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You lucky devil. You just found copycat recipes for all of your favorite famous foods! Bestselling author and TV host Todd Wilbur shows you how to easily duplicate the taste of iconic dishes and treats at home. Get all the best restaurant recipes from Applebee's to El Pollo Loco here. New recipes added every week.
- American Coney Island
- Applebee's
- Arby's
- Auntie Anne's
- Bahama Breeze
- Baja Fresh
- Barney's Beanery
- Baskin-Robbins
- Benihana
- Bennigan's
- Big Boy
- BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse
- Bob Evans
- Bojangles'
- Bonchon
- Bonefish Grill
- Boston Market
- Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.
- Buca di Beppo
- Buffalo Wild Wings
- Burger King
- Cafe du Monde
- Cafe Rio
- California Pizza Kitchen
- Capital Grille
- Carl's Jr.
- Carnegie Deli
- Carrabba's
- Cheeseburger in Paradise
- Cheesecake Factory
- Cheddar's
- Chevys
- Chi-Chi's
- Chick-fil-A
- Chickie’s & Pete’s
- Chili's
- Chipotle
- Church's Chicken
- Cinnabon
- Claim Jumper
- Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf
- Cosmic Wings
- Cracker Barrel
- Crumbl
- Dairy Queen
- Del Taco
- Denny's
- Dickey's
- Din Tai Fung
- Dive!
- Domino's
- DoubleTree
- Dunkin' Donuts
- Einstein Bros. Bagels
- El Pollo Loco
- Emeril's
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Denny's Scram Slam
Read moreMenu Description: "Three eggs scrambled with Cheddar cheese, mushrooms, green peppers and onions, then topped with diced tomatoes. Served with hash browns, sausage, bacon and choice of toast, homestyle buttermilk biscuit or English muffin."
In 1953, Harold Butler realized his dream of opening a donut shop. The little shop in Lakewood, California was called Danny's Donuts, and Harold's philosophy was simple: "We're going to serve the best cup of coffee; make the best donuts; give the best service; keep everything spotless; offer the best value; and stay open 24 hours a day."
That little donut store made $120,000 in its first year—a good bit of change for any restaurant in 1953. When customers showed interest in a more diverse menu, Harold began offering sandwiches, breakfasts, and other meals; and in 1954 changed the name to Danny's Coffee Shops. The name of the chain would eventually change again, this time to Denny's—the nation's largest full-service restaurant chain when this recipe was created.
In 1977, Denny's introduced the Grand Slam Breakfast—a value priced breakfast that included eggs, sausage, bacon, and pancakes. Later, the successful Grand Slam Breakfast specials expanded to include other variations including the French Slam, Southern Slam, and the Scram Slam, a popular vegetable-and-scrambled egg creation you can now make for yourself.How about some pancakes or French toast to go with your scrambled eggs? Click here for more copycat recipes from Denny's.
Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes by Todd Wilbur. -
Denny's Buttermilk Pancakes
Read moreFirst impressions are important, and after my first bite of Denny's new buttermilk pancakes, I couldn't stop thinking about waffle cones. Back in the lab, I mashed together a standard waffle cone recipe with one of mine for buttermilk pancakes and was able to create the perfect recipe for Denny’s new, improved buttermilk flapjacks. And because of their unique waffle cone flavor, these pancakes taste just as great doused with maple syrup as they do topped with a big scoop of ice cream.
My Denny's Buttermilk Pancakes copycat recipe makes eight big 6-inch pancakes, which you will form by measuring 1/2 cup of batter onto your preheated griddle or skillet. If you have a large griddle pan, you may be able to make a couple of these at a time. With smaller pans, though, you’ll have to make one at a time, which will take a little longer. And that’s why they invented mimosas.
Looking for more Denny's copycat recipes? You can find them here.
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Orville Redenbacher's Movie Theater Butter Popcorn
Read moreThe health concerns regarding microwave popcorn are a result of the way it’s packaged. For the corn to pop, the kernels are submerged in boiling fat inside the bag until a buildup of steam in the kernels causes them to burst. To prevent the liquid fat from seeping through, the bags are lined with a chemical called perfluorooctanoic acid, which, unfortunately for microwave popcorn lovers, has been linked to cancer and other nasty things.
I set out on a mission to make better homemade microwave popcorn with only natural ingredients, and without using costly popping gadgets. I also wanted to avoid using plastic, tape, or metal, such as staples. My solution is a new method of prepping the kernels, but like many other techniques I researched, it requires paper lunch bags. I was dismayed to find some discussions about the potential for problems using brown paper bags in your microwave oven, such as fire, but I had absolutely no issues any of the many times I did it. No smoke, no sparks, nothing looking at all dangerous was going on inside my cooking box. The USDA states that using paper bags in your microwave, “may cause a fire, and may emit toxic fumes,” yet the internet is full of microwave popcorn recipes calling for paper bags. I chose to still share my recipe and technique, but ultimately leave it up to you to decide if it’s a hack recipe you feel safe using. If you’d rather stay on the safe side, see the Tidbits for an alternate technique.
My Orville Redenbacher's Movie Theater Butter Popcorn copycat recipe starts with clarifying butter so that it’s pure fat, without any milk solids or water. Butter is about 16 percent water and if any of that stays in the mix, your popcorn will be on a fast trip to Soggytown. Once the butter is clarified, we’ll combine it with popcorn and salt and freeze it into pucks that can be saved for weeks until you are ready to make quick popcorn.
When it’s popcorn time, a puck goes into a small bowl, which goes inside two interlocking paper bags. After a warming session, you hit the “popcorn” button on your microwave oven and the popcorn will pop just like the store product (you may have to add another 30 seconds or so of cooking time). The first bag will soak up the excess butter that splashes around inside as the popcorn pops, and the second bag will keep the butter from messing up your oven.
To serve, pull the bags apart over a big bowl, and you’ll have a fresh batch of hot microwave popcorn coated perfectly with real butter and salt.
