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Includes eight (8) 79¢ recipes of your choice each month!

I hope your crew is hungry because my Taco Bell Mexican Pizza copycat recipe makes four pizzas like those served at the Bell: seasoned ground beef and refried beans are sandwiched between two crispy flour tortillas, topped with melted cheddar cheese, salsa, diced tomato, and chopped green onion. Slice it like a pizza and serve it with a smile. Prepare to blow your diners away with my copycat recipe if they're at all familiar with the real thing.

Make some Diablo, hot, or mild sauce for that authentic Taco Bell experience.

Source: Even More Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

per month*

Includes eight (8) 79¢ recipes of your choice each month!

Menu Description: "Spicy, shredded beef, braised with our own chipotle adobo, cumin, cloves, garlic and oregano."
 
The original Mexican dish barbacoa was traditionally prepared by cooking almost any kind of meat goat, fish, chicken, or cow cheek meat, to name just a few, in a pit covered with leaves over low heat for many hours, until tender. When the dish made its way into the United States via Texas the word transformed into "barbecue" and the preparation changed to incorporate above-ground techniques such as smoking and grilling.

The good news is that we can re-create the beef barbacoa that Chipotle has made popular on its ginormous burritos without digging any holes in our backyard or tracking down a local source for fresh cow faces. After braising about 30 pounds of chuck roasts, I finally discovered that the secret to making perfect barbacoa is a taste-alike adobo sauce that fills your roast with flavor as it slowly cooks to a fork-tender delicacy on your stovetop over 5 to 6 hours.

Part of the secret for great adobo sauce is toasting whole cumin seeds and cloves and then grinding them in a coffee grinder (measure the spices after grinding them). Since the braising process takes so long, start early in the day and get ready for a big dinner, because I've also included clones here for Chipotle's pico de gallo, pinto beans, and delicious cilantro-lime rice to make your burritos complete. You can add your choice of cheese, plus guacamole and sour cream for a super-deluxe clone version. 

Try my Chipotle Barbacoa copycat recipe below, and check out my clone recipe for Qdoba Grilled Adobo Chicken.

Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.

Menu Description: "Loaded with cheddar cheese and bacon. Served with sour cream and chives."

Perfume salesman Alan Stillman was a single guy in New York City in 1965, looking for a way to meet women who lived in his neighborhood. He figured out a way to get their attention: buy a broken-down beer joint in the area, jazz it up, and call it "The T.G.I.F." to attract the career crowd. Within a week, police had barricaded the area to control crowds flocking to Alan's new restaurant. The restaurant made $1 million in its first year—a lot of dough back then. Soon restaurateurs across the country were imitating the concept.

In 1974 T.G.I. Friday's invented an appetizer that would also be copied by many in the following years. Potato skins are still the most popular item on the T.G.I. Friday's menu, with nearly 4 million orders served every year. The recipe has the added benefit of providing you with leftover baked potato ready for mashing.

T.G.I Friday's has several popular dishes. See if I cloned your favorites here.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

El Pollo Loco, or "The Crazy Chicken," has been growing like mad since it crossed over the border into the United States from Mexico. Francisco Ochoa unknowingly started a food phenomenon internacional in 1975 when he took a family recipe for chicken marinade and opened a small roadside restaurante in Gusave, Mexico. He soon had 90 stores in 20 cities throughout Mexico. The first El Pollo Loco in the United States opened in Los Angeles in December 1980 and was an immediate success. It was only three years later that Ochoa got the attention of bigwigs at Dennys, Inc., who offered him $11.3 million for his U.S. operations. Ochoa took the deal, and El Pollo Loco grew from 17 to more than 200 outlets over the following decade.

Pair my El Pollo Loco Flame Broiled Chicken copycat recipe below with my recipes for their avocado salsa, pinto beans, Spanish rice, and bbq black beans.

Source: More Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

In 2007 America's number one Cajun-style restaurant celebrated its 35th birthday with 1,583 stores worldwide. But Popeyes didn't start out with the name that most people associate with a certain spinach-eating cartoon character. When Al Copeland opened his first Southern-fried chicken stand in New Orleans in 1972, it was called Chicken On The Run. The name was later changed to Popeyes after Gene Hackman's character in the movie The French Connection. 

In addition to great spicy fried chicken, Popeyes serves up wonderful Southern-style buttermilk biscuits that we can now easily duplicate to serve with a variety of home cooked meals. The secret is to cut cold butter into the mix with a pastry knife so that the biscuits turn out flaky and tender, just like the originals.

Try my Popeyes Buttermilk Biscuits copycat recipe below, and find more of your favorite Popeyes copycat recipes here.

Source: "Top Secret Recipes Unlocked" by Todd Wilbur.

I first created the clone for this Cajun-style recipe back in 1994 for the second TSR book, More Top Secret Recipes, but I've never been overjoyed with the results. After convincing a Popeyes manager to show me the ingredients written on the box of red bean mixture, I determined the only way to create an accurate Popeyes Red Beans and Rice recipe is to include an important ingredient omitted from the first version: pork fat. Emeril Lagasse—a Cajun food master—says, "pork fat rules," and it does. 

