THE MOST TRUSTED COPYCAT RECIPES
THE MOST TRUSTED COPYCAT RECIPES

Wendy's

Products: 122 of 22
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    Wendy's Breakfast Baconator

    In March 2020, Wendy’s entered the fast food breakfast wars with 18 new items, and the star that emerged from the bunch is a bacon-lover’s dream. The Breakfast Baconator help lead Wendy’s to morning meal sales success in the midst of a pandemic, as other fast feeders, like McDonald’s, struggled in the a.m.

    Wendy's substantial sunrise sandwich is made with a square (of course) sausage patty, a fried egg, 2 slices of American cheese, and 6 halved bacon slices. That's good right there, but when you slather Wendy's delicious top secret Swiss cheese sauce onto a brioche bun, you've got something really special. And filling. All the building instructions are here in my Wendy's Breakfast Baconator recipe, including an easy hack for the Swiss cheese sauce using just 4 ingredients!

    One of the ingredients—Swiss cheese Singles—is what allows us to make a smooth, non-gritty sauce. If you can’t find Singles, use any other brand of Swiss cheese “product” that contains sodium citrate. That’s the secret ingredient that helps make the sauce so creamy.

    Find more of my Wendy's copycat recipes here.

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  • Score: 5.00 (votes: 2)
    Wendy's Seasoned Potatoes

    Reviewers of Wendy’s tasty seasoned potatoes point out that the skin-on slices stay crispy even when cool. That tells us the breading is most likely made with a non-wheat flour blend, an assumption confirmed by the website ingredients list for the potatoes where nary a gram of wheat flour is included. Yep, these seasoned potatoes are gluten-free.

    Wendy’s uses a blend of food starches plus rice flour for the breading on their version, but my tests confirmed that cornstarch is all you’ll need for a great clone of Wendy's seasoned potatoes. The secret process starts by coating the potato slices with the dry breading mix, which contains salt. The salt in the blend will draw water out of the potatoes, magically transforming the dry breading into a wet batter in about 20 minutes.

    When all the breading is wet, the potatoes go into the oil for partial frying. After resting a bit, they get dropped in again until golden brown and crispy. And, thanks to the cornstarch, these potatoes will stay crispy, even when they’re completely cool. Pretty cool right? Give my Wendy's seasoned potatoes copycat recipe a try.

    This recipe was our #3 most popular in 2022. Check out the other four most unlocked recipes for the year: Rao's Traditional Meatballs (#1), Chipotle Pollo Asado (#2), Cheesecake Factory Spicy Cashew Chicken (#4), McDonald's Chicken McNuggets (#5).

    Check out this list of our most popular recipes of all-time.

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  • Score: 4.71 (votes: 7)
    Wendy's Hot Chili Seasoning

    The little red packets of viscous hot sauce at the fast food giant have a cult following of rabid fans who will do whatever it takes to get their hands on large quantities. One such fan of the sauce commented online, "Are there any Wendy's employees or managers out there who will mail me an entire case of Hot Chili Seasoning? I swear this is not a joke. I love the stuff. I tip extra cash to Wendy's workers to get big handfuls of the stuff." Well, there's really no need to tip any Wendy's employees, because now you can make as much as you want in your own kitchen with my Wendy's Hot Chili Seasoning copycat recipe below. 

    The ingredients listed on the real Hot Chili Seasoning are water, corn syrup, salt, distilled vinegar, natural flavors, xanthan gum, and extractives of paprika. We'll use many of those same ingredients for our clone, but we'll substitute gelatin for the xanthan gum (a thickener) to get the slightly gooey consistency right. For the natural flavor and color we'll use cayenne pepper, cumin, paprika, and garlic powder, then filter the particles out with a fine wire-mesh strainer after they've contributed what the sauce needs.

    My recipe makes 5 ounces of sauce— just the right amount to fit nicely into a used hot sauce bottle—and costs just pennies to make.

    Try your Wendy's hot chili seasoning clone on a homemade bowl of Wendy's Chili.

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  • Score: 4.89 (votes: 221)
    Wendy's Chili

    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 my Wendy's copycat chili recipe is a great version of the one served in the early 90s. Try topping it with some chopped onion and Cheddar cheese, just as you can request in the restaurant.

    Now, on to the Wendy's Hot Chili Seasoning copycat recipe.