If you're like me and you like things spicy, try sprinkling your copycat Orville Redenbacher Movie Theatre Popcorn with my original Hell Flakes to create what we like to call "Hell Corn".
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Bojangles' Dirty Rice
Read moreBojangles’ signature Cajun rice is always a big seller at the 750-unit fried chicken chain, and a hack has been on my hit list for years now. When I recently found myself in Huntsville, Alabama, I stopped at Bojangles’ and filled up my travel cooler with tubs of dirty rice and buttermilk biscuits and smuggled them safely back to the underground lab in Vegas.
Dirty rice gets its dirty look from the chunks of pork sausage (made from the patties used on the breakfast biscuit sandwiches), and the ground green herbs found in the traditional, and top secret, Cajun seasoning blend. For my Bojangles' dirty rice recipe below, I started with the seasoning, and since I couldn’t see any large herb leaf pieces, I made sure to crush the dried parsley in the palm of my hand before adding it. I figured oregano and thyme would be in there, but they should be in ground form to contribute the proper green “dirtiness” to the rice.
Flavors in Cajun cooking are often created with what’s known as “the holy trinity,” a combination of onion, celery, and bell pepper. The celery salt in the Cajun seasoning brings the celery flavor to the dish. Adding green onion and red bell pepper to the rice completes the trinity. Be sure to finely mince the red bell pepper before sweating it in the butter with the green onion. And keep the heat medium/low when you cook the pepper and green onion to prevent the butter from burning.
As for the rice, I found converted to work best since it’s less starchy and tends not to be as sticky. Converted rice has been parboiled in its husk, so it’s also a healthier option than regular white rice, and there’s certainly nothing wrong with that. If you can’t find converted rice (Uncle Ben’s is a good one), you can also use long-grain white rice.
Check out more of my Bojangles copycat recipes here.
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Chick-fil-A Mac & Cheese
Read moreThe new Mac & Cheese at Chick-fil-A is baked fresh every day, and the recipe is more complex than you might expect from a fast food chicken chain. According to the official list of ingredients, the formula includes several different kinds of cheese including Parmesan, Romano, and award-winning hard cheese from Wisconsin called BellaVitano. The BellaVitano cheese adds a subtle nuttiness to the mix and all three hard cheeses contribute big umami flavor that nicely complements the blend of white and yellow cheddars.
Those five kinds of cheese combine to make a great flavor, but the blend would melt into a greasy mess if it weren’t for the assistance of one more ubiquitous cheese: American. The benefit of American cheese—which makes up for its lack of flavor—is found in the sodium citrate it contains. This natural sodium salt is an emulsifier that keeps the fat in the cheese from separating (and it also happens to be useful in preventing kidney stones!). By first melting several slices of American cheese in the milk, we don’t need to make a roux to create a perfectly smooth cheese sauce.
As for cooking the macaroni, here’s another secret: don’t follow the directions on the box for al dente pasta, because you don’t want the pasta to be al dente, or slightly tough. You want to cook the elbow macaroni for 20 minutes so that it absorbs as much water as possible. This will ensure that the pasta won’t suck up liquid in the cheese sauce when they are combined, and the sauce will maintain a perfectly creamy consistency.
Try my Chick-fil-A mac and cheese copycat recipe below, and click here for more Chick-fil-A copycat recipes.
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Carl's Jr. Fried Zucchini
Read moreFor decades, Carl’s Jr. has effectively cornered the market on fried zucchini at major fast food chains by serving a great crispy breaded version that’s flavorful all the way through. Now you can make zucchini that tastes just as good, as long as you know the secret step that other fried zucchini recipes miss. It makes all the difference.
The secret is a brine. I found that this fried zucchini tastes best when it takes a salted water bath before breading. In 60 minutes, the salt in the brine is absorbed by the zucchini, spreading good flavor all the way through. After the brine, the zucchini is rinsed, coated twice with flour and once with seasoned breadcrumbs, and fried to a beautiful golden brown.
I’m giving you a couple choices here. You can make the recipe all the way through and serve it immediately, or if you want to serve it later, you can par-fry the zucchini and freeze it for several days. After that, when an occasion arises, a couple minutes is all it takes to finish off the dish and serve it. My Carl's Jr. Fried Zucchini copycat recipe makes enough for a small gathering, but you can easily cut it in half for a more intimate hang.
Click here for more amazing Carl's Jr. copycat recipes.
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California Pizza Kitchen Spicy Buffalo Cauliflower
Read moreCrispy cauliflower appetizers are abundant at the chains these days, and not all of them are good enough to be clone-worthy, but CPK’s take on breaded cauliflower in buffalo wing sauce is one of the best I’ve had. The crispy florets are made gluten-free with rice flour and they are beautifully presented in a puddle of ranch dressing, sprinkled with Gorgonzola cheese, and topped with julienned celery and green onions.
For the sauce, CPK chefs combine the flavor of traditional buffalo wings with sriracha and then sweeten it a bit. After a few tries, I came up with a hack that’s ridiculously easy, requiring only four ingredients.
The batter is even easier, with only three ingredients— rice flour, buttermilk, and salt—and once your oil is hot enough, it takes under 3 minutes to cook the cauliflower to perfection. After a gentle toss in the secret sauce, you’re ready to plate your trendy, tantalizing appetizer.
If you like my California Pizza Kitchen Spicy Buffalo Cauliflower recipe, you should check out my clone recipes for popular CPK pizzas, soups, and salads here.
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Bojangles' Bo's Special Sauce
Read moreBojangles’ was founded in 1977 in Charlotte, North Carolina, and today the 750-unit chain is famous throughout the southeastern U.S. for its juicy fried chicken, fluffy buttermilk biscuits, and Cajun dirty rice.
