Seasonings
Nice workl. 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. See if Todd has hacked your favorite seasonings here. New recipes added every week.
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Old El Paso Taco Seasoning Mix
Read moreThe Old El Paso brand started life in 1917 as The Mountain Pass Canning Company, but the name changed when the company was sold to its new owner in El Paso, Texas. The company initially specialized in canned tomatoes and pinto beans but expanded its line over the years. In 1969, Old El Paso became the first American company to sell a national line of Mexican meals in supermarkets and the first to advertise Mexican food. This growing market for Mexican cuisine established by Old El Paso is why U.S. stores created a Mexican food section for the first time in 1970.
Many of us who grew up with "family taco night" are familiar with the packet of spices added to browned ground beef for a quick and easy taco filling. When the seasoned beef is added to crispy or soft taco shells with your favorite combination of cheese, lettuce, tomato, avocado, or whatever, any day becomes Taco Tuesday.
My Old El Paso Taco Seasoning Mix copycat recipe includes all the spices you'll need for a perfect match to the real thing and just the right amount of cornstarch to thicken it up. And it's a cinch to make. Once you've mixed these ingredients in a small bowl, add the blend to 1 pound of cooked ground beef with water, cook until thick, and fill your tacos just like you did with the original from back in the day.
Now, how about a cold margarita?
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Carrabba's Bread Dipping Blend
Read moreWhen 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.
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Lawry's Seasoned Salt
Read moreThis seven-ingredient clone of Lawry's Seasoned Salt can be made in a small bowl, but it's best used when poured into an old spice bottle that you've cleaned out and saved. You've got one of those somewhere, right?
Source: Even More Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.
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Kraft Shake 'N Bake Original
Read moreNeed a recipe that copies Shake 'N Bake in a pinch? Use my recipe below for a quick blend of flour, corn flake crumbs, and spices that will give you the same texture and flavor of the original. You may notice the color is a bit different in this clone when compared to the real thing. That's because my Kraft Shake 'n Bake recipe doesn't include beet powder—a hard to find ingredient that lends a red/orange tint to the original. But after you sink your teeth into the chicken baked the same way as described on the Kraft Shake 'N Bake box, you'll swear it's the same stuff. When you're ready to get shaking and baking, use this breading on 2 1/2 pounds of chicken pieces or on 2 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breasts.
Now, what side dish will you prepare?
Source: Even More Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.
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Red Robin Seasoning
Read moreGive yourself some time to make a tough decision when you get to this casual chain because there are nearly two dozen gourmet burgers on the Red Robin menu to pick from, not to mention scores of other fantastic food choices. Red Robin claims the steak fries served with your burger are world-famous. I'm not sure if that's been confirmed, but I do know one thing that makes the fries popular in my book: they come in an all-you-can-eat bottomless portion. Want more fries? Just ask, and you can have as many as your belly can handle.
As you're stuffing yourself, you may notice that the burgers and French fries at Red Robin have something in common that makes them taste so special. That's right, it's the seasoning blend. I created my Red Robin seasoning recipe below with instant tomato soup mix as the secret ingredient, which I think you'll find matches the taste of the original.
So, next time you make a burger, sprinkle some of your homemade Red Robin seasoning blend on the patty. When you cook up some frozen steak fries or French fries, sprinkle a little of this blend on them as soon as they come out of the oven or fryer. Soon, you'll discover all sorts of uses for this versatile spice blend. And my recipe here makes a portion that fits nicely into an empty spice bottle. Bonus.
Try this on one of my copycat recipes for Red Robin's signature burgers.
Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur.
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Wendy's Hot Chili Seasoning
Read moreThe 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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Fuddruckers Hamburger Seasoning
Read moreFor 25 years, Fuddruckers has been serving huge, cooked-when-ordered beef patties on freshly baked buns. You decorate your hamburger creation with sliced tomato, onions, lettuce, pickles, peppers, relish and whatever else is offered at the toppings bar. Everyone builds their burger differently, yet the company claims these are "The World's Greatest Hamburgers." What makes them so good? Fuddruckers boasts that it uses only 100% USDA choice, aged ground beef.
