Top Secret Recipes Step-by-Step: Secret Formulas with Photos for Duplicating Your Favorite Famous Foods at Home: A Cookbook

A PLUME BOOK

TOP SECRET RECIPES STEP-BY-STEP

TODD WILBUR is the bestselling QVC cookbook author. He’s appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Today, and Good Morning America, among others. He lives in Las Vegas.

PLUME

An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

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Copyright © 2015 by Todd Wilbur

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Photographs © 2015 by Todd Wilbur

REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA

ISBN: 978-0-698-40744-2

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

has been applied for.

While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers, Internet addresses, and other contact information at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

The recipes contained in this book are to be followed exactly as written. The Publisher is not responsible for your specific health or allergy needs that may require medical supervision. The Publisher is not responsible for any adverse reactions to the recipes contained in this book.

The Trademarks section constitute an extension of this copyright page.

This book was not prepared, approved, licensed, or endorsed by any of the owners of the trademarks or brand names referred to in the book. Terms mentioned that are known or believed to be trademarks or service marks have been indicated as such. See section on Trademarks.

Top Secret Recipes is a registered trademark of Todd Wilbur.

Version_2

To my beloved kale.

Sorry for not mentioning you in this book. Some relationships are better left private.

CONTENTS

About the Author

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Thanks

Introduction

Applebee’s® Mozzarella Sticks

Applebee’s® Oriental Chicken Salad

Applebee’s® Mexican Rice

Applebee’s® Fiesta Lime Chicken®

Applebee’s® Maple Butter Blondie

Arby’s® Curly Fries

Auntie Anne’s® Pretzels

Ben & Jerry’s® Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream

Boston Market® Meatloaf

Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.® Seafood Hush Pups

Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.® Shrimp New Orleans

Burger King® Stuffed Steakhouse Burger®

Cafe Rio® Creamy Tomatillo Dressing

Cafe Rio® Sweet Pork Barbacoa

Cafe Rio® Tres Leches Cake

The Capital Grille® Creamed Corn with Smoked Bacon

The Capital Grille® Lobster Mac ‘N’ Cheese

The Capital Grille® Classic Crème Brûlée

Carrabba’s Italian Grill® Cozze in Bianco (Steamed Mussels)