    Source: Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

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    Wendy's Maple Bacon Chicken Sandwich

    Wendy’s claims it took three years to develop this hit chicken sandwich that’s built on a croissant roll and slathered with the chain’s secret maple glaze. Use my Wendy's Maple Bacon Chicken Sandwich copycat recipe to make perfect dupes at home (four of them, actually), with simple ingredients, and I’ve got some shortcuts here to help make all of it quick and easy.

    For the chicken, find frozen chicken breasts or large tenderloins with a homestyle breading. Tyson’s Southern Style Breast Tenderloins work great if you pick out the biggest pieces from the bag. The breading on this chicken is similar to what you get at Wendy’s.

    Rather than making croissants from scratch, which is a time-consuming task, we’ll use Pillsbury dough from a tube. Pillsbury’s “Crescents” are not true croissants, even though they look and taste similar to croissants. Real croissant dough rises with yeast and would blow out a Pillsbury paper tube in a day or two, even if chilled. For that reason, Pillsbury uses baking powder in breads that usually call for yeast, such as cinnamon rolls and croissants. Unlike yeast, baking powder is a chemical leavening agent activated by heat, so the dough will remain stable in the refrigerated section of your supermarket, safely inside the paper tubes until you’re ready to bake it.

    Instead of cooking the rolls as directed on the package, we'll roll the dough using the technique below, form it in a 3½-inch ring mold, and then bake it. This will make perfect croissant buns that we can slice and toast for our sandwich. If you don’t have a 3½-inch ring mold, you can use a ring from a canning jar or a biscuit cutter. If the diameter of your ring is less than 3½ inches, just form the dough using the smaller ring, then remove it and press down on the dough to spread it out until it is 3½ inches across. 

    I've cloned a lot of items from Wendy's. See if I hacked your favorites here

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  • Score: 5.00 (votes: 3)
    Wendy's Garden Sensations Mandarin Chicken Salad & Sesame Dressing

    Of the four salads on Wendy's new Garden Sensations menu, this is the one that gets all the cloning requests. It's the sesame dressing that everyone's nuts about. My Wendy's sesame dressing recipe below gives you a nice 1 1/2 cups of the delicious stuff, so it'll fit perfectly into a standard dressing cruet. Once you've got your dressing made, building the Mandarin chicken salad is a breeze.

    Check out my other Wendy's clone recipes here.

    Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.

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  • Score: 4.42 (votes: 52)
    Wendy's Frosty

    First served at Wendy's in 1969, the Frosty continues as a favorite in fast food shakes. Our frosty's recipe is an improved version of the recipe that appeared in my first book, Top Secret Recipes. 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.

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  • Score: 5.00 (votes: 1)
    Wendy's Vanilla Frosty

    For 50 years, the Frosty at Wendy's came in only one flavor: chocolate. But in 2006, after repeated customer requests, the new Vanilla Frosty debuted nationwide. Like its chocolate counterpart, the Vanilla Frosty is a super-thick milkshake that has the consistency of soft-serve ice cream. Don't even attempt to get it through the straw they serve it with unless you feel the urge to collapse a lung. That's why they also give you a spoon. Start there.

    And, just as with my improved Classic Chocolate Frosty hack, you must make my copycat Wendy's Vanilla Frosty in a home ice cream maker to get the same thick and creamy consistency as the real thing. Sure, other Frosty clones might taste okay, but if it ain't thick like this one, it ain't a good hack.

    I've cloned a ton of Wendy's recipes. See if I hacked your favorite here.

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  • Score: 5.00 (votes: 12)
    Wendy's Spicy Chicken Fillet Sandwich

    When sales of this once limited-offering sandwich exceeded expectations, Wendy's made it a permanent menu item. With my Wendy's Spicy Chicken Fillet Sandwich copycat recipe below, you can re-create the spicy kick of the original with a secret blend of spices in the chicken's crispy coating. Follow the correct stacking order as listed, and you will make four copycat sandwiches at home for a fraction of the cost of the real thing.

    Check out more of my Wendy's copycat recipes like their famous chili here.

    Source: Even More Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

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  • Score: 5.00 (votes: 1)
    Wendy's Chocolate Frosty (Improved)

    It may look like it's all chocolate, but Wendy's founder Dave Thomas thought that a purely chocolate frozen dairy dessert would overpower his burger and fries, so he mixed chocolate with vanilla to create his signature ultra-thick shake, and in 1969, the Frosty was born.

