Trader Joe’s Garlic Spread Is a Dupe for Zankou Chicken’s Beloved Sauce

If you like California Mediterranean restaurant Zankou Chicken, you should know that Trader Joe’s has a great dupe for their garlic sauce. Let’s talk about it.

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You might already know exactly what I’m talking about, in which case, let me say my peace: Not only is this iconic TJ’s dip great to have around when your favorite Mediterranean restaurant only gives you one side of toum (it’s never enough), it’s also my biggest cooking hack. I buy two of these now whenever I hit up TJ’s—one for chips and french fries, because I can’t control myself around it, and the other for daily cooking.

The Zankou dupe in question: Trader Joe’s Garlic Spread Dip.

Some of you might know this whipped garlic dip as the product that put Trader Joe’s on the map. Please, correct me if I’m wrong in the comments, but this might have been one of the first traditional toums sold in major grocery stores. Or at the very least, one of the first to get pretty popular with shoppers unfamiliar with Mediterranean cuisine.

Like most toum, Trader Joe’s Garlic Spread Dip (redundant name, sorry not sorry) is just garlic, lemon juice, canola oil, and salt blended together for a whipped texture. It’s creamy and fluffy and potently tangy. When I first tried it, way back in undergrad, when my diet consisted of chicken nuggets and chipotle, I thought it was the best thing in the whole wide world.

Trader Joe’s Garlic Spread is more than a dip. You can put it in practically everything.

Putting this in my pasta sauces has been a game changer for me. Anytime I make a pesto, lemon cacio e pepe, or spaghetti alla nerano (mine and Stanley Tucci’s favorite pasta, fyi), I add some to get that lovely, deep, tangy garlic flavor to complement the lemon. I don’t use much, just half a spoonful or so.

Other than basic marinades and pasta (man, do I consume a lot of pasta), I also use it with:

Caprese sandwiches
Roasted rosemary potatoes… or just about any form of potato you can think of
Grilled cheese (yes, really; I spread a little on the either side of the bread)
Sauteed salmon with capers and lemon

Just a note: Don’t forget that this stuff has a lot of canola oil in it. If you’re cooking with it, you probably don’t need to use as much oil as usual!

If you like TJ’s Garlic Dip Spread but don’t shop at TJ’s, major grocery stores carry other options.

From Toom to Majestic to Fresh ‘n Nova (which makes our favorite baba ganoush), this condiment is finally getting the recognition it deserves and gaining popularity at the grocery store! You can find a version of it anywhere you shop.

Critics call TJ’s garlic dip a little heavy on the canola oil, and now that I order Mediterranean food on a biweekly basis from some really great restaurants in Los Angeles, I can’t disagree. My tastes aren’t refined enough to care (like, at all), but if yours are, let us know what you buy in the comments! We gotta do a taste test of garlic dip one of these days, and we’d love some recs.