What Fuddruckers won't tell you is which secret ingredients make up the delicious burger seasoning used on each of those patties. After analyzing a sample of the blend used in the shakers back by the griddle, I've come up with this simple Fuddruckers Hamburger Seasoning copycat recipe which you can now mix up at home, and pour into an empty shaker bottle. Sprinkle it onto 1/3- or 1/2-pound ground beef patties just before they cook, then grab some fresh buns in the bakery section of your store. Add your choice of other fresh toppings, and you'll soon have a hamburger clone that tastes just like those served at the more than 230 Fuddruckers.
Wash down that tasty burger with a homemade In-N-Out Burger Vanilla Shake.
Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur.
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Old Bay Seasoning
Read moreWith spice grinder in hand, Gustav Brunn traveled to America from Germany, and settled down in Baltimore on the Chesapeake Bay, where steamed crabs are a staple. Gustav began grinding. In 1939, after trying many different combinations, Gustav found just the right mix for a top secret blend of spices that would be the most-used seasoning on steamed crabs, shrimp, lobster, and other tasty seafood dishes for generations to come. But McCormick & Co., which purchased Old Bay in 1990, insists that the celery salt based blend is not just for seafood. You can also use the seasoning on chicken, French fries, popcorn, baked potatoes, deviled eggs, hamburgers, and even pizza.
Try your homemade Old Bay on my recipe for jumbo lump crab cakes from Joe's Stone Crab.
Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.
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Popeyes Cajun Sparkle Seasoning
Read moreAt these New Orleans-inspired quick-chicken restaurants portable paper pouches of this seasoning blend hold about 1/4 teaspoon of tasty sprinkle, and Popeyes doesn't sell it in stores. The only way you'll get a decent portion of Cajun Sparkle to use on your home foods is to either hoard dozens of envelopes of the Cajun seasoning or whip up your own home version. I recommend the latter.
One secret ingredient in my Popeyes Cajun Sparkle recipe is MSG, or monosodium glutamate, which is an important part of the delicious flavor. You'll find MSG near the other herbs and spices in your market under the brand-name Accent. If you don't want MSG on your food, you can certainly leave this ingredient out of the mix. You won't get the best Top Secret clone, but the seasoning blend will still be very good on anything that needs a dash of salt, flavor, and a little bit of heat.
Get all of my Popeyes copycat recipes here.
Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.
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Taco Bell Taco Seasoning Mix
Read moreThis is a simple recipe to clone the contents of the seasoning packet that bears the Taco Bell logo found in most grocery stores these days. You probably expect the seasoning mix to make meat that tastes exactly like the stuff you get at the big chain. Well, not exactly. It's more like the popular Lawry's taco seasoning mix, which still makes good spiced ground meat, and works great for a tasty bunch of tacos.
Try my Taco Bell Seasoning Mix recipe below, and find more cool Taco Bell copycat recipes here.
Source: Even More Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.
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Schilling Salad Supreme Seasoning
Read moreThis orange-colored spice blend has been perking up salads, pasta, potatoes, hamburgers, and vegetables for years now, but there has never been a Shilling Salad Supreme recipe. Time to change that. While it's obvious that sesame seeds are a major part of this blend, you may not know that the main ingredient is Romano cheese—in the bottle it's tinted orange by the paprika. Be sure to store this one in the refrigerator. You might even want to keep the seasoning in an empty shaker-top spice bottle. And if you're in the mood for some tasty pasta salad, just check out the Tidbit below that comes right off the bottle of the original product.
Click here for more famous seasoning recipes.
Source: Even More Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.
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Taco Bell Chicken Fajita! Seasoning Mix
Read moreA couple years ago Taco Bell and Kraft Foods got together to produce a line of products—everything from taco kits to salsas and spice mixes—all stamped with the familiar Taco Bell logo and available in supermarkets across the country. The idea was a winner, and now the Taco Bell line of products is among Kraft's top sellers.
Now, you can make my Taco Bell Chicken Fajita! Seasoning Mix recipe with a combination of common spices and cornstarch, and keep it indefinitely until your brain's fajita-craving neurons begin firing. When you're set to cook, you'll need some chicken, a bell pepper, and an onion, then follow the same prep instructions you find on the package of the real thing.
