Menu Description: "Our appetizing cheese dip with seasoned beef. Served with warm tostada chips."

Take your chips for a dip in this chili queso that comes to your table in a small cast iron skillet along with a big bowl of tortilla chips. A popular recipe that's been circulating calls for combining Velveeta with Hormel no-bean chili. Sure, it's a good start, but there's more to Chili's spicy cheese dip than that. Try my Chili's Skillet Queso copycat recipe below that includes a few other key ingredients. After about 20 minutes you'll have a great taste alike dip for picnic, party, or game time.

Now, what's for dinner? Check out my other Chili's copycat recipes here.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur.
 

Spinach dips are a great finger food appetizer and just about every chain has its own version, but Cheddar's has one of the best in the business with a unique, slightly spicy southwestern twist. Just like the original, four different kinds of cheese are used in my Cheddar's Santa Fe Spinach dip recipe: three are blended into the spinach, then mozzarella is melted over the top just before serving.

And for speed, we’ll use a microwave oven to quickly defrost the box of frozen spinach so that you’ll have a delish copycat Cheddar's Santa Fe spinach dip on the table in just 20 minutes.

This way to more cool copycats from Cheddar's.

There are many acceptable ways to formulate good queso, but to make this specific queso the Qdoba way, you must start with the correct ingredients—and most copycat recipes seem to miss the mark. A few recipes get one of the peppers and two of the cheeses right, but nearly every recipe out there is a big mess that I will now save you from.

Quesos can be made with various cheeses, including queso fresco, asadero, and Muenster, but this particular queso includes a cheese you probably didn’t expect: Swiss. That cheese is slow to melt, so we’ll shred it, along with the Jack. And you won't need to gum up the queso with flour or cornstarch by making a roux because the white American cheese in the mix contains either sodium citrate or sodium phosphate—additives that help the cheese melt smoothly and stay that way. 

The authors of recipes that include tomatoes in this dish haven’t looked closely. Those are actually red bell peppers, which are roasted, peeled, and seeded along with the poblano and jalapeños before being diced and added to the cheese sauce. The sauce cooks on low heat, without bubbling, ensuring it remains smooth and creamy.

When it’s done, your queso may appear thin in the pan, but it will thicken as it cools to a perfect consistency for dipping tortilla chips or as a topping for tacos and burrito bowls.

My Qdoba 3-Cheese Queso copycat recipe was our #2 most popular in 2021. Check out the other four most unlocked recipes for the year: Panda Express Chow Mein (#1), Panda Express Fried Rice (#3), Outback Baked Potato Soup (#4), Chipotle Carne Asada (#5).

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

Social 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. 

For years, I’ve been hearing about a delicious seafood dipping sauce at Japanese steakhouses called "shrimp sauce" or "yum yum sauce." Research revealed many independent Japanese steakhouses with "the best sauce," but it was the name of an 11-unit chain called Kobe Ichiban in Central Florida that came up most often.

When I next found myself in Orlando, Florida presenting some cooking demos at a home show, I dropped in on Kobe Ichiban for dinner and there it was: the light orange creamy dipping "yummy" sauce that everyone was raving about. It was sweet and sour and salty and creamy, and it tasted amazing on the shrimp—as well as on everything else.

I poured some into some small plastic storage bags I had with me (always come prepared!), then popped them into a cooler for the long trip back to Las Vegas. Back in the underground lab, I developed my Kobe shrimp yum yum sauce copycat recipe below. Now, you can enjoy this much-requested delicious dipping sauce anytime.

Find more of my copycat recipes for famous sauces here.  

Citrus juices, sweet white corn, and roasted jalapeno pepper combine for this slightly spicy sweet-and-sour salsa, which has become a popular topper at the chain for those not looking for something with a lot of heat.

For my Chipotle Roasted Chili-Corn Salsa copycat recipe, I started by piercing a jalapeno with a skewer and lightly blackened it over my stovetop gas flame (if you don’t have a gas stove, you can also roast it in your oven). I diced the pepper, then combined it with white corn, red onion, cilantro, salt, and citrus juices and let it rest for a half hour.

After a taste test and several more batches to adjust ratios, I finally had a salsa that was indistinguishable from the real thing and could now be used on all sorts of deserving home creations, just like the corn salsa you get at the famous Mexican chain.

Find more of my Chipotle copycat recipes here.

One of two new sauces McDonald’s debuted in late 2023 is inspired by the famous Washington D.C.-area sauce originally offered at chicken wing restaurants and Chinese takeout joints in the 1960s. The sweet, sour, and spicy mambo sauce—also called mumbo sauce—is used as a dip for all kinds of finger foods including fried chicken, chicken wings, chicken nuggets, French fries, and eggrolls.

But McDonald’s only offered the sauce in small blister packs, which were available for about a month. So, if we want to bring back the great flavor of the limited-time-only sauce we'll need a handy home hack. Fortunately, I got my mitts on enough of the sauce before it went away to whip up this exclusive knockoff.

My McDonald's Mambo Sauce copycat recipe is super easy, requires only common ingredients, and will make 1½ cups of the versatile stuff you can use for dipping anything that needs to be perked up.

You might also like my clones for McDonald's sweet and spicy jam, hot mustard, sweet and sour, honey mustard, and Szechuan dipping sauces. Find all my McDonald's copycat recipes here.

Taco Bell has two green sauces mentioned on its website. One is a green chili sauce, which isn’t served at any Taco Bell I’ve been to. The other is a green tomatillo sauce, the most popular of the two, which can be ordered on any Taco Bell item or will be provided a la carte for you to pour on as you see fit. The tomatillo sauce, with its mild heat and bright tomatillo flavor, is the one we’re hacking here.

It appears that Taco Bell uses canned peppers and tomatillos for their recipe, which is great because canned ingredients are ready to use, they add additional flavors and the acidity we need, and they simplify the recipe. Fresh produce would certainly require much more wrangling.

My Taco Bell Green Tomatillo sauce recipe is easy. Just pop everything into a blender in the order prescribed and blend away, but don’t blend so much that the seeds get pulverized. You want a sauce that isn’t completely pureed, with visible small pieces of peppers and seeds. You’ll end up with 1½ cups of the tasty green stuff to use on tacos, burritos, salads, eggs, and more.

Be sure to warm up the sauce a little before you use it (they keep it in a warmer at Taco Bell). The flavor of the real thing is fairly mild, so if you want your version hotter than that, just add more jalapeños to the blender.

Get the recipe in my book "Top Secret Recipes Unleashed" only on Amazon here.

This queso dip is smooth and creamy, packed with peppers, onions, and tomatoes, just like the original, which is a popular menu choice at the Mexican chain.

One of the biggest challenges in making my On the Border Signature Queso copycat recipe was finding the right cheese product that would melt easily and provide the best flavor. I tried Velveeta first but was put off by its sweetness, so I looked for a better option. It wasn’t until I found Tostitos Nacho Cheese Dip that I was able to create a knockoff that tasted like the real thing, and I was confident my version would satisfy fans of the original.

For this clone, sauté the peppers and onion until they soften, then mix them with the cheese, lime juice, and seasoning and heat the dip until hot. Once the queso comes off the burner, stir in the tomatoes and cilantro, then serve immediately with a big pile of tortilla chips.

Try my other On the Border's copycat recipes here.

Laura Scudder folded and ironed wax paper to transform it into bags for the potato chips she sold out of a converted gas station in La Habra Heights, California, in the 1920s. This innovation kept her potato chips fresher than any previous storage method and helped potato chips become a mass-market product in America. Not only did Scudder invent potato chip bags, but her company was also the first to print a freshness date on packages.

If you like potato chips, there’s a good chance you like them even better in a dip, especially if it’s this one found on party tables for as long as I can remember. For my Laura Scudder’s Green Onion Dip Mix copycat recipe, I initially planned to use packaged freeze-dried green onions, but I found that drying my own was easy and cheap using the oven. After crushing the dry green onions with some parsley flakes and mixing those with the buttermilk powder I substituted for the whey found in the real thing, along with MSG and a few everyday ingredients, I had a perfect match to the famous mix.

To make the dip, I stirred the mix into one cup of sour cream, just like the original. In 30 minutes, I had a delicious green onion dip that tasted like the classic I grew up with, to serve with ruffled potato chips or a veggie tray.  

Find more of your favorite famous dip recipes here.

Chipotle’s new sauce, inspired by a traditional Argentinian recipe, is made to enhance several of the chain’s dishes, especially the carne asada. The Mexican restaurant modifies the classic sauce, which typically includes parsley, garlic, oil, vinegar, oregano, peppers, and salt. Instead of parsley, Chipotle uses cilantro and adds lemon juice, lime juice, and smoked paprika to the mix.

My Chipotle’s Red Chimichurri Sauce copycat recipe is simple. After roasting the minced garlic, mix it with all the other ingredients in a small bowl... and wait. Yes, patience is a virtue when it comes to this sauce. Let your chimichurri sit for at least an hour, and you'll be rewarded with a flavorful sauce that elevates dishes like burrito bowls, grilled salmon, chicken, steak, and many other dishes that need a boost of great flavor.

Find more of my Chipotle copycat recipes here.

The nautical-themed store that Joe Columbe opened in Pasadena, California, in 1967, took its name from the well-known Los Angeles bar, Trader Vic’s. And if you look closely around the store, there’s a good chance you’ll spot the plastic lobster they hide there every day.

The chain has gained popularity for its branded products, which began with granola in 1972. One of its most popular items is this hot dip, a seasonal product available after the summer Hatch chile season. If you want to knockoff this delicious dip today, and Hatch chilies aren’t available where you are, don’t worry. Anaheim peppers are similar and can be found year-round. 

For my Trader Joe’s Roasted Hatch Chile and Jalapeño Dip copycat recipe, you’ll roast some garlic and peppers, then combine them with cream cheese, sour cream, shredded cheddar, and spices. Heat it in your oven for 15 minutes, then bust out the chips or crackers for a big serving of the popular dip, which is more than twice the size of the original.

Find more of your favorite dip copycat recipes here.

These days, just about every casual dining chain has its version of this appetizer: spinach and artichoke hearts mixed with cheese and spices, served up hot with chips or crackers for dipping. Making the rounds over the years, I've tried many of them, and most formulas are nearly identical. That is, except for this one. Houston's makes their spinach dip special by using a blend of sour cream, Monterey Jack cheese and Parmegiano Reggiano; the ultimate Parmesan cheese. Parmegiano Reggiano is born in Italy and is usually aged nearly twice as long as other, more common Parmesan cheeses. That ingredient makes the big difference in this dip. So hunt down some of this special Parm at your well-stocked market or gourmet store, and you'll find out why Houston's spinach dip has been one of the most requested recipe clones here at TSR.

Try my Houston's spinach dip recipe below, and if you're hungry for more great copycat recipes from Houston's, click here. 

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur.

The number one appetizer on Joe's menu is called Blue Crab Dip, but you don't need blue crab to clone it. You don't even need to use fresh crab. For my Joe's Crab Shack Blue Crab Dip recipe below, I used some delicious lump crabmeat from Phillip's Seafood that comes in 16-ounce cans (you may find it at Costco, Sam's Club, Walmart, and Vons) and the dip turned out great. You could also use the crabmeat that comes in 6-ounce cans found at practically every supermarket—you'll need two of them. Just be sure to get the kind that includes leg meat, and don't forget to drain off the liquid before you toss it in.

Try more of my Joe's Crab Shack copycat recipes here.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur.

Menu Description: "Parmesan and Romano cheeses blended with spinach, artichokes and sautéed onions & peppers. Served with Friday's red & white tortilla chips."

Many casual chains have their own version of spinach artichoke dip somewhere on the appetizer menu, but one of the most popular versions is found at this huge national chain. 

For our homemade version, well use marinated artichoke hearts to contribute the slightly acidic flavor found in the original. My T.G.I. Friday's Tuscan Spinach Dip recipe below uses a stove top preparation, but you can also prepare a version of this dip entirely in your microwave using the technique at the bottom in Tidbits. 

You'll find a ton of recipes for T.G.I. Friday's best dishes here.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur.

The real thing found in the deli section of your market is used on crackers, as a dip for raw vegetables, or even as a spread on sandwiches, burgers, and wraps. Now I've come up with an easy way to duplicate Rondele using a 12-ounce tub of whipped cream cheese—so you'll happily get three times the amount of the 4-ounce original! Just be sure when mixing your version that you don't over mix, or you will destroy the fluffiness of the whipped cheese. The Italian seasoning included here is a dried herb blend (usually marjoram, thyme, rosemary, savory, sage, oregano, and basil) found near the other bottled herbs and spices in your market. I used McCormick brand for this Rondele garlic & herbs cheese spread clone recipe, but any brand should work fine. Since the herbs are dried, the flavor is more subtle than it would be with fresh herbs, even after the dried bits soak up moisture from the cheese. And that's just want we want for a good clone.

Find more of your favorite famous dip recipes here. 

Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.

Menu Description: "Our own hickory-smoked salmon, cream cheese, capers and chipotle peppers makes this a spread worth swimming upstream for. Served with fire-grilled flatbread."

Famous Dave's is famous for making pork ribs so good you forget you're wearing the embarrassing bib. But before you get your face smeared with BBQ sauce, you may want to kick off your meal with this popular choice from the chain's appetizer column. 

For my Famous Dave's smoked salmon spread recipe, start with 4 ounces of the best smoked salmon you can find. It should be very smoky if you want to duplicate the same taste of the original. If you can't find salmon that's smoky enough, I found that adding a little hickory liquid smoke to the mix works perfectly to flavor the spread so that it tastes like Dave's version. You'll end up with twice the amount of spread as the original, which makes this a great appetizer for a small party. You can even prepare the flatbread ahead of time, then wrap it up in foil and reheat it in the oven before serving.

Did I make you crave ribs? Try my clone recipes for Chili's Baby Back Ribs, Roadhouse Grill Baby Back Ribs, or Tony Roma's World Famous Ribs.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur. 

Even though Arby's has diversified its menu over the years with toasted subs and deli-style sandwiches on sliced whole wheat bread, it's the thinly-sliced roast beef piled high on hamburger buns that originally made this chain famous. Since roast beef and horseradish go so beautifully together, Arby's created this delicious mayo-based horseradish sauce as a spread for the roast beef sandwiches. It also happens to be great on your homemade sandwiches too, but it just isn't cool to hoard handfuls of those blister packs to take home with you. So, with the help of my Arby's Horsey Sauce recipe, you can clone as much sauce as you want. First step: get out the blender. You'll need it to purée the horseradish into the mix so that the sauce is smooth and creamy like the real deal.

You might also like my Arby's BBQ sauce recipe.

Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.

One of the tastiest dipping sauces that you can choose with your order of Chicken McNuggets is this sweet-and-sour creamy Dijon mustard. No longer shall you find it necessary to beg for extra packets of this sauce with your next box of cluck chunks. Now, with just four ingredients, you can from this day forward mix up the stuff at home anytime you want to use it as a spread on savory sandwiches (great with ham!) or as a dipping sauce for your own home-cooked nuggets or chicken strips.

Check out my recipes for McDonald's hot mustard, sweet and sour, sweet chili, and Szechuan sauces. 

Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.

Re-create the popular bean dip at home in minutes with a food processor: just pour in all the ingredients and fire it up. With my Fritos Hot Bean Dip copycat recipe below, you can duplicate the taste of the popular dip without any added fat. If you check out the label of the real thing, you'll see that there's hydrogenated oil in there. We avoid this trans fat without sacrificing flavor in this home clone that's a healthier choice for dipping. Bring on the chips!

Try more amazing copycat recipes for famous dips here.

Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.

When you sit down for Italian-style grub at one of the more than 168 nationwide Carrabba's restaurants, you're first served a small plate with a little pile of herbs and spices in the middle, to which the waiter adds olive oil. Now you're set up to dip your sliced bread in the freshly flavored oil. 

For my Carrabba's Bread Dipping Blend copycat recipe, you'll need a coffee bean grinder or a small food processor to finely chop the ingredients, but you've got one of those right?

You might also like my recipe for Carrabba's Spicy Sausage Lentil Soup. 

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur.

Whip out the food processor and fire up the grill because you'll need these essential tools to clone one of the best restaurant salsas in the business. The key to re-creating the flavor of Chevys salsa is to fire roast the tomatoes and the jalapeños, and to add a little mesquite-flavored liquid smoke. The restaurant chain uses a mesquite grill, so follow the steps in my Chevys Fresh Salsa copycat recipe below to get the same smoky flavor as the popular restaurant version.

Chevys uses chipotle peppers, which are smoked red jalapeños. But unless you grow your own jalapeños, it may be difficult to find the riper red variety in your local supermarket. If you can't find the red ones, the green jalapeño peppers will work fine. Adjust the number of jalapeños you use based on the size of the peppers that are available: if you have big jalapeños, you need only 6, and you'll need around 10 if your peppers are small.

Check out my recipes for Chevy's flan, chili con queso, and more here.

Nutrition Facts
Serving size–2 tablespoons
Total servings–16
Calories per serving–10
Fat per serving–0g

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

Menu Description: "A creamy hot dip of artichokes, spinach and Parmesan with pasta chips."

Just about every aspect of the Olive Garden restaurants was developed from consumer research conducted in a corporate think tank by the General Mills Corporation. Restaurant-goers were questioned about preferences, such as the type of food to be served, the appearance and atmosphere of the restaurant, even the color of the candleholders on each table. The large tables and the comfy chairs on rollers that you see at the Olive Garden restaurants came out of those vigorous research sessions.

I'm not sure if this dish came from those sessions, but according to servers at the Olive Garden, the Hot Artichoke-Spinach Dip is one of the most requested appetizers on the menu. The restaurant serves the dip with chips made from fried pasta, but you can serve your homemade Olive Garden hot artichoke dip with just about any type of crackers, chips, or toasted Italian bread, like bruschetta.

Try my Olive Garden Hot Artichoke Dip copycat recipe below, and find more of your favorite Olive Garden recipes here.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

Menu Description: "A creamy, cheesy blend of artichoke hearts, spinach, onions, Parmesan and a hint of bacon."

Just about every casual restaurant chain has its own version of artichoke and spinach dip, and it's usually one of the top most popular picks from the appetizer menu. Red Robin is no exception, and offers a version of the popular dip that is one of the best of the bunch. The basics of Red Robin's spinach artichoke dip are similar to other formulas, but they mix it up with a little bacon for a hint of smokiness. I like that. I also like that you can easily steam the artichoke hearts, spinach and onion used here in your microwave oven. Combine the tender veggies with the cheese and other ingredients in a saucepan until thick and creamy, then serve it up with your choice of tortilla chips, sliced pita bread, pita chips, bagel chips or crackers.

Try my Red Robin Creamy Artichoke & Spinach dip copycat recipe below, and click here to see if I've cloned more of your favorites from Red Robin.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur.