THE MOST TRUSTED COPYCAT RECIPES
THE MOST TRUSTED COPYCAT RECIPES

California Pizza Kitchen

Welcome! You just found recipes for all 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 for less money than eating out. Todd’s recipes are easy to follow and fun to make! Find your favorite copycat recipes from California Pizza Kitchen here. New recipes added every week.

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  • Score: 4.67 (votes: 3)
    California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) Butter Cake

    Imagine 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 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 amazing CPK copycat recipes here.

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  • Not rated yet
    California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) Carne Asada Pizza

    Menu 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 clone 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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  • Score: 5.00 (votes: 2)
    California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) Original Chopped Salad

    Menu Description: "Chopped lettuce, basil, salami, chilled roast turkey breast, diced tomatoes and Mozzarella cheese tossed in our herb-mustard Parmesan vinaigrette topped with scallions."

    It's the delicious herb-mustard Parmesan vinaigrette that makes this salad so good. And since freshly made dressings are way better than anything you'll buy in a store, here's a great recipe for vinaigrette that you can use either on the CPK Original chopped salad here, or on any salad you assemble with ingredients on hand. After heating up these vinaigrette ingredients for a couple of minutes, let the mixture cool, and then drizzle a thin stream of olive oil into the dressing as you blend it with an electric mixer on high speed. This will create an emulsion to thicken the vinaigrette and hold all the ingredients together even as the dressing chills.

    Try more of my CPK copycat recipes for appetizers, soups, and pizza here.

    Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur.

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    California Pizza Kitchen Roasted Garlic Chicken Pizza

    Menu 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 pizza will come out looking just like the real CPK roasted garlic chicken pizza. If you like this one, click here to see if I cloned your favorite salads and appetizers from CPK.

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  • Score: 5.00 (votes: 1)
    California Pizza Kitchen Spicy Buffalo Cauliflower

    Crispy 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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  • Score: 5.00 (votes: 3)
    California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) Tuscan Hummus

    Menu Description: "Our original recipe of Tuscan white beans puréed with sesame, garlic, lemon, and spices. Garnished with fresh Roma tomatoes, basil, and garlic. Served with warm pizza-pita bread."

    The traditional dish of Tuscan white beans is usually made from dried cannellini beans or great Northern beans that are soaked overnight in water and then cooked until tender with olive oil, garlic and sage. But with my California Pizza Kitchen Tuscan Hummus recipe below, there's no need to wait through such a time-consuming process. We can simply use already tender canned beans found in any market. Look for white beans or the slightly larger great Northern beans and strain off the liquid, but don't throw that liquid away! You'll need a little of it to add to the food processor along with the other ingredients, including sesame tahini, which can be found in most markets where the international foods are stocked or in specialty stores such as Whole Foods.

    Check out more of my California Pizza Kitchen recipes here.

    Nutrition Facts
    Serving size–2 tablespoons
    Total servings–14
    Calories per serving–60
    Fat per serving–4.3g

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

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  • Score: 5.00 (votes: 5)
    California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) California Club Pizza

    Menu Description: "Applewood smoked bacon, grilled chicken and Mozzarella cheese, hearth baked, then topped with Roma tomatoes, chilled chopped lettuce tossed in mayonnaise and fresh sliced avocados."

    There's no better way to clone the great pizzas from this creative chain than to start with dough made from scratch. Since the best way to re-create commercial-style pizza dough at home is to use the same slow-rising technique the pros use, you're going to have to plan ahead at least 24 hours. This is the length of time it will take for the gluten in the flour to work its magic while resting comfortably in your refrigerator. And, if you've got the patience, 48 hours is even better. 

    Once the dough is ready to go, you should bake your pizzas—my CPK California Club Pizza recipe makes two—on a pre-heated pizza stone in your oven. If you don't already have one, you can find one of the round or rectangular stones in just about any housewares store. This cooking method is the absolute best way to produce an evenly baked finished product with a texture and taste that mirrors the amazing pies CPK whips out of rocket-hot brick pizza ovens.