Carrabba’s Italian Grill® Pollo Rosa Maria

The Cheesecake Factory® Fried Macaroni and Cheese

The Cheesecake Factory® Stuffed Mushrooms

The Cheesecake Factory® Mashed Red Potatoes

The Cheesecake Factory® Chicken Madeira

The Cheesecake Factory® Louisiana Chicken Pasta

The Cheesecake Factory® Fresh Strawberry Cheesecake

The Cheesecake Factory® Vanilla Bean Cheesecake

Chick-fil-A® Chicken Sandwich

Chili’s® California Grilled Chicken Flatbread

Chili’s® Chipotle Chicken Flatbread

Chili’s® Grilled Baby Back Ribs

Chili’s® Molten Chocolate Cake

Chipotle Mexican Grill® Black Beans

Chipotle Mexican Grill® Cilantro-Lime Brown Rice

Chipotle Mexican Grill® Adobo-Marinated Grilled Chicken and Steak

Cinnabon® Classic Cinnamon Roll

Cracker Barrel® Hashbrown Casserole

Cracker Barrel® Chicken Fried Steak

Dippin’ Dots® Banana Split Ice Cream

Domino’s® Large Cheese Pizza

El Pollo Loco® Fire-Grilled Chicken

Frito-Lay® Cracker Jack®

Fudgsicle® Original Fudge Bars

Gatorade® Orange Sports Drink

Girl Scout Cookies® Samoas®/Caramel deLites®

Girl Scout Cookies® Trefoils®/Shortbread Cookies

Hostess® CupCakes

Hostess® Twinkie®

Houston’s® Chicago-Style Spinach Dip

IHOP® New York Cheesecake Pancakes

IHOP® Original Buttermilk Pancakes

IKEA® Swedish Meatballs

Jack in the Box® Beef Taco

KFC® Cole Slaw

KFC® Grilled Chicken

KFC® Original Recipe® Fried Chicken

Legal Sea Foods® New England Clam Chowder

Legal Sea Foods® Legal’s Signature Crab Cakes

Lofthouse® Frosted Cookies

Long John Silver’s® Tartar Sauce

Long John Silver’s® Battered Fish

Marie Callender’s® Famous Golden Cornbread

Marie Callender’s® Banana Cream Pie

Mauna Loa® Kona Coffee Glazed Macadamias

McDonald’s® McCafé® Blueberry Pomegranate Smoothie

McDonald’s® Premium Sweet Chili Chicken McWrap®

McDonald’s® Big Mac®

McDonald’s® McRib® Sandwich

McDonald’s® Baked Apple Pie

The Melting Pot® Cheddar Cheese Fondue

The Melting Pot® Traditional Swiss Cheese Fondue

Mrs. Fields® Chocolate Chip Cookies

Nordstrom® Roma Tomato Basil Soup

Nuts 4 Nuts® Honey Roasted Nuts

Olive Garden® Garden Fresh Salad & Salad Dressing

Orange Julius® Original Orange Julius®

The Original Pancake House® Apple Pancake

The Original Pancake House® Dutch Baby

The Original Pancake House® Sourdough Pancakes

Outback Steakhouse® Honey Wheat Bushman Bread

Outback Steakhouse® Bloomin’ Onion®

Outback Steakhouse® Kookaburra Wings®

Panera Bread® Broccoli Cheddar Soup

Panera Bread® Asian Sesame Chicken Salad

Panera Bread® Fuji Apple Chicken Salad

Panera Bread® Spinach & Bacon Baked Egg Soufflé

Pepperidge Farm® Milano® Dark Chocolate Cookies

P.F. Chang’s® Chicken Lettuce Wraps

P.F. Chang’s® Oolong Chilean Sea Bass

Pinkberry® Original Frozen Yogurt

Pinkberry® Pomegranate Frozen Yogurt

Raising Cane’s® Cane’s Sauce®

Raising Cane’s® Chicken Fingers

Red Lobster® Cheddar Bay Biscuits®

Red Lobster® Pumpkin Pie in a Jar

Roy’s® Braised Short Ribs of Beef

Roy’s® Misoyaki Butterfish

Roy’s® Melting Hot Chocolate Soufflé

Rubio’s® Mild Salsa

Rubio’s® Red Tomatillo Salsa

Rubio’s® Grilled Gourmet Taco with Shrimp

Rubio’s® Original Fish Taco®

Ruth’s Chris Steak House® Barbecued Shrimp

Ruth’s Chris Steak House® Ruth’s Chop Salad

Ruth’s Chris Steak House® Sweet Potato Casserole

Ruth’s Chris Steak House® Filet

Sabra® Classic Hummus

St. Elmo Steak House® World Famous Shrimp Cocktail

Starbucks® Birthday Cake Pops

Starbucks® Holiday Gingerbread

Steak ‘n Shake® Classic Milk Shakes

Steak ‘n Shake® Genuine Chili

Steak ‘n Shake® The Original Double ‘n Cheese Steakburger™

Taco Bell® Crunchwrap® Supreme

Taco Bell® Mexican Pizza

T.G.I. Friday’s® Loaded Potato Skins

T.G.I. Friday’s® Jack Daniel’s® Sauce

T.G.I. Friday’s® Dragonfire Salmon

Tony Roma’s® Baby Back Ribs

Tony Roma’s® Original® Barbecue Sauce

Tony Roma’s® Carolina Honeys® Barbecue Sauce

Waffle House® Waffles

Wendy’s® Chili

Wendy’s® Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger

Trademarks

Index

THANKS

Clare Ferraro, Becky Cole, Liz Keenan, Sandra Dear, and everyone else at Penguin Random House who worked so hard on my books, and who have ­supported me over the more than two decades that I’ve been publishing there.

