Menu Description: “Creamy potato soup topped with melted cheese, bacon, and green onions.”

It’s not called baked potato soup because the potatoes in it are baked. It’s called baked potato soup because it’s topped with shredded cheese, bacon, and green onion, and it tastes like a loaded baked potato. Other hacky hacks for this recipe miss that point and add over an hour to the preparation process by preheating an oven and baking the potatoes, all while hungry stomachs are growling on the sidelines. My version skips that part by adding the raw potatoes directly into the pot with the other ingredients, where they cook in 20 minutes, and the soup is ready to eat in less time than other recipes take just to get the potatoes done.

Also, other clones add way too much flour to thicken the soup—¾ cup! Sure, flour is good at thickening, but it doesn’t add any flavor, so I found a better way. For my Outback Baked Potato Soup copycat recipe, I ended up using just a little flour to make the roux, then later thickening the soup mostly with dehydrated potato flakes, which are used to make quick mashed potatoes. The flakes not only do a great job of thickening the soup, but they also add more delicious potato flavor to the pot, just like the original soup.

Top your finished soup with shredded cheese, crumbled bacon, and green onion, and every spoonful will taste like a fully decked-out baked potato.

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

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

Like at Wendy’s, where unsold and broken burger patties provide the beef for their famous chili, Chick-fil-A gets the chicken for this delicious noodle soup by chopping up the leftover chicken used on their grilled chicken sandwiches. But grilling isn’t the first step to take when whipping up a home hack of this famous Chick-Fil-A chicken noodle soup. First, you must brine the chicken to fill it with flavor and keep it juicy like the real thing. A couple of hours later, when the brining is done, it’s grilling go-time.

The pasta shape Chick-fil-A uses in their soup is an uncommon one, and you might have a hard time finding it at your local market. It’s called mafalda corta (upper right in the photo), which is a miniature version of the ruffled-edge malfadine pasta used in my hack for Olive Garden Beef Bolognese. It also goes by the name “mini lasagna.” If you can’t find mafalda corta (I found it online), you can instead use your favorite small fancy pasta here, such as farfalle, rotini, fusilli, or whatever looks good at the store.

Try my Chick-fil-A Chicken Noodle Soup copycat recipe below, and learn how to make more of your favorite Chick-fil-A dishes here.

Over the years I've hacked a bunch of items from Chili's menu, including their Fajitas, Baby Back Ribs, Salsa, Chili Queso, Southwestern Eggrolls, Chicken Crispers, Boneless Wings, and more, but it wasn’t until recently that I got the chance to create a recipe for the Chili's award-winning Original Chili. Why it took so long, I have no idea.

The chili served at Chili’s is a Texas-style con carne recipe, which traditionally means no beans and no tomato. You won’t find any beans in this recipe or chunks of tomato, but their chili does have a tomato base to boost flavor, so I’m adding that into the mix by including one 6-ounce can of tomato paste. As it turns out, that small can is just the right amount.

The preparation technique for my Chili's Original chili copycat recipe is simple: brown the beef, drain off the fat, then add some of the fat back to the empty pan to sauté the onions and peppers in. When those are done, you add the beef back to the pan along with the remaining ingredients and simmer for 1½ hours. That will be just long enough to braise the beef and tenderize it, and to thicken the chili to a perfect consistency.

When the chili’s done, top each serving with a cheddar/pepper Jack blend, and some crispy tortilla bits. Then pass out the spoons.

Check here more of my Chili's copycat recipes.

Traditional Irish potato soup—a simple formula made with potatoes, onions, stock, and cream—gets an upgrade with the addition of cheddar cheese, carrots, green onions, and sour cream in Jason’s Deli's delicious take on the classic recipe. These improvements result in a soup that’s not only easy to build but may also be the best-tasting potato soup I’ve hacked so far.

The secret to this soup hack is that it starts as a cheddar cheese sauce, which may raise concerns if you’ve ever made cheese sauce that melted poorly and became grainy. That won’t happen here if you use mild or medium cheddar cheese, as they melt better than sharp varieties. So, choose your cheddar wisely.