    CPK makes great soups and salads too. Get my copycat recipes here.

    Source Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur.

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  • Score: 5.00 (votes: 1)
    California Pizza Kitchen The Original BBQ Chicken Chopped Salad

    Menu Description: "Chopped lettuce, black beans, sweet corn, jicama, cilantro, basil, crispy corn tortilla strips, and Monterey Jack cheese tossed together in our herb ranch dressing. Topped with chopped BBQ chicken breast, diced tomatoes and scallions."

    It was probably the popularity of CPK's BBQ chicken pizza that inspired this twist on the original chopped salad. I think the herb ranch dressing that's made here is much better than any ranch dressing you can buy in bottles in your local supermarket, but you can still choose to use one of those on this salad to speed things up, if you prefer. You might also consider substituting ingredients listed here for lower-fat ingredients, such as low-fat mayonnaise, sour cream and fat-free milk. As with any clone, consider this formula as your springboard into a custom dish that suits your own specs.

    Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur.

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  • Score: 5.00 (votes: 2)
    California Pizza Kitchen California Cosmo

    Menu Description: "Our Original! Featuring Ciroc Snap Frost vodka, an all grape vodka, combined with red grape juice and accented with the sweet orange flavor of Cointreau and frozen red seedless grapes."

    While other vodkas are made from potatoes, wheat, molasses, corn, or rye, Ciroc is the first vodka to be distilled from late harvest French grapes. These super sweet grapes and the 5-step distilling process makes this vodka unique and extra smooth, with a subtle fruity flavor that goes great with grape juice and the orange flavor of Cointreau. 

    Plan ahead for my California Pizza Kitchen California Cosmo recipe by piercing three red seedless grapes on a toothpick and popping them into the freezer for at least an hour. Make a few of these garnishes the next time you get grapes and keep them in a small bag in the freezer so you're ready when friends stop by for happy hour.

    Find more famous drink recipes here.

    Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur.

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  • Score: 5.00 (votes: 5)
    California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) Thai Crunch Salad

    Menu Description: "Shredded napa cabbage, chilled grilled chicken breast, julienne cucumbers, edamame, crispy wontons, peanuts, cilantro, julienne carrots, red cabbage and scallions tossed with a lime-cilantro dressing. Topped with crispy rice sticks and Thai peanut dressing."

    You can plan ahead for my delicious copycat California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) Thai Crunch salad recipe by first grilling the chicken and chilling it, then preparing the cilantro-lime dressing and the peanut sauce in advance. The menu description says that the salad is topped with "crispy rice sticks," but they look to me like crispy bean threads, cooked in a flash when dropped into hot oil for a few seconds. The crispy wontons are made from frying thinly sliced wonton wrappers in the same hot oil. 

    For the edamame (soybeans), look in the frozen food section, and if they're still in their pods, be sure to take them out before measuring and tossing them into the salad. Once you've got everything chilled and chopped, building each dish is a breeze, and you'll have four huge dinner-size salads that will each be enough for an entire meal.

    I've cloned a ton of dishes from California Pizza Kitchen. See if I hacked your favorites here.

    Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur.

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  • Score: 5.00 (votes: 3)
    California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) Sedona White Corn Tortilla Soup Low-Fat

    When you get a steaming bowl of great tortilla soup plopped down in front of you, it's tough to stop slurping until you hit bottom. California Pizza Kitchen has just such a soup, but the oil and fried tortilla chips jack up the fat. Never fear. You can use my CPK Sedona White Corn Tortilla Soup recipe below to make a soup that tastes just as good as the original without most of the oil and fat. Fat-free chicken broth stands in well for the regular stuff, and baked corn tortilla chips give the soup its traditional taste and texture. You'll want to use a hand blender for this one, if you've got one. If not, a regular blender or food processor will work fine to purée the soup so that it has the smooth consistency of the original CPK tortilla soup, but with only a miniscule two grams of fat per serving.