And just like McDonald’s, Bo’s has a special sauce that’s pretty famous too. It’s arguably much better than McDonald’s Big Mac sauce, especially if you like the flavors of horseradish and roasted red bell pepper. The lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, and sugar team up for the appropriate sweet-and-sour notes found in any decent special sauce, and the herbs add a nice finish you don’t get with other sandwich sauces. You might also like to know that my Bo's special sauce recipe is made without the high-fructose corn syrup that’s listed as the third ingredient in the real thing.
Mix everything in a bowl and park it in the fridge for a spell so the flavors can mingle, then use the sauce as you see fit on sandwiches made with fried chicken, grilled chicken, and roast beef, or as a dip for chicken fingers and nuggets.
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Bojangles' Bo-Berry Biscuits
Read moreIf you like Bojangles’ famous flakey buttermilk biscuits, then you’ve got to be a fan of the chain’s popular Bo-Berry Biscuits. Bojangles’ transforms their great top-secret buttermilk biscuit recipe into a popular dessert item by adding blueberry bits and a drizzle of sweet glaze over the top. Really good just got better.
The basic recipe here for the biscuits is the same as my clone for Bojangles’ Buttermilk Biscuits, because I wouldn’t want to change a thing. The new secrets you’ll get here are for the glaze and a handy trick for getting the dried blueberries chopped into little bits without making a sticky mess.
I suggest margarine for a fluffier final product, but you can replace the margarine with butter if you want more butter flavor in the biscuits. Just as with the plain buttermilk biscuits recipe, make sure all of your ingredients are cold and your oven is very hot. And don’t overmix or overwork the dough if you want flakey, fluffy biscuits that look and taste just like the real Bojangles' Bo-Berry Biscuits.
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Chipotle Carnitas
Read moreBraised and shredded pork shoulder is a staple of Mexican cuisine that Chipotle prepares with a simple blend of flavors, and a surprising ingredient you may not have expected: juniper berries. Once you track those down (they’re easy to find online), the berries are combined with thyme and bay leaves in a braising liquid that will transform your own pork roast into an easily shreddable thing of beauty in under 3 hours. Then you can use your Chipotle carnitas clone on tacos, in burritos, or in a bowl over rice and beans just like they do in the restaurant.
When picking your pork roast, try to find one without too much fat. If your roast has a thick cap of fat on it, trim off the excess. You want some fat in your braising liquid, but if the cap of fat is too thick, it may not fully render down and you’ll get chunks of fat in the shred.
It’s often assumed that the pork butt is from the rear end of the pig, even though cuts from the back region already have a name: ham. The pork butt, also known as a Boston butt, is cut from the other end, the upper shoulder of the pig. It’s called a “butt” because in pre-Revolutionary War New England the roasts were stored and transported in barrels called “butts”, and the confusing name stuck.
This recipe was our #5 most popular in 2020. Check out the other four most unlocked recipes for the year: Rao's Homemade Marinara Sauce (#1), Olive Garden Lasagna Classico (#2), King's Hawaiian Original Hawaiian Sweet Rolls (#3), Pei Wei Better Orange Chicken (#4).
Check out this list of our most popular recipes of all-time.
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BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse Honey Sriracha Brussels Sprouts
Read moreMenu Description: "Lightly fried Brussels sprouts tossed in Big Poppa Smokers Desert Gold seasoning with sweet sriracha crema."
Brussels sprouts have been exploding on chain restaurant menus in recent years, and the best I've tasted are served as starters. The cruciferous wonders are usually roasted or fried, then dressed with a sauce meant to override the sprouts' inherent bitterness. And when they’re done right, those Brussels sprouts will be the most memorable dish at the table.
BJ’s preparation technique of choice for Brussels sprouts is to fry them, then sprinkle them with a lemony seasoning blend by Big Poppa Smokers just before they get drizzled with sweet sriracha crema. For the seasoning, there’s no need to buy the real thing since I’ve come up with an easy hack. And the sriracha crema copycat couldn’t be simpler, with just four ingredients.
My BJ's Honey Sriracha Brussels Sprouts recipe makes a share plate appetizer-size serving for 2 to 4 people, but you'll have enough seasoning and sauce here for a bigger serving (such as a side dish) if you just add more sprouts.
Now, how about a bowl of famous chili or a Pizookie from Bj's Brewhouse?
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BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse Monkey Bread Pizookie
Read moreMenu Description: “This fresh-baked pull-apart bread is topped with caramelized butter, brown sugar and cinnamon, baked to a golden brown finish and then topped with vanilla bean ice cream.”
BJ’s signature dessert, and probably its most famous single menu item, is the Pizookie, which is a cookie baked in a small pizza pan, served hot with ice cream on top. But the cookie in the pan isn’t always a cookie. Sometimes it’s a brownie, or in the case of this recent variation on the famous dessert, freshly-baked monkey bread.
Just as in the restaurant, the monkey bread in this recipe isn’t originally baked in the 6-inch cake pans (or pizza pans) it’s served in. The monkey bread is baked ahead of time in a larger pan, then the sections of bread are placed into the smaller serving pans, with the gooey side up, and they’re warmed up just before serving.
Great monkey bread needs to be made from scratch, and it’s not hard. Many of the most popular recipes for monkey bread you’ll see are made with instant biscuits in a tube. This is an easier solution to be sure, but monkey bread made with quick dough—dough that’s chemically leavened with baking powder—rather than with hardier yeast dough just doesn’t match up to the real BJ's Monkey Bread Pizookie.
Rather than making the monkey bread in a Bundt cake pan as most traditional recipes call for, we’ll make this one in a single layer in an 8-inch cake pan or deep-dish pizza pan. When the bread is cool, it’s broken up and transferred to two smaller cake pans, warmed up, topped with ice cream, and served.
Try my BJ's Monkey Bread Pizookie copycat recipe below, and check out more of my BJ's restaurant and brewhouse copycat recipes here.
