Portillo’s Chopped Salad

Updates: 3/20/25 

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Our copycat Portillos chopped salad recipe is a delicious salad loaded with goodies that eats like a meal. During the warm months of spring and summer, everyone in your family will request this in your regular dinner rotation.

Looking for a salad recipe that everyone will LOVE? Well, in my book, this salad is “that” recipe! It’s like a cross between a really good green salad and a delicious pasta dish, loaded with everyone’s favorite goodies all in one! There’s no need to choose which kind of salad you like better; with this recipe, you get them both in one divine forkful! It works well as a side dish or hearty main course.

Two types of lettuce, red cabbage, tomatoes, onions, bacon, chicken, pasta, and bacon! That’s one heck of an ingredient list all mixed together. This is a great dish to make when you don’t want to heat up your house by turning on the oven. Cook some bacon up in the morning and stick it in the fridge. It’ll be ready to chop up when you want to have dinner in your nice cool house 🙂

Looking for more really delicious green salads? I hope you’ll try our copycat KFC coleslaw, fully loaded Mediterranean salad, strawberry salad, and 1905 salad.

WHAT YOU’LL LOVE ABOUT PORTILLO’S CHOPPED SALAD

• Every single ingredient in this salad!
• The ratio of goodies to veggies is fabulous.
• Even my hubby, who always says salad never fills him up, begs for this salad!
• Ohhhh the dressing ♥

WHAT AND WHERE IS PORTILLO’S

Have you ever been to Portillo’s? Well, if you haven’t, let me introduce you. Portillo’s is a famous fast food restaurant in Chicago, Illinois, that’s been feeding and making people happy since 1963. These days, they even have restaurants in California. They serve Chicago-style Italian beef sandwiches, hot dogs, burgers, cheese fries, chocolate cake, shakes, and of course, this wonderful salad. I read somewhere that this salad is the most popular item on the menu, and if you try it, you’ll quickly understand why!

PORTILLO’S CHOPPED SALAD RECIPE INGREDIENTS

• Pasta: I like ditalini pasta. Cook it in well-salted water (I add 2 tablespoons of table salt to the pasta water) and drain it well.
• Lettuce: This recipe uses both iceberg and romaine lettuce for an interesting mix.
• Cabbage: Red cabbage adds color, flavor, and extra nutrition.
• Tomatoes: I like Roma tomatoes in this salad. Grape or cherry tomatoes work equally as well.
• Onions: I use green onions, aka scallions.
• Chicken: This is cooked chicken.
• Bacon: I prefer to always use uncured bacon, which means it doesn’t contain added nitrates. After frying, be sure to drain on paper towels to remove excess grease.
• Cheese: This calls for blue cheese, gorgonzola cheese, or Roquefort cheese, depending on your preference! If you are a bleu cheese hater, try feta. Just remember, Feta is often a saltier cheese.
• Salt + Black Pepper: To taste, if needed.
• Balsamic Vinaigrette: This is an amazing salad dressing on this salad and virtually any other homemade salad you make! Don’t miss it!!! You can also switch things up and make the above recipe with white balsamic vinegar in place of the classic balsamic vinegar. It’s flavored with garlic cloves and has a sweet flavor because of the balsamic. I like to have an extra mason jar of this dressing in the fridge at all times!

