How to Make Chopped Wedge Salad Like a Steakhouse Pro

An iconic chopped wedge salad at a classic steakhouse is perfectly fine, but trying to commandeer that enormous hunk of iceberg lettuce onto your plate? Enter shredded wedge: a contemporary twist on all that chunky-crunchy-iceberg-y goodness, in pretty much every single bite.

Well, luckily enough, there are a couple of super simple adjustments you can make in the kitchen to get restaurant-grade taste in your own home.

Dry, Super-Chilled Iceberg Lettuce

Wedge salad the signifying ingredient for any wedge salad is without a doubt iceberg lettuce; it provides that cold crunch that you simply cannot resist.

Faux Pas: Don`t SHRED it, BREAK (the ice) and CUBE (wink wink). Chop your iceberg head into die-sized Gen X brownie bites.

Tip: Toss sections after chopping & dry with salad spinner. Leftover surface moisture dilutes your dressing and leaves crunchy salad as mushy slop. Chill the cut dehydrated vegetables for thirty minutes in a refrigerator

Homemade Blue Cheese Dressing Matters

Most store bough dressings are literally just way preserved. Completely devoid of the bright tangy flavors you need to cut through those oily bacon & avocado heavy toppings.

The Zinger—A drizzle of sour cream, mayo and perhaps buttermilk or fresh lemon (if available), garlic powder, and a small handful of crumble blue cheese (preferably Roquefort or Gorgonzola)

Texture Resource: Leave bits of crumbled up blue cheese in the dressing so that each bite is a crunchy explosion since you can’t blend all your blue cheese into it.

High-Contrast Toppings

The classic chopped wedge is all textural contrast and umami madness.

Thick-Cut Bacon: You will not be able to find those horrible little packets of bacon bits. Cook some thick-sliced hardwood smoked bacon until extra crispy and cut into large bite-size pieces

Sweet Tomatoes: Use halved cherry or grape tomatoes rather than large, diced tomatoes. They hold their structure and add bursts of natural sweetness.

A little tiny bit sharp: Superfine smalls, chop the red onion superfine, or put raw cut red onions in ice water for 10 minutes to cool off the devil.

The Layered Toss Technique

Too much heavy dressing makes iceberg leaves wilt.

How to Do It: First, very lightly toss the leaves with a bit of dressing in their bowl with their iceberg chopped. Top the dressed greens with all your chopped cooked bacon, tomatoes, more blue cheese crumbles & some freshly snipped chives right on top and simply scattering them in large only platter.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

So, what’s the thing that a traditional wedge salad has & a chopped wedge salad does not.

The classic version of a wedge salad features a whole quarter-head of iceberg lettuce presented on the plate without cutting. Not in the very literal sense—instead of cutting a wedge salad into wedges and serving them whole. Exactly like you see a chopped wedge salad reduces the iceberg to around an inch square pieces before coming time assembly. Everything is represented evenly with every bite. It’s far more approachable for eating (hello heavy drizzle!)

Can I make a chopped wedge salad ahead of time?

All the components: chopping the veggies, bacon and whisking the dressing can be prepared 24 hours in advance. Let me tell you something, nobody wants limp lettuce all the way to their plate. So don’t assemble and toss with dressing until just before serving.

An alternative is to use some blue cheese dressing, which you can also utilize within the recipe.

You can also serve with a thick, wealth buttermilk ranch dressing (or cream Thousand Island French dressing). Two terrific options to persist the steakhouse vibe if you’re not sending for the blue cheese.

How to keep iceberg lettuce crisp?

After you have rinsed your shredded iceberg in the drying basket of a salad spinner or placed it on paper towels, dry it well. Before dressing, place dry lettuce in an uncapped bowl inside the fridge for 30–60 minutes.