We could get the delicious smoky fat from rendering smoked ham hocks, but that takes too long. The easiest way is to cook 4 or 5 pieces of bacon, save the cooked bacon for another recipe (or eat it!), then use 1/4 cup of the fat for my Popeyes Red Beans and rice recipe below. As for the beans, find red beans (they're smaller than kidney beans) in two 15-ounce cans. If you're having trouble tracking down red beans, red kidney beans will be a fine substitute.

Can't get enough Popeyes? Find all of my recipes here. 

Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.

To copy the Taco Bell Burrito Supreme at home, you first must assemble the meaty foundation of many of the chain's top-selling products: the spiced ground beef. Toss it and seven other tasty ingredients into a large flour tortilla and fold using the same technique as taught to new recruits to the chain. Add your favorite hot sauce for a bit of heat, or clone Taco Bell Mild, Hot, Fire Border, Diablo, Baja, or Lava sauce with my recipes here.

You might also want to try my improved Taco Bell beef recipe here.

Source: Even More Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

This 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.

A popular staple of any Chinese chain is fried rice, so it better be good, and the version served at Panda Express most certainly is. Here's my easy Panda Express Fried Rice recipe for when you need a stress-free, low-cost side for your entrées. But I do suggest that you cook the white rice several hours or even a day or two before you plan to make the finished dish. I found that the cooked rice called for in this recipe works best when it's cold. 

As for a shortcut, bagged frozen peas and carrots will save you from the hassle of petite-dicing carrots since the carrots in those bags are the perfect size to produce an identical clone. And they're already cooked. 

This recipe was our #3 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), Outback Baked Potato Soup (#4), Chipotle Carne Asada (#5).

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

In November 2020, Taco Bell said “adios” to several classic items from their menu including Mexican Pizza—one of my long-time favorites—and anything with shredded chicken in it, including the chicken soft taco. But teary goodbyes from fans of the tasty spiced chicken can be avoided if we have a good (and easy) recipe to craft a duplicate at home. Since the fast Mexican chain announced the changes several months in advance, I had time to work up a good hack before the tacos were gone forever.

After cooking the chicken several ways, I settled on poaching the fillets in chicken broth, which kept them moist and added great umami flavor. When the chicken cooled, I shredded it, and added it to a sauce seasoned with spices and lime juice, and flavored with Knorr tomato chicken bouillon. 

As the sauce thickens it will reduce and infuse the chicken with flavor, just like the original Taco Bell shredded chicken, then it’s ready for you to use on tacos, burritos, salads, or whatever. 

Try my Taco Bell Shredded Chicken copycat recipe, and don't forget the hot sauce! 

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.

This Southern-themed chain is famous for its gift shops filled with made-in-America products and delicious homestyle food, including a particularly good meatloaf. This dish ranks high in popularity, right up there with the Chicken ‘n Dumplins and the Hash Brown Casserole which I had already hacked, so a good Cracker Barrel Meatloaf clone recipe was obvious next mission choice.

Making meatloaf is easy. What’s hard is making it taste like the meatloaf at Cracker Barrel, which is tender, juicy, and flavored with onion, green pepper, and tomato. I sought to turn out a moist loaf of meat, and one that’s not dry and tough, but my first attempts were much too dense.

After playing around with the eggs-to-breadcrumbs-to-milk ratios and using gentle hands when combining everything and pressing it into the loaf pan, my final batch was a winner, and now I get to pass the formula along to you.    

Just so you know, it's best to use a meatloaf pan with an insert that lets the fat drip to the bottom, away from the meat. A regular loaf pan will still work, but you’ll want to pour off the fat in the pan before slicing the meatloaf. 

Satisfy your Cracker Barrel cravings with more of my copycat recipes here.

Crafting Olive Garden’s signature Lasagna Classico recipe presented the perfect opportunity to create a beautiful, multi-layered lasagna hack recipe that uses an entire box of lasagna noodles and fills the baking pan all the way to the top. My Olive Garden Classico copycat recipe produces a lasagna that tips the scales at nearly 10 pounds and can feed hungry mouths for days, with every delicious layer directly copied from the carefully dissected Olive Garden original.

I found a few credible bits of intel in a video featuring an Olive Garden chef demonstrating what he claims is the real formula for this lasagna on a midday news show. However, the recipe was abbreviated for TV, and the chef omitted numerous crucial details. One ingredient he notably left out of the recipe is the secret layer of Cheddar cheese near the middle of the stack. I wasn’t expecting to find Cheddar in lasagna, but when I carefully separated the layers from several servings of the original dish, there was the golden melted cheesy goodness in every slice.

My recipe will yield enough for eight generous portions, but if you cut slightly smaller slices, it can satisfy twelve lasagna-craving appetites. If you like lasagna, you're going to love this version.

This recipe was our #2 most popular in 2020. Check out the other four most unlocked recipes for the year: Rao's Homemade Marinara Sauce (#1), King's Hawaiian Original Hawaiian Sweet Rolls (#3), Pei Wei Better Orange Chicken (#4), Chipotle Mexican Grill Carnitas (#5).

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

A recipe for Portuguese sweet bread inspired the soft rolls that became a big hit at Robert Tiara's Bakery & Restaurant in Honolulu, Hawaii in the 1950s. It wasn’t long before Robert changed the name of his thriving business to King’s Hawaiian, and in 1977 the company opened its first bakery on the mainland, in Torrance, California, to make the now-famous island sweet rolls sold in stores across the U.S.

