Surprise your family by making these copycat dessert recipes of sweets made famous by The Cheesecake Factory, Bakers Square and more.
34 of Our Best Copycat Dessert Recipes
5-INGREDIENT CHICKEN AND DUMPLINGS FOR TWO
A comfort-food meal for two is a rare treat. This recipe makes just enough chicken and dumplings for a cozy night in without too many leftovers in your fridge.
Pillsbury™ Grands!™ Buttermilk Biscuits and Progresso™ Reduced Sodium Chicken Broth make this recipe simple and oh-so-delicious. Classic chicken and dumplings are comforting for many people, and this recipe brings out the traditional flavors you know and love.
Whether you’re hosting a friend, have a 1-1 dinner with your kiddo, or are planning a date night with your sweetheart, this recipe is beloved by all.
RECIPE INGREDIENTS
Your dinner for two comes together with a few simple, easy-to-find ingredients. This is what you’ll need:
Pillsbury™ Grands!™ Buttermilk Biscuits: Not only are these biscuits flaky and full of flavor, they’re easy to work with, too. They make a great base for your dumplings.
Progresso™ Reduced Sodium Chicken Broth: This pre-made broth is a simple choice for your dish. The reduced sodium version makes it easy to customize the saltiness to your taste.
Ranch Salad Dressing & Seasoning Mix: Ranch seasoning works perfectly in this dish. With garlic, onion, dill, parsley, and chives, ranch seasoning helps you to flavor your dish without requiring too many individual spices in your cupboard.
Other Ingredients You’ll Need: Shredded cheddar cheese makes this dish ultra-creamy. The shredded cooked chicken adds hearty flavor and protein to the recipe. Simple black pepper brings mild heat and flavor to round out your dinner.
Pillsbury
Cowboy Spaghetti
In the 1960s and ’70s, Italian film directors began making low-budget Western movies that were dubbed “spaghetti Westerns.” Cowboy spaghetti is the culinary equivalent: a mashup of cozy Italian staple foods with flavors from the American Southwest. This ground beef pasta recipe makes a fantastic centerpiece to any family meal, served alongside a big green salad, vegetable sides and garlic bread.
Our recipe for cowboy spaghetti combines pasta and tomato sauce with bacon, ground beef, beans, chili-spiced tomatoes, cumin and pepper jack cheese. The result is a bold one-pot meal that’s hearty enough to satisfy the hungriest members of your crew. It makes a great work-night dinner, pairs perfectly with a ball game and is a happy surprise at a potluck.
Ingredients for Cowboy Spaghetti
- Spaghetti: Spaghetti is in the name, but this meal would be just as fantastic if made with linguine or fettuccine. A short, chunky pasta shape such as penne would also work perfectly.
- Bacon: Rendering the fat from smoky bacon and using that fat to cook the other ingredients is a wonderful way to pack flavor into a dish. Thick-cut is the best bacon to use for our cowboy spaghetti recipe so you get good chunks throughout the pasta.
- Lean ground beef: Because you’ll be cooking the beef in bacon fat, you can get away with using a nice lean grind.
- Onion: Yellow or white onions are the best types of onions for casseroles like this, but red onion works in a pinch.
- Kidney beans: Home-cooked or canned kidney beans work equally well in a recipe for cowboy spaghetti. You could also use pinto beans or Instant Pot black beans.
- Tomato sauce: Use the best jarred pasta sauce to make an amazingly flavorful base for your cowboy spaghetti.
- Diced tomatoes and green chiles: Look for chili-seasoned tomatoes and green chiles. Or, simply combine a can of regular diced tomatoes, a can of mild green chiles and a couple extra dashes of chili powder.
- Chili powder: Every brand is different, but chili powder usually includes paprika, oregano, garlic and onion powders, and cumin. It gives a smoky, rich and earthy flavor to food.
- Worcestershire sauce: A surprise ingredient that is neither Italian nor American, Worcestershire sauce has a savory, tangy flavor that enhances whatever it touches.
- Spices: Although all three are ingredients in chili powder, extra cumin, dried oregano and garlic powder are called for in this recipe for cowboy spaghetti. These flavors are emphasized in the sauce.
- Pepper jack cheese: Perfectly melty and mild but with a kick, pepper jack is a fantastic topping for a casserole. Buy a block and shred it yourself, as pre-shredded cheese often has additives that prevent it from melting well.
- Green onions: Just before serving, sprinkle green onions or scallions on the finished cowboy spaghetti recipe for an extra bit of flavor.
Taste of Home
TACO CRESCENT RING
Give taco night a clever twist with this taco crescent ring. Made with just 5 ingredients, you get the same delicious beefy and cheesy taco flavors, but in a soft, flaky crescent crust. It’s as beautiful to look at as it is to eat. It’s like tacos took a right turn onto comfort lane.
This genius 5-star recipe is one of the most popular recipes on Pillsbury.com because it’s fun and easy to make. All you need is ground beef seasoned with Old El Paso™ taco seasoning mixed with yummy cheese. Then just tuck it all inside a ring of flaky, tender, crescent rolls. Surprise your family by serving it for a weeknight dinner. It might just become one of those dishes on your regular rotation. Or impress your guests by serving this taco crescent ring recipe for the big game. Offer a several toppings with it, and you have yourself a simple top-your-own taco bar, they will rave about.
Pillsbury
69 Dinner Ideas for Two That Won’t Leave You with Leftovers
If you want to cook dinner for two, it can be tough to find the perfect date night dinner ideas that won’t leave you with a fridge full of leftovers. That’s why we’ve rounded up the best dishes for two: everything from savory pasta dishes to chicken dinners.