Also, shred the cheese yourself. Pre-shredded cheese won’t melt as smoothly because it’s drier and often dusted with cellulose or starch, and possibly other additives keep the shreds from clumping in the bag. For my Jason's Deli Irish Potato Soup recipe below, I highly recommend that you roll up your sleeves and hunt down the cheese shredder. 

Once everything is in the pot, simmer the soup for 45 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. You’ll have enough for eight bowls of soup, each topped with cheddar cheese and crumbled bacon, just like the real thing. 

Find more amazing copycat soup recipes here.

This phenomenal clam chowder, made with lots of fresh littleneck clams, was chosen to represent the state of Massachusetts at the first inauguration of Ronald Reagan in 1981—just a year after first being served at the restaurant—and has been served at every presidential inauguration since. I think it's the best clam chowder you'll get at any casual restaurant chain in America, making it a perfect home clone candidate.

I could glean only minimal information from servers at Legal Sea Foods in Philly where I first tasted this fantastic chowder. Fortunately, the company has an online seafood store where I could order a quart of the soup—for a whopping 45 bucks with shipping—which provided me with an ingredients list on the package to aid in the hacking. The restaurant has its cookbook, which provides a few more clues, but the recipe there does not produce a soup that is anything like the version in the restaurant. Many of the ingredients I found on the label of the restaurant version are not listed in the cookbook recipe. 

The real soup includes a little salt pork, which I have replaced here with bacon since such a small amount is used. For the best flavor, you'll want to use fish or seafood stock, which I found at Walmart, but you can substitute with chicken broth if seafood stock is unavailable. My Legal Sea Foods New England Clam Chowder copycat recipe makes over 2 quarts of the soup and will cost you a fraction of what I paid for just a single quart through the company's website. 

Find my Legal Sea Foods Crab Cakes copycat recipe here.

Source: Top Secret Recipes Step-by-Step by Todd Wilbur.

The century-old iconic L.A. diner is famous for its chili, and the bean-less Texas-Style Chili is the best of the bunch.

Learn more and get my recipe for free on my Food Hacker Blog here.

Ingredients you don’t find in other popular tortilla soups are likely the reason this has been my most requested menu item to hack from the Mexican cuisine chain. And I’m thrilled to have finally cracked it since this is now the go-to tortilla soup recipe at my house.

You’ll notice some standout ingredients, including zucchini, fresh corn kernels, diced Roma tomato, rice, and a garnish of Monterey Jack cheese and avocado, but the ingredient that brings this soup together is the generous portion of perfectly seasoned chicken tinga. The shredded chicken tenderizes nicely in the soup, and all the elements that make it such a delicious tinga add great flavor and color to the pot.

I spent the first day creating the best chicken tinga recipe I could for my copycat version of On the Border's Chicken Tortilla Soup. I started with uncooked white and dark chicken fillets, but soon found that a supermarket rotisserie chicken worked even better and saved oodles of time. After removing the skin and bones, I used two forks to shred the chicken, and was happy to have exactly four cups of chicken. I made a tinga sauce with chipotle, tomato, onion, garlic, and spices and mixed it with the shredded chicken; then, I constructed the rest of the soup around the tinga.

When your soup is done, you’ll have enough for ten bowls, each garnished with Jack cheese, tortilla strips or chips, cilantro, and a fresh wedge of avocado. And just so you know, the tasty chicken tinga recipe here also makes an excellent filling for tacos, burritos, and enchiladas.

Find more of your favorite On the Border copycat recipes here.

Examining the list of ingredients on a can of this 500-unit Midwestern chain's chili reveals a traditional chili con carne formula with beans as the only vegetable ingredient. There is no tomato sauce in the recipe, as stated by Internet copycats. Nor is there any chocolate or cola in the mix, as some recipes claim. 

Snag this recipe in my book "Top Secret Recipes Step-by Step".

A good French onion soup is packed with onions, and since the beef broth is responsible for most of the flavor, you’ll want to pick a good one to copy this chain’s tasty take on the classic formula.

For my Outback French Onion Soup copycat recipe, I chose Swanson for the beef broth, but also found that beef broth made with Better than Bouillon worked well. With either one though, the broth wasn’t quite beefy enough so I added ½ of a small beef bouillon cube, and the flavor matched beautifully.