King’s Hawaiian Rolls are similar to Texas Roadhouse Rolls in that they are both pillowy, sweet white rolls, so it made sense to dig out my Texas Roadhouse Rolls clone recipe and use it as a starting point. These new rolls had to be slightly softer and sweeter, so I made some adjustments and added a little egg for color. And by baking the dough in a high-rimmed baking pan with 24 dough balls placed snugly together, I ended up with beautiful rolls that rose nicely to the occasion, forming a tear-apart loaf just like the original King's Hawaiian Rolls, but with clean ingredients, and without the dough conditioners found in the packaged rolls.

Use my King's Hawaiian Sweet Rolls copycat recipe for sandwiches, sliders, or simply warmed up and slathered with soft European butter.

This recipe was our #3 most popular in 2020. Check out the other four most unlocked recipes for the year: Rao's Homemade Marinara Sauce (#1), Olive Garden Lasagna Classico (#2), Pei Wei Better Orange Chicken (#4), Chipotle Mexican Grill Carnitas (#5).

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

I never thought dinner rolls were something I could get excited about until I got my hand into the breadbasket at Texas Roadhouse. The rolls are fresh out of the oven and they hit the table when you do, so there’s no waiting to tear into a magnificently gooey sweet roll topped with soft cinnamon butter. The first bite you take will make you think of a fresh cinnamon roll, and then you can’t stop eating it. And when the first roll’s gone, you are powerless to resist grabbing for just one more. But it’s never just one more. It’s two or three more, plus a few extra to take home for tomorrow.

Discovering the secret to making rolls at home that taste as good as Texas Roadhouse Rolls involved making numerous batches of dough, each one sweeter than the last (sweetened with sugar, not honey—I checked), until a very sticky batch, proofed for 2 hours, produced exactly what I was looking for. You can make the dough with a stand mixer or a handheld one, the only difference being that you must knead the dough by hand without a stand mixer. When working with the dough add a little bit of flour at a time to keep it from sticking, and just know that the dough will be less sticky and more workable after the first rise.

Roll the dough out and measure it as specified here, and after a final proofing and a quick bake—plus a generous brushing of butter on the tops—you will produce dinner rolls that look and taste just like the best rolls I’ve had at any famous American dinner chain.

This recipe was our #1 most popular in 2019. Check out the other four most unlocked recipes for the year: KFC Extra Crispy Fried Chicken (#2), Olive Garden Braised Beef Bolognese (#3), Pizzeria Uno Chicago Deep Dish Pizza (#4), Bush's Country Style Baked Beans (#5).

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

This 220-unit downscaled version of P.F. Chang’s China Bistro targets the lunch crowd with a smaller menu that features bento boxes, bowls, and small plates. Obviously, a clone is needed for this one, stat.

The name “Wei Better Orange Chicken” is a competitive callout to Panda Express's signature orange chicken, which is made with pre-breaded and frozen chicken. Pei Wei claims its orange chicken is prepared each day from scratch with chicken that is never frozen, so we’ll craft our Pei Wei Better Orange Chicken recipe the same way. But rather than assemble the dish in a wok over a high-flame fast stove like they do at the restaurant, we’ll prepare the sauce and chicken separately, then toss them with fresh orange wedges just before serving.

By the way, Pei Wei Better Orange Chicken goes very well with white or brown rice, so don’t forget to make some.

This recipe was our #4 most popular in 2020. Check out the other four most unlocked recipes for the year: Rao's Homemade Marinara Sauce (#1), Olive Garden Lasagna Classico (#2), King's Hawaiian Original Hawaiian Sweet Rolls (#3), Chipotle Mexican Grill Carnitas (#5).

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

Every brand of hummus I've tried over the years has been just so-so in taste and texture, until I discovered Sabra. Now this ultra-smooth hummus—which has been rated number one in a blind taste test—is the only hummus in my fridge, unless I've made this clone. Hummus is an awesome snack as a dip for vegetables or pita chips, since it's rich in protein, soluble fiber, potassium, and Vitamin E. The secret to duplicating Sabra's smooth and creamy quality is to let your food processor work the stuff over for a solid 10 minutes. Also, when getting your Sabra hummus ingredients ready, don't use all of the liquid from the can of garbanzo beans or the hummus will end up too runny. Strain off the liquid first, then measure only 1/2 cup back into the food processor. Sabra uses canola and/or soybean oil, but you may think olive oil tastes better. Look for a jar of sesame tahini in the aisle where all the international foods are parked, and while you're there find the citric acid, which may also go by the name "sour salt." The clone below will not have the proper acidic bite without this secret ingredient, and citric acid also works as a preservative to help the leftover hummus stay fresh and tasty.

Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.

If you like traditional BBQ beans, you've got to love El Pollo Loco's sweet-and-spicy variation with black beans. The light smokiness in this clone comes from bacon fat, then cayenne pepper and green chiles give the beans a Southwestern flavor that's perfect on burritos or as a delicious side. 

The prep for my El Pollo Loco BBQ black beans recipe is a breezer, since you conveniently combine two 15-ounce cans of black beans with the other secret ingredients in a saucepan and just let it simmer for an hour or so. When the beans are soft and the mixture is thick, on with the eating.