MeLinda Baca, for her indispensable help on this book and for all of her hard work over the many years at Top Secret Recipes HQ.

Perry Rogers, Colin Smeeton, Rishi Daulat, and Shannon Doucett at PR + Partners.

Rabih Gholam, Cris Abrego, Scott Teti, and everyone on our crew at 51 Minds; and Jayson Dinsmore and Melanie Moreau at CMT. You all helped make our CMT TV show, Top Secret Recipe, better than I ever could have imagined.

David Venable, Paula Bower, Christina Pennypacker, Lisa Commodari, and all of my friends at QVC.

Anthony Corrado for the book title Joy of Cloning (to be used at a future date).

To Howard Stern, for giving my ears something to do while my taste buds worked overtime. Thanks for so many years of making my lonely, tedious hours fiddling with food seem not so lonely and tedious.

Joe and Mary Essa, for the great Wolfgang Puck knives you see in just about every shot with a knife in it.

My driver, Brian Chaszar, for helping me obtain the goods (waffles) at a Waffle House in Indianapolis along with some crucial new hacking intel.

Jeremy Reed at Praxair in Vegas, for hooking me up with more than enough liquid nitrogen for the Dippin’ Dots clone in this book.

And to my family—my beautiful wife, Pamela, and amazing daughter, Morea—for all your patience and understanding as I spent many long days and nights over the past few years locked up in my underground lab writing and shooting this book. I really missed you girls . . . let’s eat out tonight!

INTRODUCTION

The first title I gave this book when I started writing it more than three years ago was Joy of Cloning. Not because I was scheming to pick up new readers who stumbled upon my cookbook while searching for Irma S. Rombauer’s Joy of Cooking—although I admit that wouldn’t have been such a terrible thing—but really because, as Rombauer imparted in her culinary classic, the process of entertaining and creating delicious food for friends and family is a true joy. And I think that sentiment pertains as much, if not more, to this niche of cooking. There are practical reasons why we clone famous foods, which I will explore later in more detail, such as saving money and duplicating the taste of our favorite dishes with ingredients that we prefer. But the enjoyment we experience when everyone is amazed by the successful re-creation of a delicious dish they thought they could only get in a restaurant or in a package sets this type of cooking apart from any other.

Over time, as this book evolved from a cookbook with dozens of photographs into one with hundreds of photographs detailing each important step of every recipe, the current title, Step-by-Step, made more sense.

A NEW LOOK WITH PHOTOS

I considered using photographs when I began writing my first Top Secret Recipes cookbook in 1987. I studied photography in college—even took second place in an L.A. Times photography contest with ten thousand entries while I was in school—but at that time I only knew how to process black-and-white photos in the darkroom, and digital cameras were not yet the norm. I wanted to use some art that I could make myself so I decided to illustrate the books with hand-drawn blueprint-style schematics that nicely suited the top secret theme of the books. Over a period of twenty-five years, working on a tiny worn-out drafting table using a combination of stenciling and freehand drawing, I inked a total of 450 blueprints to illustrate the first ten Top Secret Recipes cookbooks. As the years moved on I heard from an increasing number of cookbook buyers and TSR fans who expressed a strong desire for photographs in the cookbooks. I decided it was time to leave the blueprints behind and begin a new look for the Top Secret Recipes cookbooks with step-by-step color photos for each of the recipes.

This is the first copycat recipes cookbook that guides you with photographs through every important step of the replicating process for each of the brand-name clone dishes. By using the photos along with the instructions, you will now have a clearer understanding of how each part of each recipe is made, virtually guaranteeing that all of these famous dishes come out as intended, so that you will produce delicious and accurate copies of the popular brand-name foods that everyone loves to eat.

I kept the photos simple and shot many from a first-person perspective, helping you to see exactly how the cooking process should progress in front of you. Since I work alone, it’s a little tricky to pose, focus, and shoot this way, but I dig the angle so it’s worth the extra effort. When the last ingredient was added, I had shot more than 35,000 photos to get the 1,100+ pics that made it into the book.

