The copycat recipes you really love probably came from here.

At one point Mars, Inc. chose to capitalize on the companys best-selling candy bar, and called this one Snickers Munch Bar. I think that may have been confusing to consumers who expected to open the wrapper and find something inside resembling a Snickers bar. Other than the abundance of peanuts in this butter toffee brittle, this candy bar is nothing like Snickers. It is, however, an awesome peanut brittle that's super-easy to clone. The original is made with only six ingredients: peanuts, sugar, butter, corn syrup, salt, and soy lecithin. The soy lecithin is an emulsifier used here for texture, but this ingredient is hard to find, and we really don't need it for a good clone. Use a candy thermometer to bring the mixture of sugar, butter, and corn syrup up to 300 degrees F, then pour it over warmed, salted peanuts. When the candy has cooled, break it into chunks and you will have created the equivalent of 12 bars of the addicting original. 

Menu Description: "Fresh ripe bananas in our rich vanilla cream, topped with fresh whipped cream or fluffy meringue." 

Bakers get to work by 5 a.m. at Marie Callender's to begin baking over 30 varieties of pies. Huge pies. Pies that weigh nearly three pounds apiece. The fresh, creamy, flaky delicious pies that have made Marie Callender's famous in the food biz. On those mornings about 250 pies will be made at each of the 147 restaurants. Modest, I suppose, when compared with Thanksgiving Day when the stores can make up to 3,500 pies each.

For now though, we'll start with just one—banana cream pie with flaky crust, whipped cream, and slivered almonds on top. This recipe requires that you bake the crust unfilled, so you will have to use a pie weight or other oven-safe object to keep the crust from puffing up. Large pie weights are sold in many stores, or you can use small metal or ceramic weights (sold in packages). Or place dried beans on the crust which has first been lined with aluminum foil or parchment paper.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

On a trip through Maine I saw an sign advertising a lobster sandwich at the world's most famous hamburger chain. Lobster at McDonalds? I just had to get a closer look. When I got inside a woman behind the counter told me that the sandwich is served only at select McDonald's locations, mostly in Maine, for a limited-time only during the summer months. So I ordered one and sat down in the dining room to examine it. When I opened up the wrapper I found chilled fresh lobster chunks tossed in mayonnaise and piled on a hoagie roll with a leaf of lettuce—it's McDonald's version of a lobster roll. I took a bite and it tasted pretty darn good. I ate the whole thing, ordered another one, and got back on the road. Driving off I thought about how strange it was to eat lobster at McDonald's.

Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.

This salad was one of the first six selections offered when Chili's Guiltless Grill premiered on the chain's menu in 1993. You'll love the Southwestern flavors in this delicious and healthy salad clone. The marinated grilled chicken has a sweet, smoky taste, and the pico de gallo lends a nice zip to the dish. Top it all off with irresistible Southwest dressing and you'll have a meal-size salad that comes in at only 5 grams of fat.

Nutrition Facts
Serving size–1 salad
Total servings–2
Calories per serving–558
Fat per serving–5g

Source: Top Secret Recipes Lite by Todd Wilbur.

In 1946, twenty-five-year-old S. Truett Cathy and his younger brother Ben, opened a restaurant called The Dwarf House in Hapeville, Georgia. In the early sixties Cathy began experimenting with different seasonings and a faster cooking method for his original chicken sandwich. The finished product is the famous pressure-cooked chicken sandwich now served at all 460 Chick-fil-A outlets in thirty-one states.

Annual sales for the chain topped $324 million in 1991. That makes Chick-fil-A the fourth largest fast-food chicken restaurant in the world. And Cathy still adheres to the deeply religious values that were with him in the days of the first Dwarf House. That is why you won't find any Chick-fil-A restaurants open on Sundays. 

Source: Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

Menu Description: "A grilled tilapia fillet brushed with a sweet and spicy glaze and garnished with red chili tapenade, cilantro and sesame seeds." 

Here's a great way to prepare that next batch of fresh fish fillets when you're contemplating a new taste. If you and your diners love spicy food this is the perfect clone, since the top secret glaze and tapenade recipes I've included here both come packing heat. You can make the sauces several hours—or even days—ahead of time, and then when you're ready to eat, the fish will cook up in less than 10 minutes. Chili's calls this "grilled" tilapia on the menu, but don't expect to find grill marks on the fish. It appears the restaurant uses a flat griddle or saute pan to cook the fish, since the tender tilapia would fall through the grate on a barbecue grill. Don't limit this recipe to tilapia. The intense glaze and tapenade will perk up a variety of fish fillets, from sea bass to salmon.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur.