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Einstein Bros. Bagels Twice-Baked Hash Brown
Read moreI’m not sure why Einstein Bros. claims there are just four cheeses in the new Twice-Baked Hash Brown when the ingredients clearly list six kinds of cheese, plus cream cheese. Regardless, the shredded Asiago, Romano, Parmesan, provolone, and mozzarella listed there can be found combined in an “Italian Blend” at many supermarkets, making for an easy start to our home clone. And don’t just be thinking about breakfast for these cheesy potatoes. They work great as a side for any meal.
In the detailed description of the new item, Einstein Bros. claims the hash browns contain two kinds of schmears, which is true, but a little misleading because one of them is just plain cream cheese. The other is onion-and-chive cream cheese, which we can make from scratch. We’ll combine those two shmears into one blend by doubling the cream cheese added to our onion-and-chive schmear formula.
Follow my Einstein Bros. twice baked hash brown copycat recipe below, and mix everything together. Then, load the ingredients into a standard 12-cup muffin pan with circles of parchment paper cut out to fit into the bottom of the 12 cups. Without these parchment circles, the hash browns may stick and break when they’re released. You can also use paper muffin cups, if you don’t mind the less crispy, ridged sides.
Bake them the first time for 30 minutes, then cool and store. Now you have a dozen servings of cheesy hash brown potatoes that are easy to finish off by baking them a second time until crispy. These Einstein Bros. Twice Baked Hash Browns are great served with breakfast, or for dinner as your starchy side alongside beef, chicken, lamb, and many other savory entrées.
You can also make homemade Einstein Bros bagels, sandwiches, and shmears. See if I hacked your favorites here.
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Bonchon Wings
Read moreKorean chicken is famous for its extra crispy coating, and Bonchon’s recipe—especially the wings—is one of the best in the world. That chain's famous formula is why there are now over 340 Bonchon outlets in nine countries, including over one hundred in the US and more planned to open here in the near future.
The biggest challenge when creating my Bonchon chicken wings recipe was finding the perfect magical mixture for the batter that fries to a golden brown, and with tender crispiness that stays crunchy long after the wings have been brushed with the flavorful glaze.
I knew that a traditional double-frying technique would help create the crunchy coating we needed, but it would take some trial and error to determine the best time splits. The wings are par-fried, rested, and then fried again until done, but just how long to give each stage was yet to be determined since every recipe I found for Korean chicken used different times and temps. Some recipes even changed the temperature between frying steps, but that extra step made the recipe too difficult to manage when frying multiple batches.
I eventually settled on 350 degrees F with most of the frying done up front in the par-fry stage. A three-ingredient batter is all that’s needed for crispy golden-brown wings, and the soy garlic sauce is a quick hack using your microwave oven. If you like your wings spicy like I do, it’s very easy to kick them up by adding Korean red chili paste (gochujang) and Korean red pepper powder (gochugaru) to the soy garlic recipe in the measurements listed below.
Click here for more delicious copycat appetizer recipes.
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California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) Butter Cake
Read moreImagine a giant soft sugar cookie with sweetened cream cheese on top and served warm as if it just came out of the oven, and you have California Pizza Kitchen's Butter Cake, a delectable dessert described on the menu with five simple words: “Trust us…just try it.”
This dessert is an easy one to prep in the restaurant since the cakes are made ahead of time and chilled until ordered. Once an order comes in, the cake is zapped for a minute in the microwave, then topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and surrounded by dollops of whipped cream. I've designed my CPK Butter Cake copycat recipe below the same way, so you can make your cakes in advance and then chill them until dessert time. Or, you can serve the cakes right after they come out of the oven. Either way works.
The construction is an easy one—you’ll need four 4-inch cake pans, ramekins, or anything you can bake in that is 4 inches across. To make the batter I used a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, and it worked great, but a hand-held granny mixer also works fine.
You're gonna love this one. Trust me...just try it.
Find more of my California Pizza Kitchen copycat recipes here.
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Chick-fil-A Spicy Southwest Salad & Creamy Salsa Dressing
Read moreIf you didn’t know this salad came from Chick-fil-A you could easily be fooled into thinking it was a much more expensive salad from a casual chain like T.G.I. Friday’s or Chili’s. The bed of greens is built with crisp romaine, green leaf, and red leaf lettuce, and without a speck of tasteless iceberg in sight. On top of that are ingredients you don’t associate with fast food, like grilled corn, black beans, roasted peppers, spicy chili lime pepitas, and crunchy tortilla chips. Everything works great together, and now I can show you how to make all of it for a spot-on home hack.
Chick-fil-A knows chicken, so of course the spicy chicken served on top of the salad is delicious. We can easily clone it by marinating chicken fillets in a special spicy brine for a few hours to infuse it with flavor and juiciness, then grilling it, chilling it, and slicing it thin.
The biggest star of the salad is the secret recipe that kitchen cloners have requested most: the creamy salsa dressing. To make your own version, roast some peppers and mix those with the other ingredients in a blender until the dressing is smooth and creamy. You’ll get a bright, spicy dressing that perfectly duplicates the one served on the Chick-fil-A Spicy Southwest Salad.
Try my Chick-fil-A Spicy Southwest Salad & Creamy Salsa Dressing recipes below, and find my clones for their famous chicken sandwich, mac & cheese, and more here.
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Cracker Barrel Buttermilk Pie
Read moreNot having ever lived in the southern US my experience with this dessert was about as minimal as it gets. The first buttermilk pie I tasted was at Cracker Barrel and I was immediately hooked on the sweetened vanilla custard with its distinct, but not overwhelming flavor, tang from the buttermilk and lemon juice, balanced with a sweet garnish of strawberries and whipped cream. It’s a versatile dessert that is as well-suited for summertime get-togethers as it is for traditional southern winter holiday meals.
Now I’ve tasted over a dozen variations of this decades-old favorite—all but one of them coming out of my own oven—on my quest to discover the best way to make Cracker Barrel’s popular dessert. And finally, I hacked it.