WHAT’S IN STEP-BY-STEP

All 125 recipes in this cookbook are new, never-before-published recipes. Most of them (a total of 75) are formulas that I have not cloned in any of my cookbooks. I call them First-Time Hacks. I chose these recipes from a long list of fan requests that I have compiled over many years and from researching what is popular in today’s food business. Some of these items have been big sellers for many years like McDonald’s McRib Sandwich (here), The Cheesecake Factory Stuffed Mushrooms (here), Carrabba’s Italian Grill Steamed Mussels (here), Gatorade Orange Sports Drink (here), Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream (here), and Legal Sea Foods Legal’s Signature Crab Cakes (here). Some of the First-Time Hacks you’ll find here are top-selling newer items like Chili’s Chipotle Chicken Flatbread (here), McDonald’s Premium Sweet Chili Chicken McWrap (here), and Wendy’s Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger (here).

The other fifty recipes in the book are what I call Improved Hacks. These are some of my most popular classic clone recipes that I have gone back and re-hacked to make much better than my original previously published versions. I tapped into some new techniques and tricks that I’ve picked up over the last two and a half decades of cloning foods to make these classic recipes even better culinary carbon copies of their famous brand-name counterparts. For these improved hacks I chose my most popular recipes for which I had discovered new information that helps makes the recipes better, or recipes that needed an update because the original product formulas they clone had been altered. If you like my early version of KFC Cole Slaw, then you’ll really like the new hack here where dairy is no longer in the ingredients list. If you’re a fan of the Tony Roma’s Ribs recipe I published almost twenty years ago, then you’re going to be crazy about the new version in this book, which incorporates a restaurant trick I learned to make smoky ribs at home without a smoker (here). The Olive Garden Salad Dressing (here) is better now, as is Wendy’s Chili (here), Applebee’s Fiesta Lime Chicken (here), and El Pollo Loco Fire-Grilled Chicken (here), just to name a few.

To make it clear which of the two categories a recipe falls under I have tagged each one with either First-Time Hack or Improved Hack.

Eight of the recipes included here (some are Improved Hacks and some are First-Time Hacks) were developed from information I gathered on the eight episodes of my CMT TV show Top Secret Recipe. In the show I travel around the country in my food lab on wheels to the headquarters of some of the country’s biggest food companies and attempt to re-create their famous products. I am given three days to gather enough information—using whatever sneaky means I can muster—to re-create a dish that can fool three judges in a blind taste test. Sometimes I am successful, sometimes not so much. Three days is not a lot of time to hack dishes that were developed and perfected by these companies over years of research and development, so the task is a challenging one—especially when the judges are often picked by the company whose product I’m hacking.

Every recipe from the show is here: Cinnabon Classic Cinnamon Roll (here), Chili’s Grilled Baby Back Ribs (here), Dippin’ Dots Banana Split Ice Cream (here), Domino’s Large Cheese Pizza (here), KFC Original Recipe Fried Chicken (here), Mrs. Fields Chocolate Chip Cookies (here), Outback Steakhouse Bloomin’ Onion (here), and P.F. Chang’s Chicken Lettuce Wraps (here).

BETTER RECIPES, BETTER RESULTS

With this book I have made a few changes to the way I write recipes. These tweaks should help give you more consistent and reliable results that closely match the finished products I intend for you to create.

Because weight is often a more accurate way to measure certain ingredients like flour and powdered sugar, I specify weight measurements for ingredients that are best measured that way. I recommend that you get yourself a kitchen scale and measure ingredients by weight whenever possible. This measuring method will give you more consistent results, especially when baking. If you don’t have a kitchen scale, don’t worry. I also list the volume measurements for those ingredients.

Because the amount of salt in salted butter can vary from brand to brand, I am now creating all recipes with unsalted butter. This small change will help give you results that are closer to mine.