Find more famous El Pollo Loco recipes here.

Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.

Menu Description: "Here they are in all their lip-smacking, award-winning glory: Buffalo, New York-style chicken wings spun in your favorite signature sauce."

Since Buffalo, New York was too far away, Jim Disbrow and Scott Lowery satisfied their overwhelming craving in 1981 by opening a spicy chicken wing restaurant close to home in Kent, Ohio. With signature sauces and a festive atmosphere, the chain has now evolved from a college campus sports bar with wings to a family restaurant with over 300 units. 

While frying chicken wings is no real secret—simply drop them in hot shortening for about 10 minutes—the delicious spicy sauces are what make the wings special. There are 12 varieties of sauce available to coat your crispy chicken parts at the chain, and I'm presenting clones for the more traditional flavors. These sauces are very thick, almost like dressing or dip, so we'll use an emulsifying technique that will ensure a creamy final product where the oil won't separate from the other ingredients. 

In my Buffalo Wild Wings copycat recipe below you'll find the cooking and coating technique for the wings, followed by copycat recipes for the most popular sauces: Spicy Garlic, Medium and Hot. The sauce recipes might look the same at first, but each has slight variations to make your sauce hotter or milder by adjusting the level of cayenne pepper. You can find Frank's pepper sauce by the other hot sauces in your market. If you can't find that brand, you can also use Crystal Louisiana hot sauce.

Find my copycat recipes for Buffalo Wild Wings Asian Zing; Parmesan Garlic, and Caribbean Jerk sauces here.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur.

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.
 

Taco Bell takes the fast food quesadilla into new territory with three different cheeses and a creamy jalapeño Ranchero sauce, all of which you can now cheerfully re-create in the comfort of your warm kitchen. Gather up the crew, since my easy Taco Bell Chicken Quesadilla recipe will make four of the tasty tortilla treats.

How about some homemade Diablo, hot, or mild sauce to go with your quesadilla? Check out all of my Taco Bell copycat recipes here.

Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.

The Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki Sandwich, one of Subway's biggest new product rollouts, is made with common ingredients: teriyaki-glazed chicken breast strips, onions, lettuce, tomatoes, green peppers, and olives. But what sets it apart from all other teriyaki chicken sandwiches is Subway's delicious Sweet Onion Sauce. You can ask for as much of the scrumptious sauce as you want on your custom-made sub at the huge sandwich chain, but you won't get any extra to take home, even if you offer to pay. Now you can use my Subway Sweet Onion Sauce copycat recipe to use the sauce on your home-built sandwich masterpieces whenever you want.

Find more copycat recipes for famous sauces here.

Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.

You've got a hankerin' for pancakes or biscuits, but the recipe calls for Bisquick, and you're plum out. Not to worry. Now you can make a clone of the popular baking mix at home with just four simple ingredients. Store-bought Bisquick includes shortening, salt, flour, and leavening, so that's exactly what we need to duplicate Bisquick perfectly at home. 

My Bisquick recipe makes about 6 cups of the stuff, which, just like the real thing, you can keep sealed up in a container in your pantry until it's flapjack time. When that time comes, just add milk and eggs for pancakes or waffles, or only milk if it's biscuits you want. You'll find all those recipes below in the "Tidbits."

Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.

Menu Description: “An extra generous pecan brownie is crowned with rich vanilla ice cream, drizzled with our classic warm chocolate sauce and finished with chocolate shavings and whipped cream. A chocolate lover’s dream.”

The gluten-free brownie under the ice cream and homemade whipped cream is a flourless chocolate pecan cake cut into squares. Once the brownie is baked, it is chilled and sliced, then each serving is nuked for about 45 seconds until gooey hot. The fun really starts when you load a huge scoop of vanilla ice cream on top of the hot brownie and then drizzle some warm fudge sauce over the top. Outback cooks make the sauce from scratch each day, but it tastes similar to Hershey’s Hot Fudge Topping that you can get in just about any market. The homemade whipped cream formula here is easy and better than anything that comes out of a can. Put it all together with my Outback Chocolate Thunder from Down Under recipe below. 

Complete the Outback experience with more of my recipes here. 

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur.

It's got a goofy name and tons of fans. This is one of  Denny's most popular sandwiches, and it has remained on Denny's menu since 1978. But whether you have it for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, you might like to know there's a way to enjoy the taste of this grilled sandwich for around 30 grams less fat than the real thing. My lower fat Denny's Moons Over My Hammy recipe cuts fat in several ways, but the most significant savings come from using fat-free cheese. Get some low-fat ham at your supermarket deli counter, or you can find it prepackaged near the luncheon meats. Start heating up a couple sauté pans and get ready to devour this delicious lower-fat treat.

 Nutrition Facts
Serving size–1 sandwich
Total servings–1
Calories per serving–460 (Original–700)
Fat per serving–3g (Original–33g)

Source: Top Secret Recipes Lite by Todd Wilbur.

How's this for coincidence: both McDonald's and Taco Bell got their start in San Bernardino, California, in the early '50s. Glen Bell opened a hamburger and hot dog stand called Bell's Drive-In, while the McDonald brothers, Dick and Mac, were just around the corner with their golden arches and speedy drive-up service. "The appearance of another hamburger stand worried me then," says Glen. "I just didn't think there was enough room in town for both of us." Turns out there was enough room—for a while.

