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This homemade Thousand Island dressing comes together in 5 minutes with just 5 ingredients. It’s thick, delicious, and perfect on your next salad.
Table of Contents
Recipe ingredients
At a Glance: Here is a quick snapshot of what ingredients are in this recipe.
Please see the recipe card below for specific quantities.
Ingredient notes
- Pickles: Sweet pickle relish sounds like an easy substitute, but it’s too heavy and wet in this dressing. Not recommended.
- Ketchup: Some recipes use chili sauce (such as Heinz chili sauce), so feel free to substitute that if you prefer.
Instructions
- In a small bowl, whisk together mayonnaise, pickles, ketchup, lemon juice, garlic, and salt to taste (I like ½ teaspoon). Use immediately or refrigerate up to 4 days.
Recipe tips and variations
- Yield: This recipe makes 1 ½ cups dressing or 12 servings, 2 tablespoons each.
- Storage: Store covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
- More mix-ins: If you love an extra-chunky dressing, stir in 4 minced green olives (with pimientos) and/or 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley.
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Thousand Island Dressing
Ingredients
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 1/4 cup bread and butter pickles finely chopped (see note 1)
- 1/4 cup ketchup (see note 2)
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice (from 1 lemon)
- 1 clove garlic minced
- Salt optional
Instructions
- In a small bowl, whisk together mayonnaise, pickles, ketchup, lemon juice, garlic, and salt to taste (I like ½ teaspoon). Use immediately or refrigerate up to 4 days.
Notes
- Pickles: Sweet pickle relish sounds like an easy substitute, but it’s too heavy and wet in this dressing. Not recommended.
- Ketchup: Some recipes use chili sauce (such as Heinz chili sauce), so feel free to substitute that if you prefer.
- Yield: This recipe makes 1 ½ cups dressing or 12 servings, 2 tablespoons each.
- Storage: Store covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
- More mix-ins: If you love an extra-chunky dressing, stir in 4 minced green olives (with pimientos) and/or 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley.
Nutrition
Meggan Hill is a classically-trained chef and professional writer. Her meticulously-tested recipes and detailed tutorials bring confidence and success to home cooks everywhere. Meggan has been featured on NPR, HuffPost, FoxNews, LA Times, and more.
The acid in properly prepared mayonnaise and the pickles will certainly allow it to be stored for much longer than four days . The foods at picnics do not spoil because of mayonnaise but rather the foods they are served with.
My mom made Thousand Island dressing using mayo, ketchup, sweet pickle relish, finely chopped onion, chopped boiled egg and salt and pepper to taste. It was delicious!
Hi Nancy, that sounds delicious! Thank you for sharing! Take care – Meggan
How do restaurants keep their lettuce so crisp? In many steakhouses they serve a “mixed” salad, the ingredients are chopped finely…what ingredients would you suggest to make this type of salad?
Hi Barclay! So in some restaurants, they keep cut Romaine in water in the walk-in fridge and bring out smaller amounts for service. At home I just rinse, pat dry, and store in a ziplock with a paper towel. If it’s in a container, I put a damp paper towel in there. Hope this helps! – Meggan
I never cared for thousand island before this recipe! Very delicious.
I wonder what I could use in place of ketchup or chili sauce as I have a tomato allergy? Any suggestions?
I’d almost forgotten about Thousand Island dressing, seems it used to be way more popular than now, but anyway, needed some for St. Patrick’s Day reubens I’m making, so tried this, and it was better than any I remember tasting in the past. I’d not have thought to put it on burgers, but I have some left, so will try that next. Thanks for a great recipe.