"Eat out" at home tonight! Restaurant copycat recipes that taste like the "real" thing for a fraction of the cost! Post your favorite recipes here!

[Macaela25]

DH and I love to "defeat" a restaurant by learning to replicate our favorite dish and make it at home for much cheaper. We love to try new things in the kitchen, and Google is definitely our greatest tool! Tonight I made house special chow mei fun, which I seriously crave when I am pregnant but costs $10 a pop . For about $7-8 I can make a huge double batch using whatever leftover meat we have. It was sooooo yummy!

Here's our triumphs - and when I say triumph, our are as good or better:
chicken and beef flautas (sorry Taqueria Maria)
cheddar biscuits (sorry Red Lobster)
ultimate nachos (sorry Applebees)
Alice Springs chicken (sorry Outback)
Pollo Rosa Maria (sorry Carrabbas)

ETA: I'm going to find the links or printouts for these and post what I haven't already.

Anyone else?

[mom2lucas]

We do the same thing! I think our favorite so far has been an orange chicken (sorry Panda Express). We've made several recipes, but none lately. Gotta get back on that. It's so fun to make the copy cat recipes at home!

[Smee]

Oh! Oh! The Steakhouse Mac & Cheese at Longhorn. It became my mission to try to duplicate that. I have been fairly successful. Oh my, that stuff is sooooo good.

[foodie]

Here is a great web site for "copying" famous restaurant recipes--Yummo!--

CopyKat Recipes (Copykat recipes' site/info.)

There are alot of great recipes on here--I have done my own version of Bojangle's Dirty Rice recipe too.

Enjoy!

Foodie (Katie)

[dliver316]

I would absolutely love to try to recreate Carabbas Chicken marsala but have no idea how!!

[Mama Stu]

Ultimate Baked Potato Soup (sorry Bennigans)
Stuffed Green Pepper Soup(sorry Ponderosa)
Caramel Pecan Silk Supreme Pie(sorry Village Inn)
Cherry Limeades(sorry Sonic)

[CouponQueen23]

We love Wendy' Chili and frosties, I learned to make both at home, The closest Wendys is over half hour away.

[foggierbard9]

Olive Garden's chicken gnocchi soup...theirs can't touch ours.

[OneHotMomma]

Ok, all of these are delicious. Anyone want to share how you made them so maybe I can try too?

[Macaela25]

singapore mei fun

I used shrimp, and leftover pork and chicken last night.

For the flautas:

Mix 1 lb meat of your choice with half jar of salsa, shredded cheese, and adobo seasoning. Heat a package of corn tortillas 2-3 seconds on each side in oil. Roll, then bake in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes. You can skip the heating in oil part, but that's what makes them taste so authentic.

Everything else either came off "copycat" websites or blogs of people who used to work in those restaurants.