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Restaurant recipes are very popular at pot lucks and this one won’t disappoint your friends and family. It’s an amazing mix of the sweet candied pecans and the smooth creamy taste of the blue cheese. I’ve modified this from some other recipes you’ll find online to make the dressing a bit sweeter than others. This is as close as you’ll get to the real recipe from Outback Steakhouse.
If you’re bringing this to a potluck, make sure you chill the salad bowl before adding the salad and toss everything just before you leave.
It may be easier to just buy some ready-made candied pecans instead of making them from scratch. If you want to duplicate the Outback salad recipe, you’ll need to put in the extra effort.
The blue cheese is very important because it’s such a strong part of the flavor. If you skimp on this, you’ll be detracting from the entire salad.
Ingredients
Candied cinnamon pecans
- 1/3 cup pecans sliced-lengthwise
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 Tablespoon dark brown sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons butter, melted
Salad
- 3 cups chopped butter or bibb lettuce
- 3 cups chopped red leaf lettuce
- 3 cups chopped iceberg lettuce
- 1 green onion, chopped
Blue cheese vinaigrette dressing
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
- 1/4 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons sour cream
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
- salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
Directions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Slice each pecan half into at least three lengthwise pieces.
- Combine the cinnamon and brown sugar.
- Toss the pecans with the melted butter, then with the cinnamon/sugar mixture, making sure to coat them all evenly.
- Put the nuts on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 5 to 8 minutes, until sugar is caramelized.
- Remove the baking sheet from the oven and slide the pecans off of the parchment to cool.
- Chop all of the lettuce into small bite-sized pieces; and rinse them with cool water.
- Slice the green onion.
- Whisk together the vinaigrette ingredients.
- Place the chopped lettuce into a serving bowl large enough to allow you to toss the salad.
- Add the vinaigrette and toss thoroughly.
- Sprinkle with the chopped onion.
- Break the cooled pecan slices apart and sprinkle them over the salad.
- Enjoy!
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(13 votes, average: 4.23 out of 5)






[...] Chopped Blue Cheese Salad This Outback salad is an amazing mix of sweet candied pecans, creamy blue cheese, soft butter lettuce along with red leaf and iceberg. A very simple restaurant recipe you can make often. [...]
It was the perfect salad to have before my prime rib dinner with delious garden vegetables and a wonderful sweet potato. We have never not had a perfect meal at the outback.