For the bread on top, I first tried using toasted French bread, but it was too chewy and tough to cut with a spoon, so I had to come up with another solution. Upon closer inspection of my soup sample from the restaurant, I noticed that the circular crouton looked like the bottom half of a hamburger bun. Inspired by my discovery, I toasted a hamburger bun, topped it with two slices of provolone, then broiled it until melty and browned.

This time, when my spoon cut right through the soft bread with no problem, I had a great clone.

Find more of my Outback Steakhouse copycat recipes here.

Good chili con carne is hard to find at a casual restaurant chain, so this delicious bowl of red from Outback Steakhouse is a real treat. It’s a straightforward recipe made with peppers, onions, tomatoes, and garlic, but it’s the chunks of tender filet mignon that elevate this secret formula way above the rest.

For my Outback Tasmanian Chili copycat recipe, I began by searing the filet. Next, I removed the beef from the pan and sautéed the vegetables in the same pan, which was now infused with fabulous fond. After a few minutes, I added everything else, including a small can of El Pato hot tomato sauce, which is my secret ingredient for great flavor and the perfect level of spiciness in this clone.

After two hours of simmering, I had a fantastic pot of chili, with enough for six big servings, each topped with a blend of shredded cheese and chopped green onion, just like in the restaurant.

Find more of my Outback Steakhouse copycat recipes here.

Before, during, or after a shopping trip at Nordstrom, you may have indulged in a hot bowl of this signature soup from the department store's restaurants and cafés that many say is the best tomato basil soup they've ever had. It's creamy, and it's slightly sweet with the perfect balance of basil in the mix. 

Now you can make a clone version yourself at home with very little effort using canned tomatoes, dried basil, and fresh carrots and onions. I've even included the hacked recipe here for the crispy Parmesan toasts that are served on the side. If you're a fan of great tomato soup, you've gotta try this one.

Try my Nordstrom Roma Tomato Basil Soup copycat recipe below, and find more of my soup copycat recipes here.

Source: Top Secret Recipes Step-by-Step by Todd Wilbur.
 

Menu Description: "White and red beans, ground beef, tomatoes and pasta in a savory broth."

It's amazing how many lousy clone recipes for this delicious chili-like soup are floating around. Cooking message boards, and questionable sites that claim to have "actual restaurant recipes" have for years passed off numerous versions that disappoint home chefs. Other formulas leave out major ingredients that you can clearly see in the real thing, like the carrots, or ground beef, or two kinds of beans. Others don't even get the pasta right—it's clearly ditalini pasta, which are short little tubes. If you want the same taste of the original at home, try my Olive Garden Pasta e Fagioli copycat recipe below. It may be the only one that will live up to a side-by-side taste test. Beware of imitation imitations!

Find more of my Olive Garden copycat recipes here.

Update 3/14/25: For a better clone, reduce the amount of pasta to 1/4 pound (1/4 package).

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur.

Menu Description: “A creamy soup made with roasted chicken, traditional Italian dumplings and spinach.”

It’s hard to find pre-made gnocchi that is as good as the stuff Olive Garden uses in their hit soup. The gnocchi is shaped into small disks and seasoned with a bit of nutmeg. So we'll make our gnocchi from scratch. To make gnocchi that tastes like Olive Garden's, I found it easiest to use instant mashed potatoes. This saved time and the gnocchi tasted great. 

After you make the gnocchi by forming the dough into small disks, you can start on the soup. For the chicken, just grab a roasted chicken in your supermarket. Take off the skin, then remove the meat and chop it up before adding it to the soup. When the soup is done, you will have 8 1-cup servings of a soup that tastes exactly like the new Olive Garden favorite.

Try my Olive Garden Chicken & Gnocchi Soup copycat recipe below, and find more of your favorite Olive Garden recipes here.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur.

It's not served every day at Carrabba's Italian Grill, but when this amazing soup is on the menu, consider yourself lucky and snag a bowl. It's chock-full of lentils and other good bits of vegetables and herbs, plus there are big chunks of spicy Italian sausage in every bite. 

Use my Carrabba's Spicy Sausage Lentil Soup copycat recipe to easily make it at home. Most of the work here is just chopping stuff up, including a small ham steak, which you can find where the bacon is sold in your market. If you can't find a ham steak, you can slice up some deli ham. Get everything in a pot and let it simmer. In 1 hour, you'll have enough hot, chunky soup for at least a dozen cup-size servings.