For two years after the first Olive Garden restaurant opened in 1982, operators were still tweaking the restaurant's physical appearance and the food that was served. Even the tomato sauce was changed as many as 25 times. It's that sort of dedication that creates fabulous dishes like this popular soup. It blends the flavors of potatoes, kale, and Italian sausage in a slightly spicy chicken and cream broth. 

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

Menu Description: "Grilled Bread Topped with Fresh Chopped Tomato, Red Onion, Garlic, Basil and Olive Oil."

In 1972, Oscar and Evelyn Overton moved from Detroit to Los Angeles to build a wholesale bakery that would sell cheesecakes and other high-quality desserts to local restaurants. Business was a booming success, but some restaurants balked at the high prices the bakery was charging for its desserts. So, in 1978, the couple's son David decided to open a restaurant of his own—the first Cheesecake Factory restaurant—in posh Beverly Hills. The restaurant was an immediate success and soon David started an expansion of the concept. Sure, the current total of 20 restaurants doesn't seem like a lot, but his handful of stores earns the chain more than $100 million in business each year. That's more than some chains with four times the number of outlets rake in. 

Bruschetta is one of the top-selling appetizers at the restaurant chain. Bruschetta is toasted bread flavored with garlic and olive oil, broiled until crispy, and then arranged around a pile of tomato-basil salad in vinaigrette. This salad is scooped onto the bruschetta, and then you open wide. This version makes five slices just like the dish served at the restaurant, but the recipe can be easily doubled. 

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

Tony Roma had already been in the restaurant business for many years when he opened Tony Roma's Place in North Miami, Florida in 1972. This casual diner featured food at reasonable prices, nightly live entertainment and the house specialty: baby back ribs. Soon, customers were traveling from miles away to get a taste of the succulent, mouth-watering ribs. One rib-lover came from Texas in 1976: Clint Murchison, Jr., a Texas financier and owner of the Dallas Cowboys. After sampling the baby backs, and claiming they were the best he'd ever tasted, he struck up a deal with Tony to purchase the majority of the U.S. rights to the company and planned for a major expansion. 

The famous barbecue ribs served at the restaurant have been judged the best in America at a national rib cook-off and have won more than 30 awards at other state and local competitions. The secret to the tender, melt-in-your-mouth quality of the ribs at Tony Roma's is the long, slow-cooking process. Here is the Top Secret Recipes version of the cooking technique. 

The sauce cloned here is the sauce the made the chain famous—Tony Roma's serves it on their Original Baby Back Ribs. This version of the sauce uses a ketchup base, vinegar, dark corn syrup and a bit of Tabasco. The chain uses their sauce on baby back ribs and has started selling it by the bottle in each restaurant. Now you can make a version of your own that is less costly than the bottled brand, and can be used on any cut of ribs, or even chicken. Check out two other sauce recipes here.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

Menu Description: "Our flour tortilla is packed with sauteed chicken, sausage, bruschetta marinara, bacon and oozing with Monterey Jack cheese. We coat it with Parmesan, and pan-fry it to a crispy, golden brown, then drizzle it with balsamic glaze." 

Italy meets Mexico in this new hit appetizer that combines a cheese-filled tortilla with ingredients you wouldn't usually find inside a quesadilla, including Friday's bruschetta marinara. Parmesan cheese is crusted on the outside of the tortilla, and the balsamic glaze drizzle is the perfect finishing touch. This is an awesome party dish appetizer since the whole recipe makes 4 quesadillas that can each be sliced into as many as 8 pieces.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur.

For years Taco Bell customers had only the "mild" and "hot" varieties of free taco sauce blister packs to choose from to kick up their fistful of tacos. That is, until a recent addition to the hot sauce selection bumped the heat-o-meter up a few notches. True chili heads might find this sauce mild when compared with the glut of extreme pepper sauces on the market today, but it's definitely a recipe that improves on the Mexican fast-food chain's original hot sauce formula. 

