Portillo's Chopped Salad {BEST Salad Ever!} Gonna Want Seconds (2024)

Our copycat recipe of Portillo’s chopped salad is LOADED with lotsa chicken, pasta, bacon, and blue cheese then dressed in a sweet Italian dressing! YUM!!

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! No need to choose which kinda salad you like better, with this recipe, you get them both in one divine forkful!

Two types of lettuce, red cabbage, tomatoes, onions, bacon, chicken, pasta, and bacon!!!! That’s one heck of an ingredient list all mixed together, I tell ya, my friends!

Looking for more really delicious green salads? I hope you’ll try our fully loaded Mediterranean salad, strawberry salad, 1905 salad, and everyone’s favorite potluck salad, 7 layer salad! I promise these are all delicious salads everyone will love and actually eat!

What I Love About This Recipe

• I love 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 Chicago area fast food restaurant that’s been feeding and making people happy since 1963. They serve hot dogs, burgers, sandwiches, 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!

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 🙂

You can use grilled chicken, a 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!

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 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!

Portillos Salad Ingredients

• Pasta: I like ditalini pasta. Be sure to cook the pasta in well-salted water (I add 2 tablespoons of table salt to the pasta water).
• 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.
• Onions: I use green onions, aka scallions.
• Chicken: This is cooked chicken. You can use rotisserie chicken, poached chicken, or grilled chicken.
• Bacon: I prefer to always use uncured bacon, which means it doesn’t contain added nitrates.
• Cheese: This calls for blue cheese or Roquefort cheese, per your preference!
• Balsamic Dressing: This is an amazing salad dressing on this salad and virtually any other homemade salad you make! Don’t miss it!!!

Recipe Tips

• 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 throughoutthe 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 inhalf. 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 gooddeal 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 widthway. 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 downthe widthway.
  • 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!

How to Store and Make Ahead

• How Long Can You Keep This In The Fridge? Store this salad in the fridge in a well-sealed container. It’s best to add the dressing just before serving. This salad will keep for a couple of days in the fridge, but the texture will begin to change after about a day or so. Vinaigrette dressings have a tendency to make pasta and veggies go soft.
• 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 suggestprepping all the ingredients and the dressing but storing them separately.Mix everything together just before serving to maximize freshness and texture.

More Salads Your Family Will Love!

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

Want Pasta Salads Instead?

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

Reader Interactions