Find more of your favorite Carrabba's copycat recipes here.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur.

Menu Description: "Lots of fresh ground beef and red kidney beans with a perfect blend of fresh Poblano & Chipotle peppers and plenty of seasoning. Topped with Cheddar cheese, diced red onions and tortilla strips. Not too hot, but enough flavor to know you ate it."

Ah yes, nothing like a hot bowl of homemade chili on a cool day. Red Robin serves hot, chunky chili topped with cheddar cheese, onions and crunchy tortilla strips that'll warm your soul. My Red Robin Red's homemade chili recipe below can be served up the same fashion, or you can use this chili as they do in the restaurant to top homemade nachos or an open-faced chili cheeseburger. If you're one of those who prefer a higher-octane, spicier chili, just use more canned chipotles, or add some of the delicious adobo sauce that's in the can with the chilies. 

Try my Red Robin Chili copycat recipe below and find more Red Robin copycat recipes here.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur.

Barney's Beanery, the self-proclaimed "third oldest restaurant in Los Angeles," has a long history of celebrity patrons dropping by for a hot bowl of chili and a beer or three. John "Barney" Anthony opened the first Barney's Beanery in Berkley, California in 1920, and seven years later relocated the restaurant to its current location on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood.

Barney's soon became a popular watering hole for film stars from the 1920s and '30s, such as Clara Bow, Clark Gable, and John Barrymore. In the '50s and '60s Lou Costello was a regular, and so were Donald O'Connor, Charles Bukowski, and Dennis Hopper. Jim Morrison and his Doors bandmates were frequent customers since the offices of their record label, Elektra, were nearby. Janis Joplin was said to have had a drink there the night she died. The Brat Pack of the '80s—Charlie Sheen, Rob Lowe, John Cusack, Emilio Estevez, and Demi Moore—would often come in to play pinball and video games. And Quentin Tarantino wrote most of his screenplay for Pulp Fiction while sitting at his favorite booth at Barney's.

This original chili was a favorite of Peter Falk's character on Columbo, who ate it often at the restaurant on the TV show. But the show wasn't filmed at the actual location. The Barney’s Colombo viewers saw on their TV was a sound-stage replica.

I found the secret to the flavor in Barney's chili comes from two chili powders that were popular in the West over 100 years ago, around the time Barney's first opened: Gebhardt and Mexene. Chili powders were new at that time, and there were very few on the market, so it's highly likely these ingredients were used in the recipe that made Barney's Beanery famous. Find those two chili powders, and follow my Barney's Beanery classic chili copycat recipe below to properly duplicate this Hollywood classic at home.

Other recipes I’ve seen that claim to duplicate the fabulous flavor of this popular soup do not make good clones, yet the long grain and wild rice mix that many of these recipes call for is a great way to get the exact amount of rice you need in a perfect blend. Just be sure not to use the flavor packet that comes with those rice kits, or you won’t get a good clone of the Panera original. Toss out that blend (or you can use it elsewhere; see Tidbits) and use my recipe below to make a better flavoring for the soup.

Thanks to Panera Bread's policy of completely transparent ingredients, I discovered a surprising ingredient or two (wow, cabbage!), and was able to craft the best Panera Bread Cream of Chicken and Wild Rice Soup copycat recipe you’ll find.

Click here for more of my Panera Bread copycat recipes. 

Unlike most tortilla soup recipes, Qdoba doesn’t use chicken broth for the soup base, so this recipe, without the garnishes, is vegan. I tried using a vegetable broth base, but every brand I tried sent the recipe in the wrong direction. As a last resort, I tried the soup again with Knorr vegetable bouillon cubes, and…bingo. The bouillon added perfect flavor, and all was good.

For my Qdoba Tortilla Soup recipe, you’ll need to roast some peppers, but after that, the recipe is a straightforward chop-and-simmer, and you should have a very easy time with it.

This soup gets garnished with sour cream, shredded cheese, and fried tortilla strips, but you can upgrade your soup by adding chopped adobo chicken (from the TSR version of Qdoba Adobo Chicken), black beans, rice, pico de gallo, and minced cilantro. Now you’ve just cloned the chain’s Loaded Tortilla Soup, and you’re a better person for it.