Source: Even More Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

This is a simple recipe to clone the contents of the seasoning packet that bears the Taco Bell logo found in most grocery stores these days. You probably expect the seasoning mix to make meat that tastes exactly like the stuff you get at the big chain. Well, not exactly. It's more like the popular Lawry's taco seasoning mix, which still makes good spiced ground meat, and works great for a tasty bunch of tacos.

Source: Even More Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

The Jack Daniels Grill Glaze is one of the most scrumptious sauces you will ever taste on just about any meat. Introduced in April of 1997, this glaze has become one of Friday's best-selling items. This versatile sweet-and-slightly-spicy sauce can be ordered on salmon (pictured here), baby back ribs, steak, chicken, pork chops—even on chicken wings. I was asked to clone the sauce for an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show and I wanted the clone to be a good one, so I persuaded a T.G.I. Friday's server to show me the list of ingredients on the box the sauce was shipped in. I jotted down the info and created this recipe using only those ingredients, which helped a lot in creating this tasty hack. Use it to top your favorite meat, but if you're grilling, be sure to apply the sauce late in the cooking process just before taking the meat off the flame, since the sauce has a lot of sugar in it and will quickly burn. And don't forget to serve extra on the side.

Source: Top Secret Recipes Lite by Todd Wilbur.

Dave Thomas, Wendy's late founder, started serving this chili in 1969, the year the first Wendy's opened its doors. Over the years the recipe has changed a bit, but this version here is an great copy of the version of chili served in the early 90s. Try topping it with some chopped onion and Cheddar cheese, just as you can request in the restaurant.

Source: Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

Menu Description: "A house specialty full of baked potatoes and topped with Cheddar cheese, bacon and green onions."

The thick-and-creamy texture and rich taste of Tony Roma's best-selling soup is duplicated with a little flour, some half-and-half, and most notably, instant mashed potatoes. Give yourself an hour to bake the potatoes and around 30 minutes to prepare the soup. Garnish each serving with shredded cheese, crumbled bacon and green onions, and then humbly await your due praise.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur.

Hope your crew is hungry, because this recipe makes four Mexican Pizzas like those served at the Bell: seasoned ground beef and refried beans are sandwiched between two crispy flour tortillas, topped with melted cheddar cheese, salsa, diced tomato and chopped green onion. Slice it like a pizza and serve it with a smile. Prepare to blow your diners away with this one if they're at all familiar with the real thing.

Source: Even More Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

To copy Taco Bell's most famous burrito at home you first must assemble the meaty foundation of many of the chain's top-selling products: the spiced ground beef. Toss it and seven other tasty ingredients into a large flour tortilla and fold using the same technique as taught to new recruits to the chain. Add your favorite hot sauce for a bit of heat, or clone a Taco Bell hot sauce, such as the Taco Bell Fire Border Sauce with the clone recipe here.

Source: Even More Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

So good, and yet so easy. Now you can re-create this one at home by tossing a few ingredients into a saucepan. Try to find one of the large 32-ounce cartons of chicken broth from Swanson—there's four cups in there, so it's perfect for this recipe. One big head of broccoli should provide enough florets for you. Use only the florets and ditch the tough stems, but be sure to cut the florets into bite-size pieces before dropping them in.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur.

The T.G.I. Friday's chain engineered a system-wide rejuvenation by upgrading the look of the restaurants and replacing many old menu items with new, creative dishes including several Atkins-approved low-carb selections. Though not low-carb (because of the potatoes) this new menu addition is still a healthy entree choice, and the presentation is cool with the dish coming to your table in a sizzling iron skillet just like fajitas. This clone re-creates that same sizzling presentation in a large serving for two. If you want to serve more, add another 8 to 10 shrimp to the recipe—there are plenty of peppers and other stuff in there so the recipe will still work. Pop an oven-safe skillet into the oven as the potatoes are baking. This way, when the dish is ready to serve, you transfer it to this blazing hot pan just before bringing it to the table. Ah, listen to that sizzle. Since this pan will be heating up in a very hot oven, be sure not to use a skillet with a plastic handle that could melt. A large cast-iron skillet is the best choice, if you've got one. If you don't have an oven-safe pan, you can always heat up your skillet on the stovetop.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur.

Two friendly Atlanta, Georgia neighbors built the first Waffle House in 1955. With the dimpled breakfast hotcake as a signature item, the privately held chain grew into 20 Southern U.S. states. Today tasty food at rock-bottom prices, plus 24-hours-a-day service, makes Waffle House a regular stop for devoted customers any time of the day or night. And don't even think about referring to your server as a waitress—they're called "associates."

