7 Things At Texas Roadhouse That Are Probably Gone Forever

By this point, Texas Roadhouse is somewhat of a venerable institution. Since first opening its doors in 1993 (with the first location being, you may be surprised to learn, in Indiana), the restaurant chain has grown to massive proportions. In that time, its menu has remained surprisingly static. Perhaps that's what happens when you make it your mission to offer up the classics like steak, mashed potatoes, and cheeseburgers, but it's pretty remarkable that some of the best dishes at Texas Roadhouse are as available today as they were back when its very first branch met the world.

However, not all things last forever, and even the menu as traditional as Texas Roadhouse's has undergone a few changes in its time. Over the years, the restaurant has flirted with various different dishes that stray slightly away from its typical output of beef and potatoes. Many of these dishes, which seem to involve either chicken, pasta, or both, have since disappeared from the core Texas Roadhouse menu — and while you might be able to find them every now and again in certain franchised locations, they're very much on their way out for good. In other situations, Texas Roadhouse has changed up the way it makes certain menu items, leaving some of its all-time favorites altered for good and customers crying for them to come back.

For years, one of the key selling points of a meal at Texas Roadhouse was its iconic peanut buckets. When you went to Texas Roadhouse, you could expect a bucket of peanuts to arrive at your table shortly after sitting down. This free snack was designed to give customers a bit of added value with their dining experience, and to keep people from getting too ravenous as they waited for their meals. As the peanuts came in whole form, it was a pretty common sight for Texas Roadhouse floors around the country to be covered in scraps of shell, tossed over the shoulder of hungry customers.

Well, at some point, clearly the bigwigs at Texas Roadhouse HQ decided that those buckets were no longer working. Maybe it was the risk of peanut allergies being triggered, maybe it's because the amount of peanuts in each bucket made such a mess, or maybe it was because they wanted to make things simpler — but the buckets quietly disappeared during the COVID-19 pandemic. That's not to say that peanuts have entirely left the Texas Roadhouse orbit, though. Some branches still offer the snack to their customers, but instead they're provided in individual bags, not in a bucket. To be honest, that sounds way less fun, but we'll take what we can get.

Texas Roadhouse's San Antonio Chicken was a menu item a lot of people loved. This chicken entree took chicken breasts and smothered them with two different types of cheese, Monterey Jack and cheddar. Following this, the chicken was hit with a jalapeño relish that brought the spice factor up (which was already present, thanks to the Cajun seasoning on the chicken itself), and the seasoned rice it was served with brought the whole thing together. It may not have been the healthiest dish on the menu, with the sodium content being through the roof, but it was definitely tasty.

Sadly, though, it seems like Texas Roadhouse eventually tired of having this chicken dish on the menu — or maybe folks just felt that it was way too salty. Towards the end of the 2010s, Texas Roadhouse started to quietly remove it from its menus around the country, replacing it instead with new chicken dishes. This didn't escape the notice of certain customers, who took to social media to plead with Texas Roadhouse to bring it back. Unfortunately, the chain hasn't listened to these requests across the board, and the San Antonio Chicken is gone from its global menu. You might just be lucky enough to find it in certain franchised locations, but we wouldn't hold out hope.

Baked beans are a barbecue staple, and so it's no surprise that at one time you could get them at Texas Roadhouse. The steak joint's baked beans were one of the most distinctive sides it had, and while it wasn't the most popular item on the menu, plenty of people loved it for its balance of sweet, savory, and salty notes. It's amazing that some folks have remembered these beans at all, as they seemed to be a pretty minor item which first cropped up in Texas Roadhouse's more than a decade ago. They haven't been seen for years now — but that hasn't stopped people thinking of them fondly and trying to track down copycat recipes.

Luckily, some of the smart folks on the internet have figured out how to make a version of these baked beans in the comfort of your own home. You begin with a couple cans of regular baked beans, and then combine them with garlic powder, black pepper, BBQ sauce, diced onions, and chopped bacon. Then, stick them in an ovenproof dish, and bake until the bacon is cooked through and mellow-tasting and the onions are soft and sweet. Make sure you use firm beans here, as otherwise they'll melt into oblivion.

Although Texas Roadhouse is best-known for its steaks, that doesn't mean that chicken isn't on the menu. The restaurant has a vast array of chicken dishes, and it hasn't been afraid to spice things up in the decades it's been open. One way it's done this is with its Southwest Chicken, which was on its menu back in the 2010s and which gave diners a pretty hefty meal. This dish consisted of two individual chicken breasts that were seared to perfection and maximum flavor, and then topped with a portion of smooth, creamy black beans. A pico de gallo then topped the beans, and the whole thing was crowned with an ice cream scoop of sour cream. Look, we never said this was a healthy option, people.

However, like so many other menu items that have been consigned to the scrapheap of history, the Southwest Chicken's days were numbered. By the middle of 2019, Southwest Chicken was ousted from Texas Roadhouse menus around the country, apparently to make room for new items like the Herb Crusted Chicken, which you can still find there to this day. Naturally, this caused a bit of a stir in the Texas Roadhouse community, as Southwest Chicken was a favorite of some folks — but you can't fight the tides of change, people.

Once upon a time, Texas Roadhouse was the place to go for pasta. Well, that may not be entirely true — we'd bet that there are a few other restaurants that do pasta better — but if one of your friends wanted steak and another wanted creamy penne, it was a good middle ground. One of its flagship pasta dishes was the Sierra Chicken Pasta, a dish which wouldn't have been out of place at a Cheesecake Factory or Olive Garden. This pasta took pieces of penne and combined them with bacon and slices of grilled chicken, and then tossed it all in a rich, Asiago-based cheese sauce. The dish was then scattered with some fresh parsley and a sprinkling of parmesan cheese (because how could you not add this to any pasta dish?).

Regrettably, though, the Sierra Chicken Pasta didn't last forever on Texas Roadhouse's global menu. What was once a mainstay at the restaurant has since become harder and harder to find, leaving us in no doubt that your odds of trying it are slim to none. If you're lucky enough to be in a location that does sell the pasta, like Texas Roadhouse's Knoxville, Tennessee, branch, you should give it a spin while you can. Chances are that soon it will be gone for good.

Do you know what a Chicken Critter is? If you don't, we wouldn't blame you. You can bet that this slightly strange-sounding menu item at Texas Roadhouse has chicken, but other than that, it doesn't really give away what it is. Well, Chicken Critters are basically Texas Roadhouse's name for chicken tenders. These pieces of chicken breast are coated in breading, and then deep-fried until they're golden-brown and crunchy. You can have them as your main meal, as a side, or as an appetizer. The choice, folks, is up to you.

However, if you're looking for the old-style Chicken Critters that Texas Roadhouse used to put out into the world, you're gonna be disappointed. This menu item used to have an entirely different formulation, with an alternative coating and what some folks considered a superior chicken inside it. It seems like Texas Roadhouse made the change on this item around 2018, with people who pay keen attention to the Chicken Critters noticing that the new version just doesn't stand up in terms of its quality. The sad news is that it doesn't look like Texas Roadhouse is going to be changing its recipe back any time soon, so we might just be stuck with it for now.

It's fair to say that most people don't think of Texas Roadhouse as a place to get roast chicken. However, once upon a time, you could do just that. The Oven Roasted Half Chicken at Texas Roadhouse was a way to get a serious hit of protein in one go, and came smothered in BBQ flavors that corresponded well to the restaurant's main output. This was a popular item during the 2010s, and was served up in a ribs combo, as well as on its own.

However, the days of this chicken dish were numbered. By 2019, it seemed like Texas Roadhouse was phasing it out of its lineup, with more and more people noticing that the Oven Roasted Half Chicken was no longer an option at their local restaurant. Pretty soon, all franchisees had removed the Oven Roasted Half Chicken for good, and it wasn't available. The good news is that you can still get a version of this dish, but you'll have to be willing to travel ... to the Philippines. Texas Roadhouse restaurants in this country still offer it as an option, and it comes complete with a side of mixed vegetables and rice. Hey, that's one reason to go on holiday.