RECIPE TIPS

• Dressing: When I make this homemade Balsamic Vinaigrette, I like to double the salad dressing ingredients. The dressing is really easy to make, and it’s wonderful to have on hand to use throughout the week. Use good-quality olive oil when making it.
  • It’s also helpful to have the increased quantity because I often add extra things, like chopped-up leftover veggies, to the salad. It’s an easy way to sneak a few more veggies into the family diet. Even my pickiest eaters don’t notice the cooked broccoli if I chop it fairly small when it’s mixed in with all the other amazing ingredients in this salad. So, needless to say, it’s good to make sure I have plenty of dressing.
  • Also, I want to let you know that Portillo’s sells its dressing, so if you’re lucky enough to live near Portillo’s, that’s always a really easy option!
• Bigger Batch: The salad itself is easy to double or even triple if you need to feed a large group. When I serve this to a large group, I dress the salad with the suggested amount of dressing, then serve extra on the side. You’d be surprised how often people want a little more salad dressing. For large groups, I serve this in my Grandma’s gorgeous cut glass punch bowl. It’s the perfect size when this recipe is tripled!
  • If I’m making this for dinner for just hubby and me, I cut the recipe in half. A half recipe feeds us both generously, with a little leftover for a midnight snack! I try to make the dressing ahead of time so I can toss the cooked and well-drained pasta with a bit of it. The pasta has a little more time to absorb more of the dressing than it otherwise would, and it really adds a good deal of extra flavor to the finished salad.
• Blue Cheese: The easiest way to crumble it is to place the chunk of cheese on a plate and break it apart with a fork. I put the crumbled cheese on a small plate and stick it in the freezer for about 5-7 minutes before I’m ready to toss the salad. This little step helps to firm up the cheese so it doesn’t break up too much when you add it to the salad. I also toss the salad a few times before adding the blue cheese, then I add it in, and toss just until the cheese is evenly distributed.
• Chicken: You can use grilled chicken breasts, store-bought rotisserie chicken, or leftover chicken from another meal. Personally, I love using rotisserie chicken in this recipe. The flavors are great, and it makes getting dinner out on the table so much easier!
• Make Mine Steak! Occasionally, when I make this recipe, I substitute the chicken with leftover grilled steak from the night before. That combination of steak and the rest of the salad ingredients is really amazing. No surprise that the steak version is my hubby’s favorite way for me to prepare this salad. I simply have to convince the big ole carnivore not to eat all the steak we grill the night before!
• Cutting the lettuce: 
  • For The Iceberg lettuce, I cut it like I would chop an onion. I cut the head in half down through the stem. Then, I lay one half on the flat side and cut all the way through the long way and all the way through the width way. You end up with little squares.
  • For the Romaine lettuce, I stack the leaves up about 4-5 at a time and then cut through the stack all the way through the layers down the long way and then all the way through the layers down the width way.
  • Cabbage: Fortunately, my local grocery store sells shredded red cabbage. All I have to do with the cabbage is run my knife through it and chop it up!

STORING + FREEZING + MAKE AHEAD

• How Long Can You Keep This In The Refrigerator? Store this undressed salad in an airtight container. It’s best to add the dressing just before serving. Vinaigrette dressings tend to make pasta and veggies go soft. This salad will keep for a couple of days in the fridge.
• Can You Freeze This? Freezing pasta salad isn’t recommended. The texture just isn’t the same after a trip through the deep freeze!
• Make-Ahead Tips: If you want to make this salad ahead of time, I suggest prepping all the ingredients and the dressing but storing them separately. Mix everything together just before serving to maximize freshness and texture.

HOW TO MAKE COPYCAT PORTILLO’S CHOPPED SALAD RECIPE

1. Make the Balsamic Vinaigrette. As I’ve said before, this vinaigrette is so delicious, I often make a double batch and use it throughout the week!
2. Add all the salad ingredients to a large bowl, except the cheese and vinaigrette. Toss to combine ingredients evenly.
3. Add dressing, then toss. Sprinkle bleu cheese over the salad.

***See Full Instructions on the recipe card below

MORE SALADS YOUR FAMILY WILL LOVE!

• 7 Layer Salad
• Strawberry Spinach Salad 
• Creamy Cucumber Salad
• Broccoli Salad
• Pea Salad
• Mexican Corn Salad
• Carrot Salad
• Cucumber Tomato Salad
• Marinated Tomato Salad
• Pizza Salad

Check out all of our pasta salads! Please let me know which ones you try!

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Portillo's Chopped Salad Recipe

Portillo's Chopped Salad is a copycat recipe like the restaurant version. Loaded with great chicken, pasta, bacon, and blue cheese then dressed in a sweet Italian dressing!