    My first crack at this iconic treat was revealed in a copycat recipe I published 25 years ago in my first book "Top Secret Recipes" that called for mixing milk with Nestle Quik and vanilla ice cream in a blender. Tasty? Sure, it was. But the finished product was too runny, and the flavor wasn't perfect. That's why I recently holed myself up in the lab and created a new improved Wendy's Frosty copycat recipe that you churn in a home ice cream maker until thick and creamy, and it now tastes just like the real thing.

    Unlike my previous recipe, which relied on premade ice cream and a drink mix, the scratch ingredients I used here allowed me to make small adjustments in flavor for a better match, and an ice cream maker is the perfect way to produce a thick, creamy consistency. So far, this is the best hack I've come up with to duplicate the treat that tests have shown is up to twice as thick as other famous desserts in a cup, including Dairy Queen's Blizzard and McDonald's McFlurry

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  • Score: 5.00 (votes: 3)
    Wendy's Wild Mountain Bacon Cheeseburger

    The secret to duplicating the taste of this great Wendy's burger comes down to recreating the spicy Southwestern pepper sauce. And, if you want to stay true to the original burger, you'll have to get yourself some sliced yellow and white colby Jack cheese. Look for the marbled cheese in the deli section—I used Tillamook brand. Cook up some bacon, slap it all together, and you'll have one of the best homemade hamburgers on the planet.

    Now, how about a refreshing Wendy's chocolate or vanilla Frosty? Get more of my Wendy's copycat recipes here.

    Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.

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    Wendy's Junior Bacon Cheeseburger

    Surely when Dave Thomas opened his first Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers restaurant in 1969, and named it after his daughter, he never imagined the tremendous success and growth his hamburger chain would achieve. In 1989 Dave starred in a series of television ads that boosted Wendy's customer awareness level to the highest levels since its famous "Where's the beef?" campaign.

    In the same year, Wendy's introduced the Super Value Menu, a selection of items all priced under a buck. The Junior Bacon Cheeseburger was added to the selection of inexpensive items and quickly became a hit.

    Source: More Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

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  • Score: 5.00 (votes: 1)
    Wendy's Single

    In 1984 the diminutive Clara Peller blurted out in a series of four television ads the memorable phrase that would pop up on T-shirts and in presidential campaigns: "Where's the beef?" The ad was devised by Wendys' advertising agency to attack the misconception that its Single hamburger was smaller than its competitors "big name" hamburgers. The campaign was so original that it stole the show at the 1984 Clio Awards, winning the advertising industry's highest honors and registering the highest consumer awareness level in the industry's history.

    Source: More Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

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  • Score: 4.50 (votes: 2)
    Wendy's Spicy Chicken Fillet Sandwich Reduced Fat

    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 my reduced-fat Wendy's spicy chicken fillet sandwich recipe below, 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)

    If you're all about the fat, try my original Wendy's Spicy Chicken Fillet sandwich recipe here.

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

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  • Score: 5.00 (votes: 1)
    Wendy's Grilled Chicken Fillet Sandwich

    In 1990 Wendy's not only added this new sandwich to its growing menu, but also added more international restaurants to the chain, including stores in Indonesia, Greece, Turkey, and Guatemala. Wendy's now claims more than 4,000 outlets around the world, with more than $3 billion in sales.

    This is an excellent sandwich if you like grilled chicken, and it contains only nine grams of fat, if you're counting.

    Source: More Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

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  • Not rated yet
    Wendy's Classic Greek Fresh Stuffed Pita

    The Classic Greek Pita used the same salad base and dressing as the clone for the Chicken Caesar Pita, but replaces the chicken and Parmesan with a Greek topping that's a breeze to make. Even though Wendy's uses a pocketless pita that can be tough to find in stores, you can use the more common pocketed pita, just without opening the pocket. Instead, you heat up the pita, then fill up the center and fold it like a soft taco.  

    And now, since Wendy's took this cool little item off the menu, you can use my Wendy's Classic Greek Fresh Stuffed Pita recipe below and make them at home. 

    You might also like my recipe for Wendy's Chicken Caesar Fresh Stuffed Pita.