For the best clone of the 50-year-old secret waffle recipe you should chill the batter overnight in the fridge, just as they do in each of the restaurants. But sometimes you can't wait. If you need instant gratification, the recipe still works if you make the waffles the same day. Wait for at least 15 to 20 minutes before using he batter so that it can thicken a bit. That'll give you time to dust off the waffle iron and heat it up.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur.

That creamy, white Dijon sauce that smothers the original version of this delicious pasta is luscious indeed but cursed by oodles of flabby fat grams. This can be fixed in our reduce-fat clone by using strained fat-free yogurt-an ingredient apparently inspired by the ancient Mediterranean technique of straining yogurt through a cheesecloth-that adds a thick, creamy conistency to our sauce without adding fat.

Source: "Low-Fat Top Secret Recipes" by Todd Wilbur.

Nutrition Facts
Serving Size - 1 Entree
Total Servings - 4
Calories - 730 / Original - 930
Fat - 8 g / Original - 45g

Before there was Lone Star, Outback, or Ruth's Chris, a real rancher named Stuart Anderson was serving up huge cuts of delicious prime beef in his Seattle-based restaurant chain. The first Black Angus restaurant opened on April Fool's Day in 1964 and quickly became known for its huge, juicy cuts of prime rib.

Early on, Stuart Anderson's Black Angus served a signature bread dubbed "Ranch Bread" free with each meal. Around five years ago that evolved into Cheesy Garlic Bread, which is no longer free, but it is still a delicious and often requested side for any meal. Try to find a large loaf of French or Italian bread for this recipe. The recipe works with just about any type of bread loaf, but to make it more like the original, bigger is better.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

Menu Description: "Refried beans, cheddar cheese, guacamole, black olives, seasoned sour cream, green onions, tomatoes and cilantro. Served with tortilla chips and fresh salsa."

When the first T.G.I. Friday's opened in New York City in 1965 as a meeting place for single adults, Newsweek and The Saturday Evening Post reported that it was the beginning of the "singles age." Today the restaurant's customers have matured, many are married, and they bring their children with them to the more than 300 Friday's across the country and around the world.

The Nine-Layer Dip is an often requested appetizer on the T.G.I. Friday's menu. This dish will serve half a dozen people easily, so it's perfect for a small gathering. Don't worry if there's only a couple of you—leftovers can be refrigerated for a day or two. 

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

Menu Description: "Loaded with cheddar cheese and bacon. Served with sour cream and chives."

Perfume salesman Alan Stillman was a single guy in New York City in 1965, looking for a way to meet women who lived in his neighborhood. He figured out a way to get their attention: buy a broken-down beer joint in the area, jazz it up, an call it "The T.G.I.F." to attract the career crowd. Within a week, police had barricaded the area to control crowds flocking to Alan's new restaurant. The restaurant made $1 million in its first year—a lot of dough back then. Soon restaurateurs across the country were imitating the concept.

In 1974 T.G.I. Friday's invented an appetizer that would also be copied by many in the following years. Potato skins are still the most popular item on the T.G.I. Friday's menu, with nearly 4 million orders served every year. The recipe has the added benefit of providing you with leftover baked potato ready for mashing.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

How would you react if your dentist suddenly whipped out a giant Tootsie Roll for you to bite down on so that he could make a mold of your teeth? Ask patients of a dentist in Philadelphia who does just that. This is just one of the many facts that you learn researching the history of the Tootsie Roll, which, by the way, was named after the inventor's five-year-old daughter. Leo Herschfield created the chewy chocolate candy in his small store in New York in 1896. In those days, the candy was hand rolled and delivered to customers by horse-drawn carriage. Over one hundred years later, more than forty-nine million Tootsie Rolls in a variety of sizes are produced each day from operations all over the world.

Even though this clone recipe duplicates the tiny bite-size versions of the candy, you're free to make yours any size you like. The technique here is a tweaking of the previous secret formula that was featured in Low-Fat Top Secret Recipes, and it includes several upgrades. I found that more cocoa, plus the addition of salt and butter to the mix improved the flavor. I also found that bringing your sweet bubbling mixture to the firm ball stage 250 degrees F (you do have a candy thermometer, right?), and then stretching and pulling the candy like taffy (fun!) as it cools, will give you a finished product more like the real deal.

