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I love making my own salad dressings and this Homemade Thousand Island Dressing is no exception. It is perfect in every way! Whether you call it Russian Dressing, 1000 Island, or Thousand Island….you won’t ever feel the need to by store bought again.
You could really use this dressing on any of your favorite salads or even on a Reuben sandwich, but my favorite way to serve it is on a Cobb salad. It adds so much flavor and is hearty enough to stand up to all the toppings on the Cobb.
I fell in love with Thousand Island dressing in jr. high school. It was the only dressing that sounded good on our taco salad bar day (shocking….there was no salsa). It was this, Italian, or Ranch….I picked Thousand Island and still love to put it on my taco salads. Hubbyman thinks it’s gross, but I love it!

Homemade Thousand Island Dressing
This Homemade Thousand Island Dressing is perfect in every way! Whether you call it Russian Dressing, 1000 Island, or Thousand Island....you won't ever feel the need to by store bought again.
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup mayonnaise (I used Veganise)
- 1 small onion, finely diced
- 1/8 cup ketchup
- 1 tbsp sweet chili sauce
- 1 tbsp vinegar
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1-3 tbsp milk (opt) (I used almond milk)
Instructions
- Combine all in a pint sized mason jar and shake well to combine. If dressing is too thick, add some milk, one tablespoon at a time, to thin it to your desired consistency.
What is the the name or brand of sweet chili sauce?
Hi Jan, I just used the store brand from Fry’s. It’s usually found near the Asian ingredients or the condiments like cocktail sauce. w-
I used buttermilk, a dash of salt, and didn’t have chili sauce so used a dash of cayenne pepper- delish!
I am going to cancel my emails it takes too much paper and ink to print a recipe.
Sorry to that. There is a “print recipe” feature on each recipe…and the recipe only uses black ink and the image should be pretty small (or you could try just printing in black and white). The majority of my recipes take less than one page to print. w-
The Thousand Island is delicious! I added finely chopped pickles!
Thank you!
So glad you loved it Donnie. The pickles make all the difference! w-
This is an interesting version of 1000 Island Salad Dressing. I live in the Thousand Islands, and here we don’t put onion, paprika, vinegar, or milk in it. It’s basically 2 ingredients – mayonnaise, and Heinz Chili Sauce (in what looks like a ketchup bottle), or ketchup, if you don’t have chili sauce. If pickle relish is added, we call it Russian Dressing.
Growing up, we had a tossed salad every night, with dinner. I was usually in charge of making the 1000 Island Salad Dressing. An interesting note: There are actually more than 1,800 islands here, between the US and Canada. 1000 Salad Dressing was created at the Thousand Islands Inn, in Clayton, NY. George Boldt, owner of the Waldorf Astoria empire, ate there often, and ordered his chefs to serve it in their restaurants. He is responsible for making our salad dressing famous.
I’ve heard of that method too, but I wanted something more from scratch this time. In a pinch I’ve done it that way and it is delicious!!! 🙂
What is the serving size for this? It’s not clear in the nutrional facts.
Serving size would be about 2 tbls or how ever much you want to add to your salad. lol I tend to like more, but typically 2 tbls is a serving size. w-
Ok thanks. It’s delicious. Thousand island is my favorite!!!
I love thousand island dressing and never thought to make my own. I bet it is much better than store bought, and now I am excited to try it!!
Yummy, homemade salad dressing, never tried a homemade dressing before, but i love knowing what goes into my food, so awesome to make it yourself at home, my husband loves thousand island but i prefer ranch. Going to have to make this for him.