Double Nickel Dressing

Well, I've never eaten at the "Double Nickel" but their dressing is pretty good. I don't think I'd qualify this as a "sweet Italian" vinaigrette, but more of a "sweet mustard" vinaigrette with a bit of a kick from the red pepper flakes. I cut the recipe in half and knew right away that 1/2 cup of sugar was going to be waaaay to sweet so I used 1/4 cup (2 Tbsp. of Splenda). I upped the red pepper flakes a bit and used white wine vinegar. I didn't have corn oil so I used olive oil and half that amount - 1/2 cup. I put everything into my mini-food processor and gave let it go. Since it was a bit on the thin side I added 1 & 1/2 tsp. of dijon mustard. Next time I will most likely cut back even more on the sugar....but overall the sweet and spicy can be adjusted to one's personal taste. Very good over mixed greens.

When I mixed this up (and it was a snap in the food processor, 1 star for that!), I tasted it and thought waaaay too sweet! Since it makes a lot, I went ahead and tossed the salad with it and everyone liked it, a lot. It has just the right heat to go with the sweet and it works. Different from the usual, but good. I know I will try this again, but recommend the recipe be cut in half for first time users as it makes a lot and the sweet/hot combination might not be to your liking. The only substitution I made was red wine vinegar for white vinegar.

I've actually eaten at the Double Nickel!! This dressing was great, but I did as others suggested and cut back on the amount of sugar, heaped the tablespoons of ground mustard, and used white wine vinegar. Will definitely use again. Thanks for the recipe!!

This dressing is wonderful. I marinate diced chicken in it for an hour then fry it until it carmalizes which doesn't take long. Then I serve it on a bed of lettuce with diced celery, cucumbers, tomatoes and cheese! YUM! Great cool meal on hot summer days

I almost didn't try this because the reviews were reserved... but I'm glad I did because I absolutely LOVED it. At the suggestion of others, I cut back slightly on the sugar, but since I'm a fan of poppy seed dressings and other sweet concoctions. I didn't think this was too sweet unless you drown your salad. Use it sparingly and you'll be fine. I really liked the garlic flavor and the tang that the red pepper gave this recipe - I'll be making it regularly. Thanks!

I made a version with a few changes, but it was AMAZING! If anyone lives around Northern Illinois and knows about Portillo's salads, it tastes really similar to their chopped salad dressing if you cut back the sugar to 1/4 C, and add oregano and about a half a tablespoon of horseradish. Thank you so much for posting this. It is a great dressing!

I did not care for this, it is simply too sweet. I scaled the recipe to 10 servings then further reduced the sugar from 1/3 to 1/4 cup. I wasn't too bad the first night, but after sitting in the fridge over night it was like eating candy on my salad.

I scaled this down to 6 servings because I used it on pasta salad. Im nto a fan of using plain white vinegar in this I think a wine vinegar would add alot of depth. Worked fine for a spaghetti/broccoli/tomato salad.

I cut this recipe in half and scaled the sugar to 3 tablespoons. Plenty sweet enough! Gave it a whirl in a mini food processor and used it on a simple garden salad. We liked it and will try in a larger quantity for a pasta salad. I also used canola oil not corn.

Thanks for this keeper Anna! I've used it several times now. I love it for pasta salad especially. It's a big hit! Someone always asks for this recipe!

This is a good dressing once you cut back on the sugar. I cut the amount of sugar in half and it was a nice balance of hot and sweet. As written, it was just too sweet for me but that one change made the difference. Thanks for sharing, Anna :)

I made this for a dinner party and the guests loved it. I did alter slightly. I didn’t have white vinegar so I tried a white balsamic vinegar. It was much to sweet for my family’s taste so I added cider vinegar to almost double what the recipe called for before we got it tart enough for our taste. Would definitely make again with alit less sugar.

Works well as an emulsion or not. Reduce amount of sugar to about 1/4 c. and use more white wine vinegar as the other comments have suggested.

I like it but it was a bit sweeter than most Italian dressings. Yum

We were trying to mimic the Portillo's salad dressing from their Chicago restaurant. Being in Austin, Tx, we only get a taste once a year. The other recipe we've tried is the one that was posted and copied from the Sun Times some yrs back. I have to say that this recipe tastes more like the Portillo's recipe than the Sun Times version. We used balsamic white vinegar instead of the "white vinegar" specified, and added a bit more horseradish. The result is very close to the real thing. It's a bit more oily than the original. (We even brought a pint back from Chicago to measure against). With a bit more playing, we should have the closest thing to Portillo's dressing south of the Red River!! ;o)

This is an excellent salad dressing. My husband loved it and I've had many requests for the recipe.

Tastes just like the restaurant's. Easy to make and delicious!

Won't be making again, mine came out very thick, used the blender, maybe I over blended?

love this recipe. I did adjust it because I wanted to cut down on the amount of sugar in it. I adjusted the serving size down to 10 for the first batch. On a serving size of 10 it says to use 1/3 cup of sugar but I only used 2 heapingTbsp. I used about 1/2 cup of Olive oil (it's the only oil I had) instead of the 2/3 corn oil that is recommended. I decided to cut the measurement of Olive oil used based off of a recommendation from another reviewer. Followed all other measurements per the 10 serving recommendations. This was a perfect balance of sweet w/ a mild kick from the pepper flakes. I know I did not follow the recipe exactly but I am glad I found this one to use as a guide to make the perfect blend for me.

Perfect duplicate of the 55 salad dressing. I used to drive to one of the 55 restaurants to buy a jar (yes..they sold this by the jar). 55 salad is usually made with some bacon bits and sliced red onion.

I don't know which restaurant invented this dressing but it is served locally at the Rusty Bucket. It tastes exactly like their dressing. I do use Splenda instead of sugar. It is excellent!