CHEVYS FRESH SALSA
Whip out the food processor and fire up the grill because you’ll need these essential tools to clone one of the best restaurant salsas in the business. The key to recreating the flavor of the real deal is to fire roast the tomatoes and the jalapenos, and to add a little mesquite-flavored liquid smoke. The […]
THE CHEESECAKE FACTORY WHITE CHOCOLATE RASPBERRY TRUFFLE CHEESECAKE
MENU DESCRIPTION: “Our creamy cheesecake with chunks of white chocolate and swirls of imported seedless raspberries throughout. Baked in a chocolate crust and finished with white chocolate shavings and whipped creom.” I’m not sure why “truffle” is in the name of this great dessert, but who cares when you’ve got raspberry preserves swirled throughout the […]
THE CHEESECAKE FACTORY ORIGINAL CHEESECAKE
MENU DESCRIPTION: “Our famous Original cheesecake recipe! Creamy and light, baked in a graham cracker crust. Our most popular cheesecake!” Oscar and Evelyn Overton’s wholesale cheesecake company was successful quickly after it first started selling creamy cheesecakes like this clone to restaurant chains in the early 1970s. When some restaurants balked at the prices the […]
THE CHEESECAKE FACTORY BANG-BANG CHICKEN & SHRIMP
MENU DESCRIPTION: “A spicy Thai dish with the flavors of curry, peanut, chile, and coconut. Soutéed with vegetables and served over rice.” This dish ranks very high among the most frequent entree clone requests from this growing chain’s huge menu, and anyone who is a fan of Thai dishes falls in love with it. I […]
THE CHEESECAKE FACTORY CHICKEN MADEIRA
MENU DESCRIPTION: “Our most popular chicken dish! Sautéed chicken breast topped with fresh asparagus and melted mozzarella cheese, covered with fresh mushroom madeira sauce. Served with mashed potatoes.” What makes this chicken dish The Cheesecake Factory’s “most popular” is the sweet and tangy madeira wine reduction sauce spooned over the top. Man, I could slurp […]
THE CHEESECAKE FACTORY SWEET CORN TAMALE CAKES
MENU DESCRIPTION: “Topped with sour cream, salsa, avocado and salsa verde.” Hand-formed tamale cakes are arranged on fresh salsa verde, topped with sour cream and a creamy Southwestern sauce, with a fresh avocado and cilantro garnish. It’s happiness on a plate. And, while the ingredients list below may seem intimidating at first, the three sauces […]
THE CHEESECAKE FACTORY MINI CRABCAKES
MENU DESCRIPTION: “Served with remoulade sauce.” The secret to great crab cakes starts with great crab. Freshly cooked blue crab is the crab of choice for these crustacean cakes, but you can often find high quality canned backfin blue crab in some stores. One such brand comes in 16-ounce cans from Phillips Seafood and is […]
CARRABBA’S CHICKEN MARSALA
MENU DESCRIPTION: “Fire-roosted chicken breast topped with mushrooms, prosciutto and our Florio Marsala wine sauce.” To reverse-engineer this big-time favorite entree, I ordered the dish to go, with the sauce on the side, so that I could separately analyze each component. After some trial and error in the underground lab, I found that recreating the […]
CARRABBA’S HOUSE SALAD DRESSING (CREAMY PARMESAN)
When Johnny Carrabba and his uncle Damian Mandola opened the first Carrabba’s restaurant in 1986, they used a collection of their own traditional family recipes to craft a terrific Italian menu. You’ll even find the names of friends and family in several of those dishes including Polio Rosa Maria, Chicken Bryan, Scampi Damian and Insalata […]
CARRABBA’S BREAD DIPPING BLEND
When you sit down for Italian-style grub at one of the more than 168 nationwide Carrabba’s restaurants, you’re first served a small plate with a little pile of herbs and spices in the middle to which the waiter adds olive oil. Now you’re set up to dip your sliced bread in the freshly flavored oil. […]