In 1962 Glen decided that it was time to offer an alternative to the hamburger stands that were saturating the area, so he opened the first Taco Bell and changed his menu to Mexican food.

Ten years and hundreds of new Taco Bell openings later, the Burrito Supreme hit the menu and became an instant hit. By using my Taco Bell Beef Burrito Supreme recipe below, we can knock the fat down to less than one-fifth of the original.

Nutrition Facts
Serving size–1 burrito
Total servings–4
Calories per serving–325 (Original–503)
Fat per serving–4g (Original–22g)

If you're not watching your calories, try my full-fat Taco Bell Beef Burrito Supreme recipe here. 

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

What is it about Stouffer's Macaroni & Cheese that makes it the number one choice for true mac & cheese maniacs? It's probably the simple recipe that includes wholesome ingredients like skim milk and real Cheddar cheese, without any preservatives or unpronounceable chemicals. The basic Stouffer's Mac and Cheese ingredients are great for kitchen cloners who want an easy fix that doesn't require much shopping. 

I created my Stouffer's Macaroni and Cheese copycat recipe to work as an exact duplicate of the actual product: a frozen dish that you heat up later in the oven. This way, you'll get slightly browned macaroni & cheese that looks like it posed for the nicely lit photo on the Stouffer's box. 

Since you'll only need about 3/4 cup of uncooked elbow macaroni for each recipe, you can make several 4-person servings with just one 16-ounce box of macaroni, and then keep them all in the freezer until the days when your troops have their mac & cheese attacks. Be sure to use freshly shredded Cheddar cheese here, since it melts much better than pre-shredded cheese (and it's cheaper). Use a whisk to stir the sauce often as it thickens, so that you get a smooth—not lumpy or grainy—finished product. 

If you're still hungry, check out my copycat recipes for famous entrées here.

Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.

Order an entree from America's largest seafood restaurant chain and you'll get a basket of some of the planet's tastiest garlic-cheese biscuits served up on the side. For many years, the Cheddar Bay Biscuits recipe has been the most-searched-for clone recipe on the Internet, according to Red Lobster. As a result, several versions are floating around, including one that was at one time printed right on the box of Bisquick baking mix.

The problem with making biscuits using Bisquick is that if you follow the directions from the box you don't end up with a very fluffy or flakey finished product, since most of the fat in the recipe comes from the shortening that's included in the mix. On its own, room temperature shortening does a poor job creating the light, airy texture you want from good biscuits, and it contributes little in the way of flavor. So, we'll invite some cold butter along on the trip -- with grated Cheddar cheese and a little garlic powder. Now you'll be well on your way to delicious Cheddar Bay. Wherever that is.

Complete the Red Lobster experience and make favorite entrées and side dishes here.

Source: "Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2" by Todd Wilbur.

A 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.

Just 15 minutes after the very first Cheesecake Factory opened in Beverly Hills back in 1978, the lines began forming. These guys know how to make a dang good cheesecake! 

You'll love this yummy twist on Key lime pie. Since Key limes and Key lime juice can be hard to find, I decided to use standard lime juice in my Cheesecake Factory Key Lime Cheesecake copycat recipe, which can be purchased bottled or squeezed fresh. If you can find Key lime juice, bear in mind that Key limes are more tart, so you'll need only half as much juice. You'll also need a springform pan. If you don't have one, you can use two 9-inch pie pans and make two smaller cheesecakes.

Try more of my Cheesecake Factory hacks here.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

For years Taco Bell customers had only the "mild" and "hot" varieties of free taco sauce blister packs to choose from to kick up their fistful of tacos. That is, until a recent addition to the hot sauce selection bumped the heat-o-meter up a few notches. True chili heads might find this sauce mild when compared with the glut of extreme pepper sauces on the market today, but it's definitely an improvement on the Mexican fast-food chain's original hot sauce formula. Try my Taco Bell Fire Border sauce recipe below and let me know what you think.

Make those famous Taco Bell tacos, Chalupas, and more here. 

Source: Even More Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

Menu Description: "Our flour tortilla is packed with sauteed chicken, sausage, bruschetta marinara, bacon and oozing with Monterey Jack cheese. We coat it with Parmesan, and pan-fry it to a crispy, golden brown, then drizzle it with balsamic glaze."

Italy meets Mexico in this new hit appetizer that combines a cheese-filled tortilla with ingredients you wouldn't usually find inside a quesadilla, including T.G.I. Friday's bruschetta marinara. Parmesan cheese is crusted on the outside of the tortilla, and the balsamic glaze drizzle is the perfect finishing touch. This is an awesome party dish appetizer, since my T.G.I. Friday's Parmesan-Crusted Sicilian Quesadilla recipe makes 4 quesadillas that can each be sliced into as many as 8 pieces.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur.

Fans of the Chili Cheese Burrito, AKA Chilito, were thrilled when the chain brought back the discontinued item for a limited time in late summer 2025. Devoted Chilito lovers, who have mourned the loss of their favorite Taco Bell treat for nearly 30 years, experienced an immediate flavor flashback after taking a bite of the soft flour tortilla filled with chili and cheese. However, not everyone was pleased with the reboot.

While many customers were happy to see the product return, most noticed that shrinkflation was clearly evident in this particular item. And I get it. I ordered six burritos at my local Taco Bell, and they were all underfilled, looking nothing like the fully stuffed Chili Cheese Burrito on the Taco Bell website, which apparently was made before tariffs and rising beef prices reduced the fill volume. The burritos are on a value menu, but I was still surprised to find that my $4 burritos contained just two tablespoons of chili!

For my Taco Bell Chili Cheese Burrito copycat recipe, I was determined to make my version more like the Taco Bell photo and Chilito you remember. I created a chili recipe similar to the chili sauce you'd get on a hot dog, using plenty of thickening ingredients. I found it best to combine cornstarch, oat flour, and all-purpose flour with lots of liquid to allow for a 2-hour simmer. This extended cooking time tenderizes the beef like the original and creates a thick sauce that should mostly stay in your tortilla.

After simmering, you’ll end up with about four cups of chili, enough for eight glorious burritos, all stuffed full of chili just like the iconic menu item from your delicious memories.

Find more of my Taco Bell 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.
 

The pile of buttery, toasted ciabatta garlic bread topped with melted mozzarella would be satisfying enough on its own, but this dish becomes even better when drizzled with truffle oil and crowned with a scoop of homemade ricotta cheese.

For my version of North Italia’s White Truffle Garlic Bread, I knew store-bought ricotta wouldn't match the smooth and creamy texture of the fresh stuff from the restaurant. The only solution was to make my own ricotta, which turned out to be a simple process using just four ingredients. After one taste of my homemade ricotta, I knew it was the way to go.

The process involves heating whole milk to 185 degrees, then adding an acid to coagulate the proteins that form the cheese. You’ll strain the cheese using a cheesecloth to separate it from the whey, then mix in a little heavy cream to give it a creamy texture like the restaurant version. The restaurant adds minced white truffle to the ricotta, which you can find online, or you can just use white truffle oil.

Chill the ricotta cheese until it’s cool, then use an ice cream scoop to place it on top of your broiled garlic bread. Drizzle truffle oil over everything and finish with fluffy microplaned cheese.  

In this creative twist on traditional French toast, sliced sourdough bread is dipped in vanilla custard, then layered with cheesecake filling, and baked until lightly browned. It's sliced and served warm, with fresh berries and strawberry syrup on the side. If you’re a fan of French toast and bread pudding, you’ll really love this.

For their French toast, Cracker Barrel uses soft sourdough from Bay’s Southern Bread, a Nashville-based bakery. And that’s the only place you can buy it. So, for my hack of the Cracker Barrel Fresh Berry French Toast Bake, I found a thick-sliced sourdough bread from Nature’s Own. That bread isn’t quite as soft as Bay’s Southern Bread, but it still works great. If you want your French toast even softer, you can use Nature’s Own thick-sliced brioche bread, as long as you don’t mind giving up the tangy sourdough flavor of the original.

If you aren't serving all six slices at once, leftovers can be stored for several days, and reheated in a microwave for 1 to 1½ minutes on high.

Find more of my Cracker Barrel copycat recipes here.

Hot honey is currently trending, and Chipotle Mexican Grill has responded to the demand with Chipotle Honey Chicken, a new limited-time item featuring a sweet and spicy sauce that's receiving rave reviews. Creating a TSR copycat hack of this new item was an obvious next mission choice.

My version of the dish starts with the same chipotle marinade as the chain’s Pollo Asado chicken. After marinating the chicken for four hours, I grilled it, chopped it, and mixed it with a copy of the chain’s new chipotle honey sauce. The real recipe includes a mysterious new seasoning blend that's sprinkled over the chicken just before it comes off the grill. When I was at the restaurant a key ingredient in the formula was revealed when a cook told me he smelled cinnamon each time he sprinkled the seasoning on the chicken.

I couldn't obtain a sample of that secret seasoning, so, using his tip, I added cinnamon to my sauce, made with red and green peppers, seasoning, lime juice, sugar, and honey. It tasted great, with a flavor that matched the original. Once the chopped grilled chicken was mixed with the new sweet sauce I had a spot-on copy of Chipotle’s new hit chicken to use on burritos, soft tacos, bowls, and salads.

Try my Chipotle Honey Chicken copycat recipe below, and find more of my Chipotle copycat recipes here.

Taco Bell boldly goes where it’s never gone before with the introduction of the chain’s new chicken nuggets. To make nuggets that stand out from the offerings at other fast food feeders, Taco Bell’s version is made with sliced chicken breast marinated in jalapeño buttermilk and breaded with crumbled corn tortilla chips. The nuggets taste great on their own, but add one of the chain’s new dipping sauces, and you’ve got an undisputed flavor bomb.

For my Taco Bell Crispy Chicken Nuggets copycat recipe, I created a brine with buttermilk, chicken broth and diced jalapeño, and I let the chicken chunks have a nice soak. For the breading, I grabbed a rolling pin and wacked on a ziptop bag full of Tostitos Cantina thin corn tortilla chips until I had a bag of crumbs that combined perfectly with the other breading ingredients.

As for the dipping sauce, I cloned the chain’s ranch sauce with attitude, since it appears to be the most popular pick. I created my Taco Bell’s Fire Ranch Sauce copycat recipe using Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing as the base, just like the original, then mixed in several other ingredients, including sriracha and cayenne pepper, and allowed it to sit until needed. After the flavors had a chance to mingle, I had a half cup of delicious spicy ranch dipping sauce that made these tasty nuggets unforgettable.

Check out all of my Taco Bell copycat recipes here.

The main ingredients in most burritos and burrito bowls at Chipotle are the flavorful adobo-marinated chicken and beef, which, according to servers, are marinated overnight in a secret adobo sauce.

For my Chipotle Adobo-Marinated Chicken and Beef copycat recipe, recreating the flavors of the adobo marinade is key, but it's also important to use the right chicken and beef cuts. Chipotle only uses dark meat chicken, so use skinless thigh fillets if you're making chicken. If you choose beef, get a pound and a half of New York strip steaks.

Chipotle uses toasted cumin seeds to create a more flavorful ground cumin for this recipe, so I included that technique in the first step (you can also use bottled ground cumin if you prefer). You'll need a coffee/spice grinder or mortar and pestle to grind the toasted cumin seeds–you'll recognize they're ready when your kitchen fills with a toasty aroma. Start this recipe a day ahead to give your chicken or steak 16 to 24 hours to soak in the marinade.

Try my Chipotle Adobo Grilled Chicken and Steak copycat recipe below, and find all your other favorite Chipotle copycat recipes here.

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

Burger King’s giant breakfast offering has staying power. The Egg-Normous Burrito, introduced in May 2016, still successfully satisfies the a.m. cravings of hungry breakfast seekers who want a complete breakfast plate wrapped in a tortilla.

For my Burger King Egg-Normous Burrito copycat recipe, I realized the spicy sauce is the star of the show that ties everything together. Luckily, I found an insider’s photo of a shipping box for Burger King’s “Spicy Spread” that showed all the sauce’s ingredients.

After perfecting a sauce hack, I cooked pork breakfast sausage (I prefer Bob Evans), two slices of bacon, and a hash brown patty. I scrambled two eggs, then wrapped everything in a large flour tortilla with some cheese and the flavorful sauce. The result: a stunning clone of one of the best breakfast burritos in fast food history.

Now, it’s your turn. The recipe here makes one large burrito, but you’ll have plenty of sauce left over for several more. I hope you’re hungry.

Find recipes for more of your favorite items from Burger King 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.

In late 2024, the Caramel Apple Empanada made its return to the Taco Bell menu as one of five new items on the chain’s “Decades” menu. The limited-time menu featured popular items from five different decades, including the Green Sauce Burrito from the 1970s, the Meximelt from the 1980s, and this tasty hand pie from the 2000s.

These pies are fried, like McDonald’s Apple Pies used to be, so the dough is crispy. The apple filling is sweetened with caramel, giving this pie an edge over other chains’ apple pies. It’s a good thing I was quick to buy four of these and freeze them, since they disappeared from all Taco Bells in just a few weeks.

For my Taco Bell Caramel Apple Empanada copycat recipe, I developed a dopugh that was easy to work with and could hold up during frying. For the filling, I chose to keep it simple by using canned apple pie filling instead of making it from scratch. In this recipe, you just chop the canned apples, stir in some caramel topping and salt, and it’s ready to be loaded into the dough.

My final step was to decode the secret method for adding a crispy, blistered crust to fried dough. With a bit of shmoozing I was able to obtain an uncooked, frozen empananda from a friendly Taco Bell manager, and I could see that the dough was coated with a cornstarch solution which is applied after freezing. Sure enough, when I coated my empanandas with cornstarch before frying, they came out of the oil with a blistered crust and a light crunch that perfectly mimicked the real thing. 

Find more of my Taco Bell copycat recipes here.

With cayenne and jalapeño peppers, these fried cheese balls bite back. They’re also the number one appetizer on the chain’s menu, so sleuthing out a kitchen copy was a mission I needed to accept. And I’m glad I did, because my Texas Roadhouse Rattlesnake Bites copycat recipe eventually worked out great. The dish is easy to duplicate at home, and, just like the real thing, yours will have just enough heat to wake up your mouth but not ravage it.

After cracking the secret to flavoring the cheese, I worked out the best technique to produce fried cheeseballs that came out of the oil with a golden brown outside and completely melted cheese inside. The timing was crucial. Over-frying the cheese balls caused the cheese to ooze out and burn, while under-frying them prevented it from fully melting in the middle. To fry these bites perfectly, the magic happens at precisely two minutes.

For the best results, use Monterey Jack cheese shredded from a block rather than pre-shredded cheese. Pre-shredded cheese in bags tends to be drier, so it doesn’t melt as well as the cheese you shred by hand. You want the meltiest, creamiest bites possible.

Try my Texas Roadhouse Rolls copycat recipe here.

In March of 2024, Taco Bell introduced Cantina Chicken, a versatile menu item that can be ordered on tacos, burritos, quesadillas, and bowls. The slow-roasted chicken is seasoned with chilies, onion, and garlic and is often paired with the chain’s Avocado Verde Salsa, which I’ve already cloned for you here.

