Texas Roadhouse Ranch Dressing Recipe (Copycat)

Ask Roadhouse regulars what they would smuggle home and the ranch places top three. The house dressing is made from scratch daily, noticeably tangier and herbier than bottled, and it disappears into fried pickles, salads and Critters at a rate the kitchen plans for. The copycat is a five-minute whisk with one non-negotiable: real buttermilk.

The Recipe

Whisk together: ½ cup mayonnaise, ⅓ cup buttermilk, 2 tablespoons sour cream, ½ teaspoon dried dill, ½ teaspoon garlic powder, ¼ teaspoon onion powder, ¼ teaspoon salt, a pinch of black pepper and a teaspoon of fresh lemon juice. Chill 30 minutes minimum; an hour is better.

The chill is not ceremony. The dried herbs bloom in the dairy over that half hour, and the dressing thickens from pourable to properly ranch. Tasting at minute one versus minute forty is tasting two different dressings.

Why Buttermilk Is Non-Negotiable

The tang that separates restaurant ranch from bottled is live buttermilk acidity. Milk with lemon juice approximates it in emergencies, but the cultured flavor is the actual point. Buy the small carton; the leftovers have a destiny in our rolls recipe and every fried chicken soak worth doing.

Consistency control is the buttermilk's other job: more for a salad-pourable ranch, less for a fried-pickle dip that grips. The restaurant runs theirs on the thicker side for exactly that reason.

What to Dip In It

The house pairings: Fried Pickles, Chicken Critters, cheese fries and every salad on the salad menu. At home it upgrades pizza crusts, raw vegetables and the concept of leftovers generally.