Top your fajitas off with one Taco Bell's famous sauces from my recipes here.
Source: Even More Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.
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Lawry's Taco Spices and Seasonings
Read moreThis is my clone recipe for the stuff you buy in 1-ounce packets to create, as the package says, "a fun-filled Mexican fiesta in minutes." Ah, so true. In fact, thanks to Lawry's, my last Mexican fiesta was filled with so much fun that I had to take a siesta. And I promise you just as much fun with my Lawry's Taco Spices and Seasonings recipe below. Maybe even a tad more. Just mix the ingredients together in a small bowl, then add it to 1 pound of browned ground beef along with some water and let it simmer. Before you know it, you'll be up to your nostrils in good old-fashioned, taco-making fun.
Now, how about a cold margarita?
Source: Even More Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.
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Mrs. Dash Salt-Free Seasoning Blend
Read moreSo here's the challenge with this clone recipe: get the right ratios for nearly 20 different spices, and come up with a way to get the same lemony tang that makes the real Mrs. Dash the tasty salt-free seasoning blend we've come to know and love over the years.
Sure, we could use powdered citric acid, or sour salt, but then we still need to figure out the "lemon juice solids" part. Ah, but wait, there's citric acid and lemon juice solids in Kool-Aid unsweetened lemonade drink mix. It's perfect! In my Mrs. Dash's Salt-Free Seasoning Blend recipe below, we'll add a little of that drink powder to the spice blend for a clone that could fool even Mr. Dash in a blind taste test.
Try more of my famous seasoning copycat recipes here.
Source: Even More Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.
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LongHorn Steakhouse Prairie Dust
Read morePeruse a menu at one of the 270-unit LongHorn Steakhouses located throughout the eastern half of the U.S. and you'll find this seasoning blend on battered onion petals, spicy fried shrimp, pork chops, and steaks.
Combine eight common ingredients in the comfort of your home with my LongHorn Steakhouse Prairie Dust copycat recipe, and you'll have quickly cloned a versatile seasoned salt that can be added to everything that needs flavor, from steaks to chicken to seafood. It's also good sprinkled over eggs, burgers, even popcorn.
Try my LongHorn Steakhouse Firecracker Chicken Wraps copycat recipe here.
Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur.
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Chef Paul Prudhomme's Poultry Magic
Read moreLouisiana chef Paul Prudhomme, America's number one Dom DeLuise look-a-like, hit it big in supermarkets with his magical brand of Cajun spice blends. Chef Paul developed his seasonings after years of making little batches and passing them out to customers in the restaurants where he worked. Now his Magic Seasoning Blends come in several varieties and are produced in a whopping 30,000-square-foot plant by 38 employees.
Fortunately, it'll take only one of you in a small kitchen to make my copycat Chef Paul Prudhomme's Poultry Magic recipe: one of the most popular versions of the blend. Use it when you barbecue, roast, grill, or sauté your favorite chicken, turkey, duck, or Cornish game hens.
Click here for more famous seasoning and spice blend clone recipes.
Source: Even More Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.
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Mastro's Steakhouse Steak Seasoning
Read moreOne of the best tools I have for analyzing seasoning blends—besides the old tastebuds—is a video microscope. With this microscope I was able to clearly see that the salt used in an acquired sample of Mastro’s secret steak seasoning was fine salt like the stuff used on popcorn, and that there was some flour in there, probably to help the seasoning stick to the meat. Identifying those ingredients plus a few more made it very easy to assemble a clone of the blend that you can now use on your favorite cuts at home.
Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur.
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Emeril's Original Essence
Read moreOn his Food Network TV show Emeril Lagasse mentions "Essence" almost as much as "Bam!" and "Kick it up a notch!" He claims to put his special spice blend on "everything but ice cream." He suggests using it all your meats, veggies and pasta, and combining it with oil to use as a marinade. If you can't get your hands on the version that's sold in the bottle here's how to whip up a quick clone at home. (This recipe I created to clone the taste of the bottled product found in stores is different from the recipe in Emeril's cookbooks.)
Source: Even More Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.
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Rainforest Cafe Reggae Beat Seasoning
Read moreWalk inside Steve Schussler's house in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and you’ll think you've stepped into a jungle. Seventeen years of research and seven years of construction went into re-creating a working rain forest inside the doors of his not exactly-humble abode. This is how Steve presented the idea for his theme restaurant chain to potential investors. One of them, Lyle Berman, liked the idea, and helped finance the first Rainforest Cafe in Minneapolis's Mall of American in 1994.
The chain uses this jerk-style seasoning blend in several of their dishes You can use my Rainforest Café Reggae Beat Seasoning recipe below to duplicate that great taste on chicken, pork and fish.Source: Low-Fat Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.
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Lawry's Red Pepper Seasoned Salt made with Tabasco
Read moreThe spicy seasoned salt mash-up that Lawry's and Tabasco created several years ago garnered a cult following. Unfortunately the number of fanatics that celebrated the delicious salty, sour, and spicy blend was too small to satisfy the manufacturer, and today this tasty blend has joined the growing list of Dead Foods. The good news is I've discovered a technique for a home version, and the process is a simple one. We can duplicate the sourness that comes from vinegar powder in the real thing by adding Tabasco pepper sauce, which contains vinegar, to a handful of dry ingredients and then letting the blend dry overnight. The hardened chunks are then ground with a mortar and pestle or a coffee grinder, producing a fine blend that can be poured into a spice shaker and sprinkled on anything from French fries to eggs. It's back.
Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.
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Old El Paso Taco Seasoning Mix
Read moreThe Old El Paso brand started life in 1917 as The Mountain Pass Canning Company, but the name changed when the company was sold to its new owner in El Paso, Texas. The company initially specialized in canned tomatoes and pinto beans but expanded its line over the years. In 1969, Old El Paso became the first American company to sell a national line of Mexican meals in supermarkets and the first to advertise Mexican food. This growing market for Mexican cuisine established by Old El Paso is why U.S. stores created a Mexican food section for the first time in 1970.
Many of us who grew up with "family taco night" are familiar with the packet of spices added to browned ground beef for a quick and easy taco filling. When the seasoned beef is added to crispy or soft taco shells with your favorite combination of cheese, lettuce, tomato, avocado, or whatever, any day becomes Taco Tuesday.
My Old El Paso Taco Seasoning Mix copycat recipe includes all the spices you'll need for a perfect match to the real thing and just the right amount of cornstarch to thicken it up. And it's a cinch to make. Once you've mixed these ingredients in a small bowl, add the blend to 1 pound of cooked ground beef with water, cook until thick, and fill your tacos just like you did with the original from back in the day.
Now, how about a cold margarita?
-
Taco Bell Taco Seasoning Mix
Read moreThis is a simple recipe to clone the contents of the seasoning packet that bears the Taco Bell logo found in most grocery stores these days. You probably expect the seasoning mix to make meat that tastes exactly like the stuff you get at the big chain. Well, not exactly. It's more like the popular Lawry's taco seasoning mix, which still makes good spiced ground meat, and works great for a tasty bunch of tacos.
Try my Taco Bell Seasoning Mix recipe below, and find more cool Taco Bell copycat recipes here.
Source: Even More Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.
-
Red Robin Seasoning
Read moreGive yourself some time to make a tough decision when you get to this casual chain because there are nearly two dozen gourmet burgers on the Red Robin menu to pick from, not to mention scores of other fantastic food choices. Red Robin claims the steak fries served with your burger are world-famous. I'm not sure if that's been confirmed, but I do know one thing that makes the fries popular in my book: they come in an all-you-can-eat bottomless portion. Want more fries? Just ask, and you can have as many as your belly can handle.
As you're stuffing yourself, you may notice that the burgers and French fries at Red Robin have something in common that makes them taste so special. That's right, it's the seasoning blend. I created my Red Robin seasoning recipe below with instant tomato soup mix as the secret ingredient, which I think you'll find matches the taste of the original.