Source: Low-Fat Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

Celebrate life with clones for two of Friday's delicious new martinis: the super tasty Pomegranate Martini features Pama, the first pomegranate liqueur, and the Candy Apple Martini that tastes like a liquid caramel apple—really good stuff. As with any properly prepared martini, be sure to chill each glass by filling it with ice before making the drink, and shake everything up with much fury and enthusiasm before pouring.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur.

Mai Tai creator and restaurateur Victor Bergeron well-documented his original secret formula: His recipe from 1944 is a delicious blend of 17-year-old rum, lime juice, orange curacao, simple syrup and orgeat for a subtle flavoring of almond. When Vic's Tahitian friends sipped his new creation, they said "Mai Tai Roa Ae"—Tahitian for "out of this world, the best." So Vic named his drink "Mai Tai," and the rest is cocktail history.

The recipe has changed throughout the years using younger rums and various fruit and citrus juice measurements—you can find these other versions of the Mai Tai posted around the Internet. There is even a Trader Vic's Mai Tai mixer available in some stores. But nowhere will you find a formula for the "World Famous" $9.50 caramel-colored cocktail currently served at the 30 Trader Vic's restaurants that dot the globe. Why not? Because the secret ingredient in the current recipe is a concentrated syrup that is only available for commercial use at the restaurant chain. And that's the first formula we need to duplicate to get the exact flavors of the restaurant version into our home clone. I secured some of this "secret" concentrated mix, and figured out how to clone it using a super-sweet simple syrup solution plus orange and almond extracts. That's the first step. After that, add lime juice, lemon juice and dark rum, plus the syrup to a glass full of crushed ice; apply the proper garnishes; and you will have recreated two refreshing servings of one of the world's most famous cocktails.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur.

Sales erupted at Taco Bell when the chain introduced the new Volcano Taco in September 2008. A red corn tortilla shell filled with standard taco ingredients including spiced ground beef, lettuce, and cheese, is topped with a super-spicy cheese-based secret ingredient called Lava Sauce that makes this product one of the chain's most successful new menu items. When the Volcano Taco was removed from stores three months after its launch, internet groups quickly formed demanding the product's hasty return. Those campaigns worked. The Volcano taco returned to stores as a permanent menu item, along with a new burrito that also features the Lava Sauce. But there's no need to go all the way to Taco Bell and beg for extra sauce if you want to spread the same spicy joy on your homemade Mexican-style creations. Get a box of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese and use the powdered cheese inside to whip up your own Lava Sauce clone. Cayenne pepper cranks the sauce up to 800 Scoville units of heat compared to Taco Bell's Fire Sauce at 500 Scoville units, which makes this the hottest stuff you can get at the chain. Now, with this secret formula, you can adjust the heat up or down to your preference just by playing with the amount of cayenne you add. You can also make the sauce lower in fat by using reduced-fat mayo.

The best deal. If you like TGI Friday's Jack Daniel's Glaze, McDonald's Big Mac Sauce, Zaxby's and Raising Cane's Chicken Finger Sauce, and Subway Sweet Onion Sauce then you'll love this 4-pack of Top Secret Sauces.

Make your food taste like it came from a famous restaurant chain with these new top secret sauces from food hacker Todd Wilbur.

Take one of Tony Roma's famous sauces, brush it over some grilled salmon and you've got a bravo moment. But it's not just about saucing up the fish. The salmon is first rubbed with a secret seasoning blend before it's grilled. The sauce doesn't join the party until the end. For an encore, serve this dish along with the clone recipe for Maple Sweet Potatoes on the side just like in the restaurant, and absorb the applause. 

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur.

To make a version of this frozen treat at home, with fat reduced by about 75 percent, you will need fat-free vanilla ice cream, Nestle Quick, and low-fat milk. Oh, and a blender.

Nutrition Facts
Serving size–1 16-ounce
Total servings–2
Calories per serving–470 (Original–440)
Fat per serving–2g (Original–11g)

Source: Top Secret Recipes Lite by Todd Wilbur.

