Some food just tastes better when you eat out (movie popcorn anyone?). But sometimes making food from your favorite restaurant at home can feel like the best kind of party trick. This episode we have three recipes from our favorite burger joint, burrito shop, and everyone’s Italian restaurant. Make these copycat recipes and have your fan favorites without leaving the house.

Wisconsin Butter Burgers, Chipotle Chicken Recipe, and Olive Garden Breadsticks
Wisconsin Butter Burgers: The Cookie Rookie
Imagine a burger patty, with cheese and onions, made even more rich with butter. A lot of butter. That’s what you get with this butter burger recipe. A decadent treat for sure and entirely worth it.
Tips:
- We balked at two tablespoons of butter per bun and just went with a nice slather. It was by far rich enough.
- Halving this recipe worked very well.
Chipotle Chicken Recipe: Culinary Hill
A big burrito bowl is such a satisfying lunch. Make your own at home with this copycat of Chipotle’s chicken. Full of spice and flavor, you can have burritos any day of the week with this in the fridge.
Tips:
- Kate was able to scale this all the way down to ¼ of the recipe but thinks halving it is easiest if you don’t want to do all four pounds.
- Make this, chop it up and then keep it in the fridge for easy weeknight protein options. Betsy made rice bowls, quesadillas, and salads with the chicken.
- We think this would be even better grilled to get those charred crunchy bits you get at Chipotle. Not quite a copy cat in the oven, but close.
Olive Garden Breadsticks: Cooking Classy
Soup, salad, and breadsticks from the Olive Garden is one of Kate’s favorite out to eat meals. Make the breadsticks on your own with this recipe from Cooking Classy. They’re just as soft, buttery, and garlicky as you remember.
Tips:
- Halving the recipe worked well. You may have to add a bit of extra flour, but that was dealt with in the original recipe.
- Brushing these with butter was the what put these in Olive Garden territory. Don’t skip it.
- We found these on the sweet side. If that’s not appealing, subtract a couple teaspoons of sugar.
From the Smorgasbord:
We love Julia Turshen and Samin Nostrat’s Instagram accounts for helping us all through the pantry eating coming with social distancing
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