Prep Time45 minutes mins

Total Time45 minutes mins

Servings: 8 People

Author: Kathleen

Ingredients

• ▢ 4 cups Ditalini pasta cooked al dente in salted water, completely cooled
• ▢ 3 cups iceberg lettuce chopped
• ▢ 3 cups Romaine lettuce chopped
• ▢ 2 cups red cabbage chopped
• ▢ 4 Roma tomatoes seeded and diced
• ▢ 1 cup green onions finely sliced
• ▢ 2 cups chicken cooked and cubed
• ▢ 1 cup bacon cooked and crumbled
• ▢ 4 ounces Gorgonzola crumbled
• ▢ 1 recipe homemade balsamic vinaigrette (aka-sweet Italian salad dressing)

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

• In a large bowl, add the salad ingredients together except the blue cheese. Toss well. 
• Add blue cheese (4 ounces) and Homemade Balsamic Vinaigrette. Toss just until the Gorgonzola is evenly distributed through the salad and the salad is well coated with the dressing. Taste and add more dressing as needed.

Fans Also Made:

• 
  Antipasto Salad
• 
  Cucumber Tomato Feta Salad
• 
  Quinoa Salad
• 
  Tortellini Salad

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Notes

1. Dressing: When I make this homemade Homemade Balsamic Vinaigrette I like to double the salad dressing ingredients. The dressing is really easy to make and it’s wonderful to have on hand to use throughout the week.
   • It’s also helpful to have the increased quantity because a lot of times I add extra things, like chopped-up leftover veggies, to the salad. It’s an easy way to sneak a few more veggies in the family diet. Even my pickiest eaters don’t notice the cooked broccoli if I chop it fairly small when it’s mixed in with all the other amazing ingredients in this salad. So needless to say, it’s good to make sure I have plenty of dressing.
   • Also, I want to let you know that Portillo’s sells its dressing, so if you’re lucky enough to live near Portillo’s that’s always a really easy option!
2. Bigger Batch: The salad itself is easy to double or even triple if you need to feed a large group. When I serve this to a large group, I dress the salad with the suggested amount of dressing then serve extra on the side. You’d be surprised how often people want a little more salad dressing. For large groups, I serve this in my Grandma’s gorgeous cut glass punch bowl. It’s the perfect size when this recipe is tripled!
   • If I’m making this for dinner for just hubby and me, I cut the recipe in half. A half recipe feeds us both generously with a little left over for a midnight snack! I try to make the dressing ahead of time, so I can toss the cooked and well-drained pasta with a bit of the dressing. The pasta has a little more time to absorb more of the dressing than it otherwise would and it really adds a good deal of extra flavor to the finished salad.
3. Blue Cheese: The easiest way to crumble it is to place the chunk of cheese on a plate and break it apart with a fork. I put the crumbled cheese on a small plate and stick it in the freezer for about 5-7 minutes before I’m ready to toss the salad. This little step helps to firm up the cheese so it doesn’t break up too much when you add it to the salad. I also toss the salad a few times before adding the blue cheese, then I add it in, and toss just until the cheese is evenly distributed.
4. Cutting the lettuce: 
   • For The Iceberg lettuce: I cut the Iceberg lettuce like I would chop an onion. I cut the head in half down through the stem. Then I lay one half on the flat side and cut all the way through the long way, then all the way through the width way. You end up with little squares.
   • For The Romaine lettuce: I stack the leaves up about 4-5 at a time and then cut through the stack all the way through the layers down the long way, then all the way through the layers down the width way.
   • Cabbage: Fortunately, at my local grocery store, I can buy shredded red cabbage. All I have to do with the cabbage is to run my knife through it and chop it up!

Nutrition

Serving: 1serving | Calories: 570kcal | Carbohydrates: 69g | Protein: 24g | Fat: 22g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 8g | Cholesterol: 51mg | Sodium: 397mg | Potassium: 579mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 5g | Vitamin A: 2460IU | Vitamin C: 21mg | Calcium: 130mg | Iron: 2mg

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