In previous Top Secret Recipes books I often use ingredient shortcuts to make the recipes easy, but this sometimes results in a finished product that could have tasted better if I had used a scratch method. For example, my previous version of Chili’s Molten Chocolate Cake (here) called for a boxed cake mix for the cake and bottled fudge for the molten center. In this book I have redesigned the recipe by making the chocolate cake and fudge filling from scratch. It takes a little more time to write recipes this way, but by creating scratch versions of these formulas I can make adjustments in individual ingredients so that the finished product is a better clone of the original recipe. There are several other re-hacks in this book that I have converted to scratch recipes to give you improved results: the Hostess Twinkie (here), which formerly called for a box of pound cake mix, and the Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits (here), which called for Bisquick baking mix, are a couple other examples. I have also made an effort to create most of the First-Time Hacks in this book with scratch ingredients for more accurate and great-tasting clone recipes.

I have included an info box at the top of each recipe to give you an idea of the time required for each recipe and the difficulty level. I estimated the time required for the active and inactive preparation of each recipe. The Active Prep time is the hands-on time required to make the recipe, while the Inactive Prep time is the passive time required to make the recipe, such as when ingredients are marinating or something is baking.

In addition, I have estimated the difficulty of each recipe by tagging the recipe with either Easy, Medium, or Hard. If you are a novice cook I suggest you use only the recipes that are either Easy or Medium difficulty. These recipes make up the bulk of the recipes in this book. There are, however, a handful of recipes here that I consider to be Hard. A little more cooking experience is suggested for these recipes and the time required to make these recipes is considerably longer. You up for the challenge? Don’t be scared. They’re not impossible recipes—just a little harder than the other ones.

WHY CLONE FAMOUS FOODS?

It was in 1987 that I received a chain letter in the mail claiming to be the real secret recipe for a Mrs. Fields Chocolate Chip Cookie. It was not, of course. But this chain letter with a mediocre recipe for chocolate chip cookies printed on it was widely popular across the country and caused quite a stir. People who made the recipe and had never tried a Mrs. Fields Cookie assumed that Mrs. Fields Cookies were as ordinary as the cookies produced with the recipe. The chain letter also claimed that the recipe was obtained by a woman who had purchased it at one of the cookie stores for $2.50 but was then charged $250.00 on her credit card for the purchase. This prompted the Mrs. Fields Cookie company to place signs in all their stores disclaiming the recipe as well as the story about the woman’s purchase and overcharging. Debbi Fields later wrote about the incident in her book, One Smart Cookie, referring to the situation as The Recipe Problem.

When I saw the signs pop up in the cookie stores, it struck me that this ridiculous little chain letter must have become very popular—and it didn’t even make a good cookie! It became obvious to me that America had a fascination with copycat recipes for famous brand-name foods, and a book filled with a bunch of recipes like these might be a winner. For the next five years I spent all my free time learning how to reverse-engineer popular foods, and I started by making a much better version of the Mrs. Fields Chocolate Chip Cookie than the one in the chain letter. Eventually I had created a collection of recipes that duplicated the taste and appearance of iconic American brand-name foods, and I set out to find a publisher for the book.

That first book, called Top Secret Recipes, came out in 1993 and sold better than expected. I appeared on several popular TV and radio talk shows in the following weeks responding to various questions about my food-hacking process, my favorite cloned recipes, and which secret formulas were the most difficult to reverse-engineer.

One of the questions that I got most often back then—and still today—is, Why would anyone want to duplicate a famous food item that they can just go out and buy? In a short radio or TV interview it’s hard to hit on all of the reasons why America loves to clone food and why this specialty niche of cooking is more popular today than ever before, but this is the perfect place to give you my full list:

Cost: It is almost always cheaper to clone these food items at home than it is to purchase the original items at restaurants or in stores. Through cost analysis I have found that re-creating these dishes in your own kitchen costs an average of around half of what the original product will cost you. Cloning famous food at home is a great way to save some coin.

Customization: With these recipes you have the freedom to customize brand-name dishes to suit your taste preferences and nutritional needs. You may wish to substitute reduced-fat ingredients for those with full fat, such as mayonnaise or sour cream. You may prefer to use organic ingredients, or use wheat buns when sesame seed buns are called for. You may choose to substitute ground turkey for ground beef because you don’t eat red meat. You now have the freedom to make these dishes the way you like them and treat yourself to a special version of the item that is not available where the original is sold.

Discontinuation: Someone once said to me, Why would I ever want to make a Twinkie at home when I can just go out and buy a Twinkie? It’s not like they’re ever gonna stop selling Twinkies! But in November 2012, that’s exactly what happened. Due to a labor dispute, Hostess closed the doors to its baking facilities and we became a Twinkie-less country until the company reopened with new owners in July of the following year. There are gobs of other famous foods that have been discontinued over the years, many of them indefinitely. Having these secret recipes is the only way to enjoy the taste of our favorites long after they are gone.

Scarcity: In the holiday months of 2008 a memo was sent to all Starbucks stores announcing a shortage of the Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins. Demand was so high that year that supplies were dwindling and the chain would run out before the holidays had even arrived! In November 2009 historic amounts of rain closed the plant in Atlanta that makes Eggo Waffles and another Kellogg’s plant in Rossville, Tennessee, was closed indefinitely for repairs. These two closures reduced Eggo production by 50 percent and the country was faced with a nationwide shortage of Eggos that left grocery store freezer shelves empty for weeks. With clone recipes at the ready for popular items such as these (both of which I previously cloned in another book and on our website at TopSecretRecipes.com), scarcity of your favorite food products is no longer an issue.

Location: When you were in Indianapolis you had the best shrimp cocktail of your life at St. Elmo Steak House and now you’re back home in Poughkeepsie with a deep craving for it. Good thing you have a clone recipe for St. Elmo Steak House World Famous Shrimp Cocktail here to satisfy your otherwise insatiable urge, so that you can treat yourself to a food that’s only available in a specific part of the country. It’s also nice to have a handy clone recipe for the famous Hashbrown Casserole from Cracker Barrel (here) when the closest Cracker Barrel Restaurant to your house is a six-hour drive away. And it’s pouring rain.

Mixed-up Menu: You want to make a meal with an appetizer of Loaded Potato Skins from T.G.I. Friday’s (here), Chili’s Grilled Baby Back Ribs (here) as the entrée with some Marie Callender’s Famous Golden Cornbread (here) on the side, and Applebee’s Maple Butter Blondie (here) for dessert. This would be an impossible meal to get at any one restaurant and you’re not about to drive around town picking everything up. Using the recipes in this book, you have the unique ability to assemble amazing feasts that feature a combination of your favorite signature dishes from a variety of different restaurants.

Fun and Adulation: Cloning famous foods at home is fun. When you decide to make something to eat at home to serve to your friends and family, why not make something you love from your favorite restaurant chain? It’s an entertaining culinary challenge and an engaging experience to find out if you are successful. And when you are, it’s always nice to hear the words of amazement. This is the joy of cloning that I write about at the beginning of this introduction. There’s no other niche of cooking that offers the same culinary experience. You are in for a treat.

THE JOY OF CLONING

On my end, creating these clones of famous food is about the challenge of it, solving the puzzle, discovering the secrets—knowing that I was successful at re-creating the familiar flavors we love. Hearing great comments from fans and seeing all the positive reviews for my recipe creations over the years is my reward. My joy begins before the clones are complete, during the creation of the recipes, even as frustrating and tedious as the task can be at times. My pleasure comes from the process, especially when it yields a great result. My joy is in the hacking—the snooping, the exploring, and the experimenting, and knowing that the pure pleasure I get from my work will translate into beautiful and delicious dishes in your home unlike those you have made from any other cookbook.

I am certain that you will have many great times in your kitchen with this book. And I hope that later on down the road you will come back for another joy-filled helping.

To all my friends—happy cloning!