Copycat Restaurant Recipes - Everything You Ever Wanted to Know

There is a lot of confusion about copycat restaurant recipes and many people believe that it is impossible to replicate the flavor of your favorite dish in the comfort of your own home.

Most of this confusion stems from the fact that there are authentic copycat restaurant recipes and bad ones. If you have ever followed a bad copycat recipe the experience might have put you off trying another, which is a shame because some copycat recipes are excellent.

Some famous recipes are very simple and easy to copy, whereas others are more tricky and might contain a few elusive ingredients that contribute the special flavor in the dish. There are copycat restaurants for all kinds of famous meals, from Kentucky fried chicken copycat recipes to McDonalds dipping sauce recipes and more.

Simple Fast Food Copycat Recipes

Some copycat recipes are not secret any more thanks to the chefs or cooks in certain restaurants, some recipes have been guessed and others are really simple to make. What about a McDonald's Filet-O-Fish sandwich, for example?

To make this recipe, you simply cook some southern fried fish fillets and fill a hamburger bun with two of these and a slice of American cheese. The "secret dressing" is a combination of mayonnaise, thousand island dressing, sweet relish and sugar. That is all you need.

Once you realize how simple these restaurant recipes are, a lot of the mystique about them is gone and you realize you can quite easily make a near replica of this famous dish at home. McDonalds might use square breaded fish fillets and slightly sweetened hamburger buns but you will be able to make a really close copy of this sandwich.

Copycat Recipe for Outback Steakhouse Shrimp on the Barbie

This very simple recipe uses a dry rub to flavor the shrimp and then they are simply sauteed or grilled with olive oil and white wine. This is a very popular dish at the Outback Steakhouse and it is incredibly easy to recreate yourself. The following recipe makes enough to serve two people.

You will need:

1 lb jumbo shrimp
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon white pepper
1/4 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/8 teaspoon onion powder
Splash of white wine
Olive oil

How to make it:

Combine the garlic powder, white pepper, poultry seasoning, cayenne pepper and onion powder, and then rub this mixture into the shrimp. Leave them for an hour, and then saute them in some olive oil. Add the white wine while the shrimp are sauteing.

As soon as the shrimp are pink on both sides they are done. You could also grill them, in which case use the olive oil and white wine to baste the shrimp while they cook.

Copycat Restaurant Recipes - Surprisingly Romantic

Picture it: the perfect romantic evening. The crystal is set, candles lit, your grandmother's best silverware and china grace the table. You chose the flowers and music carefully, and the table is set up next to the sliding glass doors that overlook the deck. Outside, a wonderland of artificial twinkling minilights leads out to a velvet-black sky set with stars.

Only one thing is missing: his stupid cheese sticks, a favorite from your first date at Chili's. And your more sophisticated stuffed mushrooms from the Olive Garden's appetizer menu. And, well, a decent main dish. Your answer: copycat restaurant recipes. The really good news: you can find these recipes online in a variety of places.

There are people, from gourmands to home chefs, who spend a great deal of time figuring out the ingredients to recipes like On The Border's cheese dip, and then post them for free online. So start with the Internet, and look up a few of your favorites.

While this sounds like hard work - duplicating the efforts of professional chefs for your own home uses - just a few simple rules will make cooking copycat restaurant recipes a piece of cake.

First:

Make sure that the recipes you find really are the classic favorites you remember from the recipe. While there are tons of these recipes online. you'll quickly find that the ingredients vary widely, and some of the copycat restaurant recipes are no good at all.

Others, however, are spot-on, or eve a little better than the original recipes. And choose them carefully; Olive Garden restaurant recipes are among the easiest to duplicate and hardest to ruin, for example, while Outback Steakhouse recipes are perfect for outdoor grilling.

Instead of just picking out random copycat restaurant recipes to try, use a reviewed recipe that someone else has tried out, so you know that at least two people approve of the recipe. These sites are a little harder to find, but they are out there. Then do a dry run of the recipe before your big night. That way, you know all the pitfalls, and you can taste the results yourself and even make modifications if necessary.

Second:

One of the big tricks used by restaurants is to only use the freshest possible ingredients. This does two things: it removes all the sodium and other preservatives that are found in frozen and canned foods, and it gives you a pure, healthy, fresh-tasting base for all your recipes. This means you must do your shopping the night before, and be extremely picky.

Third:

To make sure the rest of your night goes well, do some pre-prep on your copycat restaurant recipes. Put together sauces and dishes, chop your veggies and store them (in water, if they're hard veggies like potatoes, celery, or carrots) in sealed containers in the fridge.

The more stuff you have done ahead of time, the better everything else does. Try to have enough time to take a quick shower before dinner. You'd be surprised how much food odor your hair can pick up!

Once your dinner is together, you can drape yourself in a peignoir or whatever floats your boat - nothing is fine - and have a lovely dinner, in private, with your restaurant favorites inside, the sparkling lights and stars outside, and each other for dessert. All thanks to your copycat restaurant recipes!

The Most Popular Restaurant Copycat Recipes

Restaurant copycat recipes are gaining popularity all the time. As more and more people opt to cook meals at home instead of spending their dollars on restaurant food, there is a lot more demand for great recipes. Free restaurant copycat recipes are especially sought after because they mean you can cook your absolute favorite dishes at home, for a fraction of the price you would pay for them in the restaurant.

Some of the most popular copycat recipes are chicken recipes, especially fried chicken recipes. Perhaps you love Kentucky Fried Chicken recipes and you want to know how to give your chicken the same enticing aroma, crispy texture and delicious flavor

Copycat Recipes Versus New Recipes

There is a time and a place for using clone recipes or copycat recipes. Maybe you want to impress or surprise your family with a copycat dish or perhaps you have a craving for one of your favorite restaurant dinners and you just have to have but preferably without paying the restaurant price tag.

At other times it is nice to make different recipes because it is enjoyable to experience new meals and flavors, rather than eating something that you are familiar with.

Easy Copycats

Beverage recipes like Starbucks copycats are also popular and people love to make their favorite takeout food and fast food dishes at home and then marvel at how similar the taste is.

A lot of copycat recipes are much easier to make than you might think. The busy chefs and cooks in your favorite restaurants do not want to spend hours making complicated dishes and neither should you.

Easy restaurant copycat recipes mean you can make the best quality food for your family much more cheaply than what you would normally have to pay for the same dishes and you have complete control over the ingredients and side dishes.

Recipe for Cavatini in the Style of Pizza Hut

The following easy copycat is for Pizza Hut Cavatini and this combination of pasta, steak, tomatoes, grape jelly and more tastes just like the original Cavatini recipe. This is just one example of how easy it is to make restaurant copycat recipes.

What you will need:

1/2 cup grape jelly
2 lbs ground round
4 cups pasta
28 oz sliced, stewed tomatoes
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
16 oz jar spaghetti sauce, meat flavor
6 oz V8 juice
1 1/2 packages onion soup mix
Provolone and mozzarella slices

How to make it:

Fry the ground round in the vegetable oil until it is totally brown, crumbling it using a fork. Turn the heat down to low then add the grape jelly, stewed tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, V8 juice and onion soup mix, stirring to mix everything together well.

Let the sauce cook for twenty minutes without boiling. Cook the pasta to al dente. Fill six au gratin dishes with alternating layers of sauce, pasta and cheese.