The beauty of my Cracker Barrel Buttermilk Pie copycat recipe is its simplicity: you’ll need just a handful of common ingredients, a whisk, and an unbaked pie shell. You can make your own pie shell using your favorite recipe or buy a frozen unbaked crust at the supermarket to save time. My pie shell was made by Marie Callender’s and it was delicious.
Whisk together the filling in stages as described here, pour it into your pie shell, and bake it starting on the lowest rack so that the bottom of the pie gets browned. If you have a convection oven, this is a good time to use it so you’re sure to get even browning on top.
After about an hour your pie will be done, and when it cools, it's slicing time.
Find more of my Cracker Barrel copycat recipes here.
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Cracker Barrel Meatloaf
Read moreThe Southern-themed chain famous for its gift shops filled with made-in-America products and delicious homestyle food is also known to have a particularly good meatloaf. This dish ranks high in popularity, right up there with the Chicken ‘n Dumplins and the Hash Brown Casserole, so a good Cracker Barrel Meatloaf copycat recipe is long overdue.
Making meatloaf is easy. What’s hard is making it taste like the meatloaf at Cracker Barrel which is tender and juicy, and flavored with onion, green pepper, and tomato. I sought to turn out a moist and tender loaf of meat, and one that’s not dry and tough, but my first attempts were much too dense. I wasn’t happy about that, but my dog was thrilled.
After playing around with the eggs-to-breadcrumbs-to-milk ratios and being careful to use gentle hands when combining everything and pressing it into the loaf pan, the final batch was a winner and I get to pass it along to you.
It's best to use a meatloaf pan here which has an insert that lets the fat drip to the bottom, away from the meat. A regular loaf pan will still work, but you’ll want to pour off the fat in the pan before slicing.
Satisfy your Cracker Barrel cravings with more of my copycat recipes here.
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Chipotle Carne Asada
Read moreChipotle’s popular limited offering is a good example of how straightforward and flavorful carne asada can be. It’s not overly mysterious since Chipotle is transparent about the ingredients used for the restaurant's entire menu—53 ingredients in all—but identifying those is only the beginning of the process. There was still plenty of work to do in establishing ratios and settling on an ideal preparation method.
Carne asada is almost always made with flank steak or skirt steak. A server at Chipotle told me they use skirt steak, which is surprising since that is the tougher of the two cuts. Perhaps she was wrong about that? Flank steak also has a better flavor than skirt steak, so I'm recommending flank here. Just be sure not to marinate it for more than 2 days or the acid in the marinade may toughen your steak and you certainly don't want that.
After you grill it, slice the meat across the grain and use it in burritos, tacos, bowls, or as a Southwest-style salad topper.
My Chipotle carne asada recipe was our #5 most popular in 2021. Check out the other four most unlocked recipes for the year: Panda Express Chow Mein (#1), Qdoba 3-Cheese Queso (#2), Panda Express Fried Rice (#3), Outback Baked Potato Soup (#4).
Check out this list of our most popular recipes of all-time.
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Chipotle Queso Blanco
Read moreSocial media shredded Chipotle’s first queso dip which debuted in 2017, calling it “gritty,” “bland,” “watered-down,” and “a crime against cheese.” Chipotle was in desperate need of a re-do.
In early 2020, after months and months of test-marketing an improved cheesy dip recipe in Dallas, Detroit, and San Diego, the Mexican chain introduced Queso Blanco to the entire U.S., and this time the reviews were much better.
Chipotle claims their new formula contains exactly 13 ingredients, including 2 kinds of cheese and 3 different chile peppers. With cornstarch as the thickening agent, the preparation starts by making a white sauce with milk and cream. When the cheese is fully melted and smooth, the veggies go in, and in about 10 minutes it’s ready to serve.
Use my Chipotle Queso Blanco copycat recipe as a dip with tortilla chips or as a topping on your copycat Chipotle carne asada or carnitas tacos and barbacoa burritos. Find all my Chipotle recipes here.
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California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) Carne Asada Pizza
Read moreMenu Description: Tender marinated steak, fire-roasted poblanos, cilantro pesto, yellow onions, Mozzarella, Monterey Jack and fresh cilantro. Served with housemade salsa verde.
One of California Pizza Kitchen’s most popular “globally inspired” pizzas is this fabulous pie topped with strips of marinated flank steak, cilantro pesto, and fire-roasted poblano pepper. I broke it down and hacked all the parts for you—including the awesome salsa verde that goes on top—so that you can assemble two beautiful pizzas that look and taste like the real thing.
Sometimes deliciousness requires patience, so be sure to plan for your copycat pizza one day in advance to allow your dough to properly proof and the steak to fully marinate. You can also prep the pesto, salsa verde, and roasted poblano a day in advance so that when it comes time to make pizzas the next day, you just need to cook the carne asada, build the pizzas, and bake.
Try my CPK Carne Asada Pizza copycat recipe below, and find more of my California Pizza Kitchen hacks here.
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Chick-fil-A Avocado Lime Ranch Dressing
Read moreThis huge chicken chain offers seven delicious dressings to top three salad choices, and this is my current favorite of the bunch. The Avocado Lime Ranch Dressing is best on a Southwestern-style salad like the one on Chick-fil-A’s menu with mixed greens, black beans, corn, spicy chicken, and tortilla strips on top. But it’ll work on just about any mixed greens salad or burrito bowl you come up with at home, or use it as a dip for chicken fingers, taquitos, and Southwestern eggrolls.
For a good home clone, be sure to smash the avocado until no chunks remain and let the dressing sit for at least an hour before you use it so the dried herbs, onion, and garlic can rehydrate and the flavors can bloom.
Try my Chick-fil-A Avocado Lime Ranch Dressing recipe below, and click here for more of my Chick-fil-A copycat recipes.