    Check out my other clone recipes for CPK soups, salads, and pizza here.

     Nutrition Facts
    :
    Serving size–1 1/2 cups
    Total servings–4
    Calories–260 (Original–305)
    Fat–2g (Original–14g)

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

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  • Score: 4.80 (votes: 5)
    California Pizza Kitchen Jamaican Jerk Chicken Pizza

    This CPK creation is a top pick at the 209-unit chain, most likely because chefs slather on a delicious sweet-and-spicy Caribbean sauce where tomato sauce usually sits on traditional Italian-style pies. Making the sauce from scratch is the way to go for true clone rangers, but if you'd like a shortcut, find Tiger Sauce in your local market where the bottled hot sauces are sold, and use that. If you want another shortcut, rather than mixing your own jerk seasoning from scratch, use any jerk blend or seasoning. 

    I do recommend making the pizza dough from scratch, rather than buying prepared dough. You'll need to plan ahead on this part of the recipe so that the dough has a chance to slowly rise in your fridge overnight. This is the technique the pros use to recreate professional-style, chewy pizza dough. To bake the pizzas—my California Pizza Kitchen Jamaican jerk chicken pizza recipe makes two—I suggest cooking them on a preheated pizza stone in your oven. This is the best way to reproduce the taste and texture of the great pizzas at CPK.

    Find more recipes for your favorite dishes from CPK here.

    Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur.

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  • Score: 4.50 (votes: 26)
    California Pizza Kitchen Dakota Smashed Pea and Barley Soup

    Got one of those cool hand blenders? It comes in handy for my California Pizza Kitchen Dakota Smashed Pea and Barley Soup recipe, which requires the split peas to be smashed into a smooth consistency, just like the original. If you don't have a hand blender, also called a stick blender, a standard blender works just fine. This soup is very tasty and very low in fat. And the barley gives it a special chunky texture and nutty flavor that isn't found in most pea soups.

    Find more of your favorite dishes from CPK hacked here.

    Nutrition Facts
    Serving size–2 cups
    Total servings–4
    Calories per serving–450
    Fat per serving–3g

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

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  • Score: 5.00 (votes: 1)
    California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) Southwestern Burrito Pizza

    Menu Description: "With grilled chicken breast marinated in lime and herbs, Southwestern black beans, fire-roasted mild chilis, sweet white onions and Cheddar cheese. Served with green tomatillo salsa and sour cream."

    California Pizza Kitchen uses imported Italian wood-fired ovens to bake the specialty pizzas. These ovens reach temperatures over 800 degrees F, allowing the pizzas to cook in just three minutes. This technique keeps ingredients from drying out so that the pizzas don't require as much cheese as in traditional recipes.

    Most of us don't have wood-burning pizza ovens in our kitchens, so I have designed my California Pizza Kitchen Southwestern Burrito Pizza recipe to work in a conventional oven with a minimum of cheese. If you have a pizza stone, use it. If you have a hard time finding tomatillos (they look like small green tomatoes with a thin papery skin and are found in the produce section) you can use canned green salsa.

    You have the option of using a store-bought crust or instant pizza dough, but I can't say enough about making the dough yourself from my recipe here. You just have to plan ahead, making the dough one day before you plan to bake the pizza. This way, the dough will get to rest and will rise slowly in the refrigerator—a great technique the pros use.

    Find more recipes to duplicate your favorite dishes and pizzas from CPK here.

    Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

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  • Not rated yet
    California Pizza Kitchen Thai Chicken Pizza

    Menu Description: "With pieces of chicken marinated in a spicy peanut-ginger and sesame sauce, green onions, bean sprouts, julienne carrots, cilantro and roasted peanuts."

    After the first California Pizza Kitchen opened in Beverly Hills in 1985 success came quickly: there are currently 78 restaurants in 18 states. In 1992, huge food conglomerate PepsiCo paid over $70 million for a 70 percent share of the company-just eight years after Larry and Rick started the company. As for those two, well, they pocketed $18 million apiece, or around 70 times their initial investment in 1985.

