TikTok's Outback Steakhouse Copycat Salad Uses Buttery Croutons

Steakhouses are known for being palaces of decadence. Any vegetables that appear seem to be creamed, smothered with Hollandaise, or stuffed with cheese. Steaks are the highlight of the menu and are often served with rich sauces or even compound butters that melt on top of the meat. And at Outback Steakhouse, in particular, customers have the option to start their meal with a fried Bloomin' onion, one serving of which contains 1,620 calories and more than 4,000 milligrams of sodium. With such abundance in every section of the menu, it makes sense that steakhouse salads are similarly jacked up in flavor.

Take, for instance, the classic wedge salad, which many people see as a chance to eat as much creamy blue cheese dressing and bacon as possible, never mind the iceberg beneath. Then there's Outback Steakhouse's Aussie cobb salad, which is loaded with hard-boiled eggs, tomatoes, bacon, cheese, and croutons. But a few years back, some fans noticed that the restaurant had changed its crouton recipe, which Outback confirmed on Twitter. Thankfully for those craving the taste of the original croutons, one intrepid home cook recently shared a copycat Outback Steakhouse crouton recipe on TikTok that could help satisfy the unique hunger that only comes from desiring a restaurant menu item that's no longer available.

When Outback Steakhouse changed its crouton recipe, some fans just couldn't deal. "We don't go hardly at all since the salad changed," shared one disappointed customer on Twitter. Luckily for those disappointed diners, capturing that savory, crunchy crouton taste at home is more than possible. TikTok recipe developer Laura Ashley Johnson shared a recipe for a copycat Outback Steakhouse side salad, including the ranch dressing and those famous croutons. 

The croutons are surprisingly easy to make from scratch. The TikToker cubes up a loaf of French bread (one former Outback Steakhouse employee commented that the croutons are actually made with potato bread, so true fans should adjust accordingly), then bakes the cubes and tosses them with a softened seasoned butter mixture that melts as it's mixed with the hot croutons. Those are then added back to the oven and baked until crispy. Once cooled, they can be sprinkled over any salad to give it that Outback flavor (which comes from butter, garlic, and Cajun seasoning, according to this and other copycat recipes) — or eaten plain as a crunchy, savory snack.