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Chick-fil-A Chicken Tortilla Soup
Read moreChick-fil-A makes a great chicken tortilla soup that doesn’t skimp on chicken and comes packed with other goodies like two kinds of beans, corn, chilies, onion, celery, garlic, and cilantro. Their soup is not only surprisingly good for a fast food chain, but it could also stand up to tortilla soups from any full-service chain. Use my Chick-fil-A chicken tortilla soup copycat recipe below, with preparation secrets that will guide you through a spot-on at-home clone.
For the white beans, look for canned navy beans or small white beans. Cannellini beans and Great Northern beans are too big for a perfect clone, but if that's all you can find they’ll still work.
The chicken is made the same way as in my copycat recipe for Chick-fil-A Southwest Chicken Salad—it’s brined for four hours to infuse it with flavor before it gets grilled. Keep that extra prep time in mind when planning your soup.
Chick-fil-A uses natural roasted chicken flavor in their version, and we can do the same by using Better Than Bouillon Roasted Chicken Base found in many stores and online. That ingredient will give you the best clone, but if you can’t track it down, you can also use large bouillon cubes.
Top your Chick-fil-A chicken tortilla soup with fried tortilla strips sold in bags, or just crumble some of your favorite tortilla chips over the top and grab a spoon.
Chick-fil-A makes amazing chicken sandwiches and mac & cheese. Find more of my recipes here.
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California Pizza Kitchen Roasted Garlic Chicken Pizza
Read moreMenu Description: “Sweet caramelized onions, fresh mozzarella, Parmesan, slivered scallions, and cracked black pepper.”
Grill a chicken breast, caramelize half an onion, slow-roast a whole head of garlic, and you’ll have the key ingredients for assembling two amazing clones of the chain’s famous sauce-less Roasted Garlic Chicken Pizza.
You won’t miss the pizza sauce on this “white pizza” since the toppings bring bold flavor, and we don't want to upstage that great taste. Your homemade pizzas will just need a light brushing of olive oil to protect the dough.
CPK’s wood-fired stone ovens are cranked up to a rocket-hot 800 degrees Fahrenheit so pizzas bake in just 3 or 4 minutes. It's not likely you have one of those special ovens at home, but it's still possible to bake these copycat pizzas in a conventional oven in about 10 minutes. I recommend a pizza stone to help brown the bottom of your pizzas, but the recipe will even work fine without one.
Start your pizzas the day before you plan to eat them so that the dough can rise slowly overnight in your refrigerator. This slow, chilled rise produces fermentation that will ultimately give your crust a better texture and taste.
I'm including lots of step photos so your CPK Roasted Garlic Chicken pizza copycat recipe will come out looking just like the real pizza. If you like this one, click here to see if I cloned your favorite salads and appetizers from CPK.
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Chipotle Smoked Brisket
Read moreIn 2021, for a limited time, Chipotle added smoked and sauced brisket to its line of signature meats. The tender brisket is seasoned with a blend of peppers, garlic, cumin, and coriander, then seared and tossed with a smokey barbecue sauce fused with traditional Mexican flavors. It’s a significant departure from the chain’s signature south-of-the-border protein offerings, and when the dish came back to the menu in 2024, it was a food hacking challenge I couldn't refuse.
For my Chipotle Smoked Brisket copycat recipe, I used the flat end of the brisket, as does the chain, and trimmed the fat, so the seasoning blend came in direct contact with the meat. I let the seasoning sit on the meat for at least four hours, then I smoked it and mopped it a couple of times with a vinegar blend to help keep it moist and to wake up the flavor. When the brisket hit 165 degrees F, I covered it and let it continue cooking until the internal temperature reached 200 degrees F, and a beautiful dark crust formed. I wrapped the brisket in foil and a thick towel and placed it in a cooler for a couple of hours to rest, and then it was ready to serve.
Because the process took 12 to 14 hours, I found it best to refrigerate the brisket until the next day, when it can be prepped for serving. When everyone's hungry, and you’re ready to finish the brisket, chop it, sear it, season it, and sauce it with this barbecue sauce made from typical barbecue sauce ingredients, plus peppers and cumin to bring out the spirit of Mexico.
And don’t worry if you don’t have a smoker. In the Tidbits below, I’ll tell you how to use your gas or charcoal grill to add beautiful smoke flavoring to your brisket, just like a legit smoker.
Try more of my Chipotle copycat recipes here.
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Grey Goose Honey Deuce
Read moreThis quenching combination of Grey Goose vodka, fresh lemonade, and Chambord raspberry liqueur was invented in 2007 by Grey Goose ambassador and restauranteur Nick Mautone for the vodka sponsorship deal struck with the U.S. Open Tennis Championships. Nick came up with a drink made with the refreshing flavor of raspberry lemonade, and the cocktail stick with three frozen honeydew melon balls resembling tennis balls was his perfectly inspired garnish.
The popularity of the summer concoction at the U.S. Open peaked in 2023 when 460,275 Honey Deuces were sold in commemorative cups for $22 each. Sales of the drink that year reached over $10 million, and at the 2024 tournament, with an upped $23 price tag, sales are expected to be even higher.
I designed my custom version of the Grey Goose Honey Deuce recipe for a 16-ounce glass, so I retooled the recipe shared by Grey Goose, which is measured to fit in a 12-ounce highball glass. Also, their recipe doesn’t mention how to make good lemonade, so I devised an easy formula that will give you 16 ounces of lemonade, which will be enough for four cocktails.
Before making your drinks, use a melon baller to make honeydew melon balls. Pierce three on a cocktail stick for each drink you plan to make and freeze them for about an hour. Your serve.
Find more of my famous drink copycat recipes here.
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Cheesecake Factory Cuban Sandwich
Read moreAfter a recent search for the best Cuban sandwich from a national chain, I found the winner at Cheesecake Factory. It had all the elements you want from a good Cuban: roasted pork, ham, Swiss cheese, pickles, and mustard, all on a toasted roll. After just one bite, I knew I needed to clone it, and my fate was sealed.
For any good Cuban sandwich, the star of the show is the roasted pork, so I started there. After marinating, searing, baking, and braising several pork loins, I was sure I had found the best way to flavor and cook it. The trick to keeping the typically lean pork from drying out and becoming tough was to brine, sear, wrap, and bake it until it hit 145 degrees in the middle.
Starting with good bread is also important, so you’ll want to track down some Cuban sandwich rolls. If you can’t find Cuban rolls, you can also use French or Italian rolls. Just be sure they’re on the soft side and not too crusty. A panini press is preferred for this recipe, but if you don’t have one, you can use a heavy pan as a weight to press down on the sandwich as it browns on one side, then flip the sandwich over to brown the other side.
Try my Cheesecake Factory Cuban Sandwich copycat recipe below, and click here for more of my copycat recipes for Cheesecake Factory's famous cheesecakes, appetizers, entrées, soups and more!
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Cracker Barrel French Toast
Read moreNext time you make French Toast, try using sourdough bread. Cracker Barrel does this, and their French toast is fantastic. So, I went right ahead and cloned it for you.
My Cracker Barrel French Toast copycat recipe is super easy to make, but if you want yours to look like the real thing, you’ll want to track down a loaf of sourdough bread with relatively small slices. Bigger loaves will still work great, but the yield may be less than 12 slices.
Dust your finished French toast with powdered sugar and serve it up with soft butter and warm maple syrup on the side.
Find more of my Cracker Barrel copycat recipes here.
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Crumbl Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chunk Cookie
Read moreTo ensure success for their new cookie store, cousins Sawyer Hemsley and Jason McGowan knew they had to start with a great cookie recipe. Batch after batch, the partners baked milk chocolate chip cookies and shared them with taste testers for helpful advice on how to improve the recipe, until finally, they had created the very best cookie. In 2017, the cousins opened their first Crumbl cookie store in Logan, Utah to sell their new milk chocolate chip cookies. Just 7 years and over 200 cookie recipes later, Crumbl had grown to over 900 stores throughout the U.S. and Canada, and the chain now sells over 1 million cookies a day. Each week, the rotating menu features 6 cookie flavors, but a few special cookies, like this classic Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chunk Cookie are almost always on the roster due to their popularity.
To create my Crumbl Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chunk Cookie copycat recipe I started with the cookie chain’s list of ingredients. I designed a recipe using that information then systematically tweaked the formula through more than 35 batches, making minor adjustments each time. Through that process, I discovered the perfect ratio of brown sugar to white sugar improved texture and I found that baking the cookies at a higher temperature worked best for crispy edges and chewy middles. I also found that one egg isn’t enough, and two eggs are too much, so beating two eggs and measuring ¼ cup after the foam settled was the most reliable method.
Crumbl uses a large scoop to portion these cookies, but you can use your hands to form the dough into mounds with rough tops, and then be sure to bake the cookies on parchment paper. I found silicone baking mats to be too slippery, causing the cookie to spread from the bottom and split. And don’t wander too far from the oven. Your cookies are done when they’re light brown around the edges and still appear uncooked in the center, so keep at least one eye on them.
Find more famous cookie copycat recipes here.
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Cracker Barrel Buttermilk Pancakes
Read moreA great buttermilk pancake recipe will produce fluffy, tangy, and slightly sweet pancakes—the same qualities as the popular pancakes served at Cracker Barrel restaurants nationwide. But Cracker Barrel’s flapjacks have a secret ingredient that sets the chain’s morning stack apart from other restaurants. And this Top Secret Recipe will reveal it.
To create my Cracker Barrel Buttermilk Pancakes copycat recipe, I first purchased a box of the chain’s pancake mix at the restaurant’s store to examine the list of ingredients on the package. In the list were the ingredients you'd expect, like wheat flour, sugar, salt, and leavening. But there was also a surprise: yellow corn flour. When added to the mix in the right ratio, the yellow corn flour contributed great cornbread-like flavor and gave the pancakes a unique crumbly texture that many seem to love.
Does this special ingredient produce buttermilk pancakes which are superior to a more traditional recipe? It's easy to find out. Once you have corn flour and just a handful of other common ingredients, it takes just minutes to produce enough pancakes for you and everyone else to get a taste and decide if these are indeed the best buttermilk pancakes in the biz.
Try more of my Cracker Barrel copycat recipes here.
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Cracker Barrel Corn Muffins
Read moreI find clues for cracking restaurant recipes in many places, but other than having the actual recipe, knowing the list of ingredients is quite a big score. That's why I’m thrilled whenever a restaurant chain sells its famous products in packages, as Cracker Barrel does with a box of mix that helps you reproduce the chain’s popular corn muffins at home.
The ingredients are listed in descending order by weight, which not only helped me identify important ingredients, such as white corn meal, but also gave me a rough idea of how much to use for the ultimate Cracker Barrel Corn Muffins copycat recipe. The preparation instructions provided more clues, such as revealing that the chain adds melted margarine and a little bacon grease to the batter.
Several batches later, using information from the box and lessons learned from my trial-and-error, I created a great clone of the famous muffins that I think you'll really like.
After making these Cracker Barrel Corn Muffins from scratch, try home versions of Cracker Barrel hash brown casserole, buttermilk pie, meatloaf, and more.
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Charms Blow Pop
Read moreThe fruity lollipop with gum inside is Charms' bestselling product, but the cool combo candy was the brainchild of a different candy company. Thomas T. Tidwell of Triple T Co. invented and patented his method for encasing gum inside candy in the 1960s, and sold his new lollipop, Triple Treat, for a short time. In 1973, Tidwell sold the product idea to the Charms Candy Company who renamed it Blow Pop, and for over 50 years the famous pop has been enjoyed by millions of happy mouths.