    Thai Chicken Pizza is one of the oldest varieties of pizza still on the menu, and remains a favorite. If you prefer, you can use a store-bought package dough or dough mix, but I recommend using my CPK Thai Chicken Pizza recipe below and making the crust yourself. If you decide to do that, make it one day ahead of time so that it can rise slowly in the refrigerator. 

    If you like this, be sure to check out my CPK BBQ chicken pizza recipe.

    Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

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  • Not rated yet
    California Pizza Kitchen Vegetarian Pizza

    Who needs meat when you can make a pizza taste like this without it? It's grilled veggies and mozzarella cheese stacked on a great clone for the chain's tasty honey-wheat dough. With regular mozzarella cheese, the total fat for three slices comes in at around nineteen grams, which is still much less than you'd get from, say, the pepperoni-topped variety tipping the scales at about fifteen grams per slice. Just remember to prepare your dough a day before you plan to make the pizza. This way you'll get the best consistency in the final product. And one heck of a better clone.

    Nutrition Facts
    Serving size–3 slices
    Total servings–2
    Calories per serving–632
    Fat per serving–19g

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

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  • Score: 5.00 (votes: 2)
    California Pizza Kitchen Original BBQ Chicken Pizza

    Menu Description: "Introduced in our first restaurant in 1985. With barbecued chicken, sliced red onion, cilantro, and smoked Gouda cheese."

    In 1985, attorneys Larry Flax and Rick Rosenfield traded in their private practice, which included defending mob bosses and union officials, for a specialty pizza chain. These two "amateur chefs" say they were influenced by Wolfgang Puck, whose Spago restaurant in Los Angeles was the first to create pizza with unusual toppings. Now they have developed a niche somewhere between gourmet food and traditional Italian-style pizzas, creating what one magazine described as "designer pizza at off-the-rack prices." In addition to the pastas, soups, and salads, California Pizza Kitchen offers dozens of unique pizza creations that reflect the current trends in dining. When Cajun food was in style, the Cajun chicken pizza was a top seller; today that item has been replaced with Southwestern and Thai pizza varieties. As the menu explains, the Barbecued Chicken Pizza was one of the first pizzas served at California Pizza Kitchen. Decades later it remains one of the top-selling pizza creations.

    You can use this CPK BBQ chicken pizza recipe to make your pizza with pre-made or packaged dough, but I highly recommend taking the time to make the dough yourself. You'll find that it's well worth the little bit of extra work.

    Click here to see if I cloned your favorite salads and appetizers from CPK.

    Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

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  • Not rated yet
    California Pizza Kitchen Grilled Eggplant Cheeseless Pizza

    When PepsiCo shelled out $100 million for a 67 percent share of the trendy pizza chain back in 1992, founders Lawrence Flax and Richard Rosenfield thought they had it made. Unfortunately, the company behind Pizza Hut found expanding the more upscale eatery an unfamiliar struggle. The company expanded too quickly, and as costs began to dwarf sales figures, fresh ingredients were replace with cheaper frozen products. Customers noticed and sales took a nosedive. By 1996, PepsiCo decided to bail out.

    The following year, PepsiCo's share of the chain was picked up by New York investment firm Rosser, Sherrill and Co. Fresh ingredients returned to the kitchens, and the size of the pizzas was increased without adjusting the price. Sales once again blossomed, and the chain was on its way back to turning its first profit since 1991.

    Here's a great pizza to clone if you need to take a little time off from delicious-yet-fat-filled mozzarella cheese. With the marinated, grilled eggplant and tasty honey-wheat dough, you won't even miss that gooey white stuff. Be sure to start this one a day before you plan to eat it. The dough needs that long to rise in the fridge for just the right California Pizza Kitchen-like taste.

    Nutrition Facts
    Serving size–3 slices
    Total servings–2
    Calories per serving–380
    Fat per serving–8g

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

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I'm Todd Wilbur, Chronic Food Hacker

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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