    Source: Even More Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

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  • Score: 5.00 (votes: 4)
    Wendy's Chicken Caesar Fresh Stuffed Pita

    Early in 1997 Wendy's introduced its selection of cold "Fresh Stuffed" pita sandwiches—a nice change of pace from the typical fast food fare. Basically what you're getting is a small salad wrapped in a warm pita bread. You might be saying to yourself "That doesn't sound like much for 3 bucks!" Then I would say, "Perhaps, but what if you could make a clone yourself for a mere fraction of that?" You would say, "Cool, man! Lay it on me." And then I would say, "Here you go." 

    And now, since Wendy's took these cool little sandwiches off their menu, you can use my Wendy's Chicken Caesar Fresh Stuffed Pita recipe below and enjoy them at home.

    You might also want to try my recipes for Wendy's classic Greek fresh stuffed pita sandwich.

    Source: Even More Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

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    Wendy's Junior Bacon Cheeseburger Reduced-Fat

    Did you know that Dave Thomas, the spokesman and founder of the country's third-largest hamburger chain, got his start in fried chicken with a famous Kentucky colonel? In 1962, Dave had an opportunity to turn around four failing KFC carryouts for an ownership stake in them. Dave worked hard and was eventually successful. He parlayed his new ownership into four more KFC restaurants, and in 1968 he sold them all for $1.5 million. Dave was a millionaire at age thirty-five. A year later, Dave opened his first Wendy's restaurant, and today the chain is over 5000 units strong. Pretty good for a guy who didn't finish high school.

    Here's my conversion of one of the best items on Wendy's bargain ninety-nine-cents menu that weighs in at 25 grams of fat. Let's knock this down to just eleven grams, using lean ground beef, fat-free mayo, and turkey bacon.

    Nutrition Facts 
    Serving size–1 sandwich
    Total servings–1
    Calories per serving–310 (Original–430)
    Fat per serving–11g (Original–25g)

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

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    Wendy's Classic Greek Fresh Stuffed Pita Low-Fat

    In 1997, Wendy's announced its IPO—also known as the Initial Pita Offering—on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Wendy's CEO Gordon Teter rang the bell to open the day of trading while Wendy's stock traders on the floor munched out on four varieties of the pita sandwiches, including this one, the Classic Greek Fresh Stuffed Pita.

    For our low-fat clone, well cut a gaggle of grams by making the dressing fat-free, and then well use low-fat feta cheese. Following this secret formula below, you can turn what is normally a 20-fat-gram sandwich into one that weighs in with only 2.5 grams.

    Nutrition Facts
    Serving size–1 sandwich
    Total servings–4
    Calories per serving–240 (Original–440)
    Fat per serving–2.5g (Original–20g)

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

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  • Not rated yet
    Wendy's Chicken Caesar Fresh Stuffed Pita Reduced-Fat

    Publicity stunt alert. For one day in 1997, St. Petersburg, Florida, became "St. Pitas-burg" to celebrate the introduction of Wendy's Fresh Stuffed Pita sandwiches. Over 40,000 balloons formed a giant pita sandwich at a local Wendy's restaurant, while local residents and Wendy's staff learned the "art of eating a pita" from pita eating experts.

    The Chicken Caesar Fresh Stuffed Pita was one of those pitas introduced on that glorious day. See if you can figure how to eat this clone version, made with much less fat, all on your own.

    Nutrition Facts
    Serving size–1 sandwich
    Total servings–4
    Calories per serving–283 (Original–490)
    Fat per serving–5g (Original–18g)

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

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  • Score: 5.00 (votes: 1)
    Wendy's Frosty Low-Fat Recipe

    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.

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  • Score: 3.50 (votes: 2)
    Wendy's Single With Cheese Reduced-Fat

    Over 5,000 Wendy's restaurants around the world serve the hamburger with the square patty that hangs over the edge of the bun. It's the burger that inspired the 1984 award-winning ad campaign with a little old lady crying out, "Where's the beef?" This secret recipe to create a lower-fat clone of the famous burger asks the question, "Where's the fat?" By using super-lean ground beef, fat-free mayonnaise, and fat-free cheese, we have cut the fat to less than half of what is in the original. Now you can have two cloned burgers for less than the fat found in one original.

    Nutrition Facts
    Serving size–1 sandwich
    Total servings–1
    Calories per serving–335 (Original–420)
    Fat per serving–10g (Original–21g)

    Source: Top Secret Recipes Lite 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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