So, next time you make a burger, sprinkle some of your homemade Red Robin seasoning blend on the patty. When you cook up some frozen steak fries or French fries, sprinkle a little of this blend on them as soon as they come out of the oven or fryer. Soon, you'll discover all sorts of uses for this versatile spice blend. And my recipe here makes a portion that fits nicely into an empty spice bottle. Bonus.
Try this on one of my copycat recipes for Red Robin's signature burgers.
Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur.
-
Popeyes Cajun Sparkle Seasoning
Read moreAt these New Orleans-inspired quick-chicken restaurants portable paper pouches of this seasoning blend hold about 1/4 teaspoon of tasty sprinkle, and Popeyes doesn't sell it in stores. The only way you'll get a decent portion of Cajun Sparkle to use on your home foods is to either hoard dozens of envelopes of the Cajun seasoning or whip up your own home version. I recommend the latter.
One secret ingredient in my Popeyes Cajun Sparkle recipe is MSG, or monosodium glutamate, which is an important part of the delicious flavor. You'll find MSG near the other herbs and spices in your market under the brand-name Accent. If you don't want MSG on your food, you can certainly leave this ingredient out of the mix. You won't get the best Top Secret clone, but the seasoning blend will still be very good on anything that needs a dash of salt, flavor, and a little bit of heat.
Get all of my Popeyes copycat recipes here.
Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.
-
Lawry's Red Pepper Seasoned Salt made with Tabasco
Read moreThe spicy seasoned salt mash-up that Lawry's and Tabasco created several years ago garnered a cult following. Unfortunately the number of fanatics that celebrated the delicious salty, sour, and spicy blend was too small to satisfy the manufacturer, and today this tasty blend has joined the growing list of Dead Foods. The good news is I've discovered a technique for a home version, and the process is a simple one. We can duplicate the sourness that comes from vinegar powder in the real thing by adding Tabasco pepper sauce, which contains vinegar, to a handful of dry ingredients and then letting the blend dry overnight. The hardened chunks are then ground with a mortar and pestle or a coffee grinder, producing a fine blend that can be poured into a spice shaker and sprinkled on anything from French fries to eggs. It's back.
Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.
-
LongHorn Steakhouse Prairie Dust
Read morePeruse a menu at one of the 270-unit LongHorn Steakhouses located throughout the eastern half of the U.S. and you'll find this seasoning blend on battered onion petals, spicy fried shrimp, pork chops, and steaks.
Combine eight common ingredients in the comfort of your home with my LongHorn Steakhouse Prairie Dust copycat recipe, and you'll have quickly cloned a versatile seasoned salt that can be added to everything that needs flavor, from steaks to chicken to seafood. It's also good sprinkled over eggs, burgers, even popcorn.
Try my LongHorn Steakhouse Firecracker Chicken Wraps copycat recipe here.
Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur.
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Lawry's Seasoned Salt
Read moreThis seven-ingredient clone of Lawry's Seasoned Salt can be made in a small bowl, but it's best used when poured into an old spice bottle that you've cleaned out and saved. You've got one of those somewhere, right?
Source: Even More Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.
-
Mastro's Steakhouse Steak Seasoning
Read moreOne of the best tools I have for analyzing seasoning blends—besides the old tastebuds—is a video microscope. With this microscope I was able to clearly see that the salt used in an acquired sample of Mastro’s secret steak seasoning was fine salt like the stuff used on popcorn, and that there was some flour in there, probably to help the seasoning stick to the meat. Identifying those ingredients plus a few more made it very easy to assemble a clone of the blend that you can now use on your favorite cuts at home.
Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur.
-
Kraft Shake 'N Bake Original
Read moreNeed a recipe that copies Shake 'N Bake in a pinch? Use my recipe below for a quick blend of flour, corn flake crumbs, and spices that will give you the same texture and flavor of the original. You may notice the color is a bit different in this clone when compared to the real thing. That's because my Kraft Shake 'n Bake recipe doesn't include beet powder—a hard to find ingredient that lends a red/orange tint to the original. But after you sink your teeth into the chicken baked the same way as described on the Kraft Shake 'N Bake box, you'll swear it's the same stuff. When you're ready to get shaking and baking, use this breading on 2 1/2 pounds of chicken pieces or on 2 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breasts.
Now, what side dish will you prepare?
Source: Even More Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.
-
Lawry's Taco Spices and Seasonings
Read moreThis is my clone recipe for the stuff you buy in 1-ounce packets to create, as the package says, "a fun-filled Mexican fiesta in minutes." Ah, so true. In fact, thanks to Lawry's, my last Mexican fiesta was filled with so much fun that I had to take a siesta. And I promise you just as much fun with my Lawry's Taco Spices and Seasonings recipe below. Maybe even a tad more. Just mix the ingredients together in a small bowl, then add it to 1 pound of browned ground beef along with some water and let it simmer. Before you know it, you'll be up to your nostrils in good old-fashioned, taco-making fun.
Now, how about a cold margarita?
Source: Even More Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.
-
Mrs. Dash Salt-Free Seasoning Blend
Read moreSo here's the challenge with this clone recipe: get the right ratios for nearly 20 different spices, and come up with a way to get the same lemony tang that makes the real Mrs. Dash the tasty salt-free seasoning blend we've come to know and love over the years.
Sure, we could use powdered citric acid, or sour salt, but then we still need to figure out the "lemon juice solids" part. Ah, but wait, there's citric acid and lemon juice solids in Kool-Aid unsweetened lemonade drink mix. It's perfect! In my Mrs. Dash's Salt-Free Seasoning Blend recipe below, we'll add a little of that drink powder to the spice blend for a clone that could fool even Mr. Dash in a blind taste test.
Try more of my famous seasoning copycat recipes here.
Source: Even More Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.
-
Wendy's Hot Chili Seasoning
Read moreThe 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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Emeril's Original Essence
Read moreOn his Food Network TV show Emeril Lagasse mentions "Essence" almost as much as "Bam!" and "Kick it up a notch!" He claims to put his special spice blend on "everything but ice cream." He suggests using it all your meats, veggies and pasta, and combining it with oil to use as a marinade. If you can't get your hands on the version that's sold in the bottle here's how to whip up a quick clone at home. (This recipe I created to clone the taste of the bottled product found in stores is different from the recipe in Emeril's cookbooks.)
Source: Even More Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.
-
Fuddruckers Hamburger Seasoning
Read moreFor 25 years, Fuddruckers has been serving huge, cooked-when-ordered beef patties on freshly baked buns. You decorate your hamburger creation with sliced tomato, onions, lettuce, pickles, peppers, relish and whatever else is offered at the toppings bar. Everyone builds their burger differently, yet the company claims these are "The World's Greatest Hamburgers." What makes them so good? Fuddruckers boasts that it uses only 100% USDA choice, aged ground beef.
What Fuddruckers won't tell you is which secret ingredients make up the delicious burger seasoning used on each of those patties. After analyzing a sample of the blend used in the shakers back by the griddle, I've come up with this simple Fuddruckers Hamburger Seasoning copycat recipe which you can now mix up at home, and pour into an empty shaker bottle. Sprinkle it onto 1/3- or 1/2-pound ground beef patties just before they cook, then grab some fresh buns in the bakery section of your store. Add your choice of other fresh toppings, and you'll soon have a hamburger clone that tastes just like those served at the more than 230 Fuddruckers.
Wash down that tasty burger with a homemade In-N-Out Burger Vanilla Shake.
Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur.
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Old Bay Seasoning
Read moreWith spice grinder in hand, Gustav Brunn traveled to America from Germany, and settled down in Baltimore on the Chesapeake Bay, where steamed crabs are a staple. Gustav began grinding. In 1939, after trying many different combinations, Gustav found just the right mix for a top secret blend of spices that would be the most-used seasoning on steamed crabs, shrimp, lobster, and other tasty seafood dishes for generations to come. But McCormick & Co., which purchased Old Bay in 1990, insists that the celery salt based blend is not just for seafood. You can also use the seasoning on chicken, French fries, popcorn, baked potatoes, deviled eggs, hamburgers, and even pizza.
Try your homemade Old Bay on my recipe for jumbo lump crab cakes from Joe's Stone Crab.
Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.
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.