Of the four fabulous barbecue sauces served on the delicious ribs at Tony Roma's, this is the only one that wasn't cloned in the third book, Top Secret Restaurant Recipes. This sweet, smoky sauce is great on baby back ribs cooked with the Tony Roma's clone technique found on page 298 of that book or in recipes here on the site: for Chili's Baby Back Ribs here, and for Roadhouse Grill Baby Backs here. Or use the sauce on a recipe of your own for pork or beef ribs, even chicken. Now Tony Roma's sells each of its sauces at the restaurant chain, separately, or in gift sets. But if you don't have a Tony Roma's close by, or you just like to dabble, this is a good way to get great pro barbecue taste at home.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur.

Menu Description: "Some like it hot! Tender, meaty ribs basted with our spicy red hot sauce made with five types of peppers."

If you like your sauces really spicy, this is the recipe for you. Five different peppers go into this one: crushed red peppers, red bell pepper, Tabasco, cayenne pepper, and ground black pepper. The restaurant serves this on pork spareribs, but you can slather it on any ribs, or chicken, or steaks.

Use pork spareribs and the cooking technique from here to make the ribs.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

First served at Wendy's in 1969, the Frosty continues as a favorite in fast food shakes. This clone recipe is an improved version of the recipe that appeared in my first book, Top Secret Recipes. I've designed this new version for a one-person serving and have given it less of an intense chocolate flavor that's more like the real thing. I find the smaller yield also helps to make the shake blend better.

Source: Top Secret Recipes: Sodas, Smoothies, Spirits & Shakes by Todd Wilbur.

Potato skins are good for you, but those at chain restaurants can be loaded with fat and calories. For my appearance on The Dr. Oz Show I created this version using oil spray, turkey bacon and reduced-fat cheese to clone the famous potato skins, but with around one-third of the calories and one-quarter of the fat. 
 
Todd's Dr. Oz Clone
Calories: 178 (3 pieces)
Fat: 9g

Original T.G.I. Friday's
Calories: 624
Fat: 41g

In 1914, Charles H. Miller came up with this molasses and peanut butter candy and named it after his favorite aunt. His candy company flourished, selling many confections, but none as popular as the Mary Jane. Eventually all other candies were discontinued and Mary Janes were the only candy produced by the Miller company. Miller tried playing with the formula to improve the candy, but none could compare to the original. In 1985, Stark Candy Company bought the Miller company and added the Stark name to the wrapper. Even though ownership has changed, the Mary Jane recipe is the same as it was over 100 years ago.

Source: More Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

Check out the menu board at any Starbucks and you’ll find this frozen drink described as a blend of raspberry and other fruit juices plus Starbucks’ own Tazo brand tea. We’ve discovered that those other fruit juices include white grape juice, aroniaberry, cranberry, and blackberry. Since aroniaberry juice is next to impossible to track down in a local supermarket, we’ll have to make a taste-alike drink with a combination of just the other; more important flavors. Grab the raspberry syrup and a jar of seedless blackberry jam made by Knott’s Berry Farm, and brew up a little tea. Starbucks used Tazo black tea for the drink, but you can use the more common Lipton tea bags. You will only use 1/3 cup of the tea for this 1-serving recipe, so you’ll have plenty left over for additional servings, or for a quick iced tea fix.

Source: Top Secret Recipes: Sodas, Smoothies, Spirits & Shakes by Todd Wilbur.

The Smith Family has a secret recipe. Those in the family (the girls) who know the delicious top secret turkey chili recipe refuse to share it with other family members (one guy in particular). Can I crack the secret formula and figure out the recipe for this desperate, hungry sibling? Find out how close I get with this hack on The Steve Harvey Show. Watch the video. Then make the recipe for yourself.

Oprah named this blended concoction from the New York City-based Serendipity 3 one of her “Favorite Things” in 2006 saying that it makes her want to “dance on the chandeliers.”  Started in a basement on East 58^th Street in 1954, Serendipity 3 has been a top stop for many celebrities though the years. Tennessee Williams and Jackie Kennedy were regulars. Andy Warhol used to pay for his meals with original drawings. With locations now open in Boca Raton and Las Vegas, Serendipity 3 is more than just a sweet shop, and also serves omelettes, salads, pizza and ribs. But the joint is best known for its Frrrozen Hot Chocolate, which is ordered by around 10,000 customers each month. In the restaurant each frosty creation is made by combining a secret dry mix with milk and ice in a blender on high speed until smooth. The dessert is poured into a huge goblet, topped with whipped cream and chocolate shavings, and served with spoons and straws. The chain claims the secret mix is a blend of many different chocolates, and then released a recipe to the Oprah Winfrey Show a while back (posted on the show’s website) which supposedly revealed the secret formula. But it appears to be way off. The recipe given to Oprah says to use 6 half-ounce pieces “of your favorite chocolate,” but the chocolate in the restaurant’s secret dry mix comes only from cocoa powders. Also the recipe doesn’t mention anything about nonfat dry milk which is a big part of the dry mix. All you have to do is look at the ingredient list on the package of mix to see “sugar, nonfat dry milk, dextrose, and cocoas.” That’s it. But you don’t need to order a 5-dollar package of mix to enjoy this dessert. I’ll save you a little time and money with this original Top Secret Recipe I’ve worked up which uses three popular brands of cocoa, plus dry milk and sugar. Blend this mix with whole milk and ice and you’ll have a delicious (and cheap!) clone of Oprah’s favorite drink that tastes better than any recipe out there.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur.

