Portillo's Chopped Salad Recipe

Portillo's Chopped Salad on a serving platter

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!

Course Salad

Cuisine American

Keyword Portillo's Chopped Salad

Prep Time 45

Total Time 45

Servings People

Calories 570kcal

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.

Notes

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!
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.
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.
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