For my Taco Bell Cantina Chicken copycat recipe, I’ve made the process quick and easy by using a cooked rotisserie chicken, which can be found in most supermarkets and big box stores. Once you’ve chopped the chicken into bite-size pieces, combine it with chicken broth and the secret combination of spices below in a large sauté pan over medium heat.

When the liquid has cooked off, you’ll have four cups of chicken, which you can use in your homemade tacos, burritos, bowls, or whatever you’re craving.

Find more of my Taco Bell copycat recipes here.

In 2024, Taco Bell brought back five iconic menu items as part of the chain’s new “Decades” menu: the Tostada from the 1960s, the Green Sauce Burrito from the 1970s, the Meximelt from the 1980s, the Gordita Supreme from the 1990s, and the Caramel Apple Empanada from the 2000s.

The Meximelt generated the most excitement in my circles, so I jumped at the chance to hop into a culinary time machine and recreate this long-lost classic. It’s a small flour tortilla filled with the chain’s seasoned beef, a melted combination of three cheeses, and fresh pico de gallo. If it weren’t called a Meximelt, you’d call it a soft taco. And you’d love it either way.

I tackled my Taco Bell Meximelt copycat recipe by first duping the mild pico de gallo with a simple combination of tomatoes, onion, cilantro, lime juice, and salt. And I made sure to dice the tomato and onion super small to match the real thing. Next, I copied the seasoned beef using my previously hacked recipe for the chain’s Chalupa Supreme and determined the ratios for a three-cheese blend of shredded cheddar, Jack, and mozzarella.

I piled everything on a warm 6-inch flour tortilla, took a big bite, and let my mouth take me on a tasty trip back to the era of MTV, yuppies, Blockbuster, and Rubik’s Cubes.

Find more of my Taco Bell copycat recipes here.

Of the four enchiladas served at this popular national Mexican chain, the cheese enchilada and chicken tinga enchilada stand out. They are filled with good stuff, and the sauces on top make them special. The cheese enchilada is doused with slow-cooked chili con carne sauce, while the tender chicken tinga enchilada is topped with a flavorful sour cream sauce and Jack cheese. And because I couldn’t decide which enchilada was better, I hacked them both.

For my On the Border Cheese Enchiladas copycat recipe, I’ll show you how to make a great con carne sauce and how to stuff the enchiladas with a blend of perfectly melted cheese. For my On the Border Chicken Tinga Enchiladas hack, I’ll show you how to make moist and flavorful chicken tinga with a grocery store rotisserie chicken and how to copy the great sour cream sauce with just four ingredients.

Using either of these secret recipes, you’ll make ten enchiladas in one 9x13 baking pan, so there should be enough to go around. The hardest step is deciding which to make: chicken or cheese? These enchiladas go great together on one plate and complement each other nicely, so I say, make ‘em both!

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

In collaboration with the YouTube talk show Hot Ones, Panda Express launched its spiciest dish yet, featuring a new sauce made with the treacherous Apollo chili pepper. The Apollo pepper was developed by renowned chili breeder Ed Currie, who also cultivated the Carolina Reaper, once rated the world’s hottest chili pepper. With a heat level of approximately 3 million Scoville units, the Apollo pepper is 1.4 times hotter than the Carolina Reaper.

For my Panda Express Blazing Bourbon Chicken copycat recipe, I knew it would be unreasonable to expect you to purchase Hot Ones’ The Last Dab Apollo Hot Sauce, the "secret" source of heat in the original dish. A bottle of that sauce costs around 30 bucks, and you would only need one drop, so my first order of business was to find a much cheaper substitute.

I settled on a ghost pepper sauce, which, at 1 million Scoville units, is one-third as hot as the Apollo. When ghost pepper is blended with other ingredients in a sauce, such as in Melinda’s Ghost Pepper Sauce (which I used for my clone), it becomes diluted, flavorful, and not overwhelming.

That ghost pepper sauce, combined with garlic, ginger, soy sauce, brown sugar, and a hint of bourbon, will create the perfect blend to mix with onion, bell pepper, and crispy chicken for a delicious, fiery, yet not overly spicy, home hack of this tasty, limited-time entrée.

Find more of my Panda Express copycat recipes here.

The limited-time-only Banana Pudding Milkshake debuted at Chick-fil-A in 2011 to rave reviews, and then it disappeared for 13 years. In 2024, the chicken chain brought back the specialty milkshake, but once again, it was just for a short time, and we don’t know what’ll happen with it next. Since it sucks not to have control of your milkshake destiny, I came up with this easy hack formula that you can use any time to make a fantastic clone that looks and tastes just like the real thing, right down to the cherry on top.

For my Chick-fil-A Banana Pudding Milkshake copycat recipe, I included the most real banana that I could, then added just enough banana pudding mix to perfect the flavor. 

I also discovered a preparation trick that produced a thicker finished product: place the banana, the blender, and the serving glass in your refrigerator for about an hour before making the shake. When everything is chilled, the ice cream stays thick while it’s blended. 

Once the shake is smooth, stir in Nilla Wafers crumbs, pour it into your chilled glass, then add whipped cream, a cherry, and a straw.

Try more of my Chick-fil-A copycat recipes, like their famous chicken sandwich here.