Watch Todd make Serendipity 3 Frrrozen Hot Chocolate in this video.

Wendy's kicked it up a notch in 1996 when the burger chain introduced the Spicy Chicken Fillet Sandwich. The deep-fried chicken fillet is breaded with a secret coating containing just a bit of sting for those who like their food with heat. It's not knock-your-socks-off hot, but the spice gives the chicken a great flavor that's got customers coming back for more.

In this Top Secret Recipes reduced-fat conversion, you'll learn how to get that heat in the chicken, and then how to use a special baking technique that will give the clucker meat a breaded-and-fried consistency without too much oil.

Nutrition Facts
Serving size–1 sandwich
Total servings–4
Calories per serving–380 (Original–410)
Fat per serving–8g (Original–15g)

Source: Low-Fat Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

Nicknamed "Sliders" and "Gut Bombers," these famous tiny burgers were one of the earliest fast-food creations. It all started in 1921 when E.W. Ingram borrowed $700 to open a hamburger stand in Wichita, Kansas. Ingram chose the name White Castle because "white" signified purity and cleanliness, while "castle" represented strength. permanence, and stability. White Castle lived up to its name, maintaining that permanence and stability by growing steadily over the years to a total of 380 restaurants.

Ingram's inspiration was the development of steam-grilling, a unique process that helped the burgers retain moisture. The secret is grilling the meat over a small pile of onions that give off steam as they cook. Five holes in each mini-burger help to ensure that the meat is completely cooked without having to flip the patties. Today customers can buy these burgers "by the sack" at the outlets, or pick them up in the freezer section of most grocery stores.

The small slider buns used by White Castle are square. We can make something similar by slicing hot dog buns—you'll get 2 small burger buns from each hotdog bun. You may also use small hamburger buns and slice them into 2x2-inch squares.

Source: More Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

Some call them "whitey one-bite." They're also known as "sliders," gut busters," and "belly bombers." The cooking technique is unique to the chain, because it involves steaming the ground beef patties. Minced onions are placed on the grill, with a beef patty on top. The steam from the grilling onions rises up through the five holes in each thin patty so that the beef is thoroughly cooked without having to flip it over.

Now you can use the same method, but with reduced-fat ingredients, to cook a lower-fat version of one of the country's first chain burgers.

Nutrition Facts
Serving size–2 burgers
Total servings–8
Calories per serving–310 (Original–310)
Fat per serving–5g (Original–17g)

Source: Top Secret Recipes Lite by Todd Wilbur.

A while back when I was rummaging through my pantry I came upon several bottles of flavored Yoo-hoo that I had picked up from Wal-Mart and tucked away for over a year. Each of the bottles was covered with a little dust and needed a pretty fierce shaking, but the contents were well-preserved and still tasty. After some Web browsing of a few unofficial Yoo-hoo Web sites, I discovered these worshipped "Mix-ups" variety of the famous chocolate drink had since been discontinued and I was holding onto a few rare bottles. I immeditely got to work on some hacks, and soon figured out how to resurect these Dead Foods with some delicious and simple home clones.

Source: Top Secret Recipes: Sodas, Smoothies, Spirits & Shakes by Todd Wilbur.

At only 10 1/2 ounces per serving you might think this drink a bit wee. But I assure you, one of these packs a wallop, and two will get you speaking in haiku. This delicious raspberry margarita, along with an incredible southwestern cuisine, is making this small chain a big success story.

Source: Top Secret Recipes: Sodas, Smoothies, Spirits & Shakes by Todd Wilbur.

This clones Starbucks "Low-fat Creamy Blend of Coffee and Milk" that you find in the 9 1/2-ounce bottles in most stores. Those little suckers will set you back at least a buck, but this Top Secret Recipes version costs a mere fraction of that. The recipe requires espresso, but don't worry if you don't have an espresso machine. Check out the Tidbits below for a way to clone espresso with a standard drip machine and ground coffee. 

Soda and citrus flavors were combined in 1938 to create a grapefruit-lemon soft drink that would later inspire Coke to make Fresca. Fresca was popular when it was introduced in the 60s since it was artificially sweetened and contained no calories. That was back when diet drinks were just catching on. Nowadays just about every soda comes in a diet version, and Fresca sales have slipped, despite a tweaking of the formula in the early 90s.

Squirt continues to hold on to a loyal cult following, with many who claim the soda is the only true cure for a hangover. To clone it, just add real bottled white grapefruit juice, along with a little Kool-aid mix for a lemony zing, to the simple syrup recipe. Chill the syrup and soda water until cold and get ready to make a dozen cups worth of citrus soda at home.

Source: Top Secret Recipes: Sodas, Smoothies, Spirits & Shakes by Todd Wilbur.

New Yorkers would line up around the block at the 55^th Street location to get a hot cup of Al Yeganeh's delicious soup at Soup Kitchen International. And everyone was familiar with the demands posted near the order window: "Pick the soup you want!" "Have your money ready!" and "Move to the extreme left after ordering!" Violate any of these rules and Al sent you to the back of the line, even if you had waited for as long as two hours to get to the front. This is precisely how Yeganeh was portrayed by actor Larry Thomas in Seinfeld episode number 115, when he forever became known as "The Soup Nazi." After that episode aired a new rule was posted: "Do not mention the N Word (Nazi)!" In 2006 the original location closed and Al went into the business of franchising his concept under the new name "The Original Soup Man." Today there are more than 50 franchises throughout the U.S. and Canada, including six in Manhattan. But the recipes are still a secret, even from franchisees, since the soups are delivered premade to each location in 8-pound bags. Among the favorites to this day is the crab bisque, which is the soup Jerry orders on the show.

Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.

The cool thing about this Top Secret Recipe is that many of the ingredients come in a kit designed for making strawberry cheesecake. Find Jell-O No Bake Strawberry Cheesecake Mix near the puddings in your supermarket and you have half of the ingredients locked up. Inside the box are three separate packets: strawberries in syrup, the cheesecake mix powder, and graham cracker crumbs. You'll also need vanilla ice cream, a cup of milk, and some canned whipped cream. Toss the first four ingredients below in a blender until smooth, fill 2 glasses, and then top off the shakes with whipped cream and graham cracker crumbs from the kit. Everyone will freak out when they suck strawberry cheesecake through a straw. The recipe below makes 2 regular size shakes, but you can make another 2 shakes using up the remaining strawberries from the cheesecake kit. If you get some additional strawberries in syrup, you can make as many as 8 more shake clones with the remaining cheesecake mix powder and graham cracker crumbs.

Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.

These easy-to-make milkshake clones from Sonic's fountain are no longer available at the 3,342-unit drive-in burger chain, but we'll always have a clone. The straight peanut butter version is crazy delicious if you're into peanut butter. And when you add a little fudge to the recipe for the second hack here, you've got what tastes like a creamy Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. Good stuff, man.

Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.

The Sonic story starts back in 1953, when Troy Smith traded in his failing fried chicken stand in Shawnee, Oklahoma, for a parcel of land that had a steakhouse and a root beer stand on it. Troy thought he'd make the steakhouse his primary operation, but as it turned out, patrons preferred the hot dogs and cold drinks at the root beer stand. Troy dumped the steakhouse and focused on offering additional items at the stand such as hamburgers. Those hamburgers became the big seller at this revised restaurant, which Troy had dubbed the Top Hat. But that name would soon change when the Top Hat sign was replaced by one that read Sonic Drive-In.

This is a lower-fat clone of that first hamburger, which has been on the menu since the beginning. We'll substitute lean ground beef and fat-free mayonnaise to shear off more than sixteen grams of fat.

Nutrition Facts
Serving size–1 sandwich
Total servings–1
Calories–400 (Original–409)
Fat–10.5g (Original–26.6g)

Source: Low-Fat Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.