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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 the Executive Chef and CEO of Culinary Hill, a popular digital publication in the food space. She loves to combine her Midwestern food memories with her culinary school education to create her own delicious take on modern family fare. Millions of readers visit Culinary Hill each month for meticulously-tested recipes as well as skills and tricks for ingredient prep, cooking ahead, menu planning, and entertaining. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the iCUE Culinary Arts program at College of the Canyons.
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.