Packed with tender chicken and vegetables, my El Pollo Loco Homemade Tortilla Soup recipe is just like the original, which happens to be one of the most wholesome tortilla soups I’ve ever hacked.

And the technique here is ultra-easy since you use chicken pulled from a supermarket rotisserie chicken, which is a good thing for a couple of reasons. You don’t have to cook the chicken, so you save time. And, since rotisserie chickens usually cost less than a whole uncooked chicken, you’re also saving money. One 2-pound rotisserie chicken will give you around 1 pound of white and dark chicken meat, which will be the perfect amount for this recipe. 

This is a quick and easy recipe. Chopping the celery, carrot, and peppers will take most of your time. Then, it’s just a matter of sauteing the vegetables until soft and adding the remaining ingredients. Once the soup is hot, serve it topped with crispy tortilla strips, cotija cheese, and cilantro, and pass out the spoons. 

Find more famous El Pollo Loco recipes here.

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.

After the "Soup Nazi" episode of Seinfeld aired, Jerry Seinfeld and several members of his production crew went over to Soup Kitchen International in New York City for lunch. When owner Al Yegenah recognized Jerry he flew into a profanity-filled rant about how the show had "ruined" his business and he demanded an apology. According to writer Spike Feresten, Jerry gave "the most insincere, sarcastic apology ever given," Yegenah yelled, "No soup for you!" and immediately ejected them from the premises. Knowing that to upset Al was to risk being yelled at and possibly evicted like Jerry, it was with great caution that I approached the order window to ask the Soup Nazi a few questions about the November 1995 Seinfeld episode that made him famous. Needless to say, the interview was very brief.

TW: How do you feel about all the publicity that followed the Seinfeld episode?
AY: I didn't need it. I was known well enough before that. I don't need it.

TW: But it must have been good for business, right?
AY: He [Seinfeld] used me. He used me. I didn't use him, he used me.

TW: How many people do you serve in a day?
AY: I cannot talk to you. If I talk, I cannot work.

TW: How many different soups do you serve?
AY: (Getting very upset) I cannot talk! (Pointing to sign) Move to the left! Next!

Hopefully, you won't get this same treatment in your own kitchen. Whip up my Soup Nazi's Cream of Sweet Potato Soup copycat recipe for a peaceful rendition of this wonderful soup.

Check out my other Soup Nazi copycat recipes here.

Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.

If you like soup that's packed with veggies, that's low in fat, and has some Southwestern punch to it, my Chili's Southwestern Vegetable soup recipe is for you. Just toss all the ingredients in a pot and simmer. Garnish with some shredded cheese and crumbled tortillas, and warm up your insides.

Find more recipes for your favorite dishes from Chili's here.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur.

The easy-melting, individually-wrapped Kraft Cheddar Singles are the perfect secret ingredient to copy this cheesy broccoli cheddar soup served at this top soup stop. In my Panera Bread Broccoli Cheddar Soup copycat recipe, fresh broccoli is first steamed, then diced into little bits before you combine it with chicken broth, half-and-half, shredded carrot, and onion. Now you're just 30 minutes away from soup spoon go-time.

Click here for more of my copycat Panera Bread recipes.

Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.

There are several delicious variations of Wolfgang Puck's butternut squash soup recipe floating around, but as far as I can tell no version comes close to duplicating the amazing stuff served at his flagship restaurant. At the Las Vegas Spago in Caesar's Palace, I recently slurped up the slightly sweetened, pale amber masterpiece with the perfect combination of spices, and then finagled two bowls to go. 

Since the soup is completely smooth, running it through a strainer revealed no solid evidence of ingredients; only black specks of various spices were visible. This one was not going to be easy. After many attempts, I finally re-created the subtle background flavors with chopped leek slowly sweated in butter, and one gala apple. I discovered that the apple contributes a perfect sweetness. The rest was easy: poach the leek, squash, and apple in broth until soft; blend everything until smooth; then reheat with the cream and just a little brown sugar. 

I have a feeling that my Wolfgang Puck butternut squash soup recipe below will be your new favorite. Find more famous soup recipes here.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur.