion at the table right before eating.

Warm croutons are a must for the restaurant experience. Pull them from the oven five minutes before plating, or reheat a stored batch at 350°F for four minutes. The contrast of cold lettuce against warm croutons is a big part of what makes this salad work.

Make-Ahead and Storage

The ranch dressing keeps in a sealed jar in the fridge for five to seven days and genuinely improves with time. Make it the night before and the flavor difference is noticeable compared to same-day.

The croutons keep two weeks in an airtight container at room temperature and up to six weeks in the freezer. Reheat at 350°F for 3 to 4 minutes to bring back the crunch. Homemade croutons are noticeably better than store-bought, but a bag of large-cut store-bought croutons works as a shortcut on a weeknight.

For meal prep, store the washed and dried lettuce in a paper-towel-lined airtight container in the fridge for up to four days. Keep the egg, cheese, tomatoes, croutons, and dressing all separate and assemble fresh when ready to serve.

Variations

To make it an entrée: Add a grilled chicken breast or sliced steak on top. The house salad base works well under any protein and the homemade ranch holds up to the extra weight.

To keep it lighter: Skip the croutons and use a low-fat dressing. The salad without croutons drops by roughly 150 calories per serving and is still a satisfying side.

To add restaurant add-ons: Bacon bits, blue cheese crumbles, and thin-sliced red onion are all available as paid upgrades at the restaurant. They are easy to add at home and each one turns this into something a little more substantial.

The Side Dish That Outshines the Steak

The Texas Roadhouse house salad is one of those restaurant sides people mention more than they probably should for a simple green salad. Warm croutons, cold crisp lettuce, cheddar ribbons, and a solid ranch pour are a combination that just works, and once you make the croutons from scratch you will understand why the restaurant version is worth talking about. Make it once and it becomes a regular rotation dish.

Frequently Asked Questions