I’m not privy to the details of Tidwell’s method, but I can see by the vertical seam on a real Blow Pop that it's probably made by sealing two halves of the pop together, one half with gum and one half without. I tried various silicone lollipop molds for my Charms Blow Pop copycat recipe with little success and decided instead to create a technique using half of a slightly altered cake pop mold. I first poured half of the pop into the molds, added the gum on a stick, and when it hardened I removed it, poured the other half of the candy into the mold, and added the hardened first half on top. When all was set, I had perfectly spherical pops with seams just like the original. And it didn’t seem to bother anyone that my pops were more than twice as big as the real thing.
I designed my recipe to call for 1 dram of LorAnn Oils which you can find online. The original Blow Pops come in five flavors, and I’ve got four of them for you here: cherry, grape, watermelon, and sour apple. I also made a batch of cinnamon pops just for fun and added those instructions to the Tidbits below. Real Blow Pops don’t come in cinnamon flavor, but after tasting these, you might wish they did.
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Cheesecake Factory Shrimp Scampi
Read moreThis top entrée pick from Cheesecake Factory is a classic dish, but its preparation is far from traditional, and perhaps that's why it's so popular.
The creamy scampi sauce is flavored with a handful of whole roasted garlic cloves, plus shallot, basil, and tomato. The shrimp are lightly battered and fried until golden, then arranged upright around the plate to keep their crunching coats from sogging.
In addition to all the secrets you’ll need to assemble two servings of my Cheesecake Factory Shrimp Scampi copycat recipe, I’ve also included a cool technique for easily roasting the garlic cloves in just 15 to 20 minutes, and you won’t even need to peel the cloves. After your garlic cools, the skins will slip right off.
Now, how about dessert? Find my copycat recipes for Cheesecake Factory's signature cheesecakes here.
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Cheesecake Factory Steak Diane
Read moreFans of Cheesecake Factory’s Steak Diane don’t seem to care that the dish isn’t a traditional take on the classic dish. The restaurant chain’s version is indeed served with mushrooms and medallions of beef tenderloin just like the old-school recipe, but you won’t find any Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, cognac, or cream that one would expect in a true Steak Diane. Instead, the chain douses steak with the same Madeira sauce served with its Chicken Madeira entrée, and it's delicious.
I hacked the chain’s Chicken Madeira many years ago in Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 but was happy for the chance to go back and improve the great sauce. After some fiddling, I came up with an improved formula that calls for less wine and uses a more thorough reduction to intensify the flavors. When shopping for ingredients for my Cheesecake Factory Steak Diane copycat recipe, it's okay to pick the least expensive Madeira wine on the shelf. Just know that Madeira wines have different characteristics, so your final flavor may slightly vary from the restaurant version.
For your tenderloins, start with thick steaks, since you’ll be slicing the portions in half through the middle, making them thinner. You’ll need 7 to 8 small steak portions to be sliced in half for 14 to 16 medallions.
Now, how about dessert? Find my copycat recipes for Cheesecake Factory's signature cheesecakes here.
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Bonefish Grill Imperial Dip
Read moreIt’s creamy and cheesy and doesn’t skimp on shrimp and scallops. Bonefish Grill’s Imperial Dip might very well be the best seafood dip at any chain, and after several visits in the early evening to take advantage of the Happy Hour price, I got even happier when I could construct a great clone.
Sitting at the bar allowed me to chat up the server and obtain several helpful preparation tips. That’s when I discovered that shrimp stock is the secret to the dip’s great taste. And that’s why my Bonefish Grill Imperial Dip copycat recipe starts with an easy way to make your own stock with the shells harvested from the shrimp that goes in the dip.
After sautéing the shrimp and scallops, it takes just minutes to prepare a sauce with the shrimp stock, cream, and cheese. Then, everything is combined and poured into a cast iron skillet. After a quick broil to brown the top, you’ll have a great match to the real thing, except your version will be three times bigger.
You might also like my recipes for Bonefish Grill's Saucy Shrimp and Citrus Herb Vinaigrette.
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Cheddar's Baked Spasagna
Read moreIf spaghetti and lasagna were in a romantic comedy together, they would eventually overcome their differences and end up like this: blissfully entangled for life, and better than the sum of their parts.
Learn more and get my recipe for free on my Food Hacker Blog here.
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Cafe Du Monde Beignets
Read moreA French Quarter tradition since 1862, Cafe Du Monde beignets are probably the most famous beignets in the world.
Learn more and get this recipe for free on my Food Hacker Blog here.
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Barney's Beanery Texas-Style Chili
Read moreThe century-old iconic L.A. diner is famous for its chili, and the bean-less Texas-Style Chili is the best of the bunch.
Learn more and get my recipe for free on my Food Hacker Blog here.
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Chick-fil-A Honey Pepper Pimento Chicken Sandwich
Read moreChick-fil-A becomes the first fast food chain to feature pimento cheese—a traditional Southern spread made with cheddar cheese, mayonnaise, and pimentos—on a sandwich. The chain’s Honey Pepper Pimento Chicken Sandwich features a regular or spicy crispy chicken breast fillet stacked on sliced jalapeños, then drizzled with honey and topped with a healthy portion of their exclusive pimento cheese formula.
For the chicken fillet, I was able to use my previous Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich copycat recipe, but the chain’s excellent pimento cheese spread is a new creation that needed to be hacked from scratch. Rinsing the real spread through a strainer revealed some hidden secrets, including tiny bits of green pepper, which I copied by adding a small amount of minced jalapeño.
The chicken requires four hours to brine, and that’s a good time to make the pimento cheese so it can rest for a bit to improve its color and flavor. The recipe included here is for the original chicken fillet, but if you prefer the kicked-up spicy version of the sandwich, I’ve got the tweak for that variation down in the Tidbits.
Try my Chick-fil-A Honey Pepper Pimento Chicken Sandwich copycat recipe below, and find more of my Chick-fil-A copycat recipes here.
For over 30 years I've been deconstructing America's most iconic brand-name foods to make the best original copycat recipes for you to use at home. Welcome to my lab.
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