You won’t want to miss out on drool-worthy pork chops for two. And if that isn’t your thing, we have plenty of healthy options like protein-packed salads and stir fry dishes.
Taste of Home
MEATBALL STROGANOFF BUBBLE-UP BAKE
A big plate of rich, creamy beef stroganoff is tempting, but the prep and cleanup can be overwhelming on a busy weeknight. This recipe delivers the same satisfying flavors with less effort! Our bubble-up bake features a tangy mushroom cream base, juicy beef meatballs, and the convenience of Pillsbury™ Grands!™ Biscuits instead of noodles to soak up the sauce. Let your oven do the heavy lifting; you deserve the extra time and one of our best casserole recipes in your dinner rotation.
RECIPE INGREDIENTS
Here are the ingredients you’ll need to make this bubble-up bake.
Mushrooms: They’re an important component of stroganoff. We used fresh cremini, but button or baby bellas also work well. We sliced them, but pre-sliced ones are a handy shortcut.
Frozen, Cooked Beef Meatballs: Meatballs add the beef to the stroganoff! Use fully cooked, frozen meatballs; no thawing needed! We tested dinner-sized and bite-sized with great results, so pick the one that works best for you.
Progresso™ Creamy Mushroom Soup: Soup adds creaminess and mushroom flavor to the casserole.
Sour Cream: Sour cream helps give stroganoff its creamy texture and signature tang. Use full fat sour cream.
Pillsbury™ Grands!™ Southern Homestyle Original Biscuits: We found this variety worked best, but use Flaky Layers if that’s what you have on hand.
Monterey Jack Cheese: What’s a bubble-up bake without cheese? Melty Jack adds loads of flavor and gooey decadence. We use pre-shredded, but shred it if you prefer for the ultimate cheese pulls!
Other Ingredients You’ll Need: Salt, garlic powder, thyme, olive oil, onion, Worcestershire sauce, Dijon mustard, parsley.
Pillsbury
45 Diabetic-Friendly Recipes for Two
Cooking for two? These diabetic-friendly recipes make it easy to whip up main dishes, sides, salads and more—without a ton of leftovers.
Taste of Home
42 Recipes for the Feast of the Seven Fishes
The Feast of the Seven Fishes, an Italian-American Christmas Eve tradition, means lots and lots of seafood dishes. Celebrate with friends and family with these all-seafood apps and mains. And don’t forget the wine. Salute!
Taste of Home
Slow-Cooker Breakfast Casserole
Overnight breakfast recipes are a must for busy cooks. They help when you’re looking for breakfast ideas for overnight guests or figuring out a way to make morning mealtime effortless. You can assemble a slow-cooker breakfast casserole in the evening and pop it in the oven in the a.m. Anything to catch a few more winks of sleep before the house wakes up, right?
Featuring layers of hash browns, sausages, onions, green chiles, cheese and eggs, this recipe is one of the best hearty breakfast casserole recipes around. It takes less than half an hour to throw together, and the results are gloriously cheesy and filling. You’ll want to have the recipe in your back pocket for busy weekends or as an overnight breakfast recipe for the holidays.
Ingredients for Slow-Cooker Breakfast Casserole
- Hash browns: Frozen hash browns are ideal for this recipe. If you’re worried about your casserole turning out soggy, thaw the hash browns before you get started.
- Sausages: Breakfast sausages are the natural choice, but feel free to use your favorite sausages. To avoid greasiness, fry and drain them before putting the casserole together.
- Onion: Onions bring texture and flavor to this easy slow-cooker breakfast casserole. When it comes to types of onions, opt for yellow, which is the most standard variety.
- Green chiles: Of all the types of peppers, there are two popular canned green chiles: Anaheims have a mild heat, while Hatch chiles are hotter still. Jalapenos are the next step up, falling somewhere in the middle, and serranos are quite hot.
- Cheese: Versatile cheddar is the cheese of choice here. Sharp and extra sharp cheddar are a must for that extra bite, but we love the creamy, subtle flavor of mild cheddar too.
- Eggs: Eggs bind the ingredients together while giving the slow-cooker breakfast casserole a serious protein boost to kick off your day.
- Milk: Adding milk enhances the fluffiness of the eggs. Full-fat milk yields richer eggs, but skim is excellent if you’re not keen on whole milk.
- Seasonings: A simple sprinkling of salt and pepper is all you need to season the eggs. You can always add a few extra shakes tableside.
Taste of Home
Easy Lasagna
Traditional lasagna is a once-a-year project for me. I love it deeply, but it’s rare that I can carve out time for it. When it does happen, it’s in the dead of winter when I have absolutely nothing else to do but spend the entire day in the kitchen.
While it’s impossible to beat the classic version — with a homemade bolognese sauce and, when I can manage it, homemade pasta — I’m all about an easier version that makes lasagna a much more frequent occurrence. This recipe is exactly that. This lasagna is about as low-lift as you can get while still achieving cheesy, crowd-pleasing results. Here’s how to make it.
Why You’ll Love It
- This recipe uses store-bought sauce (make sure you get one you love). There are just three components that make a lasagna great: the pasta, the cheese, and the sauce.
- The lasagna noodles cook right in the sauce. Since the noodles aren’t pre-boiled, they’ll cook from the heat and steam in the oven. It’s important that they’re completely covered in the sauce so they cook evenly.
Key Ingredients in Easy Lasagna
- Ground beef: You’ll need 1 pound of lean ground beef.
- Marinara sauce: Since this recipe starts with a jar of marinara for ease, make sure it’s one that tastes great. My favorite brand is Rao’s, but choose your personal favorite.
- Cheese: Use two types of cheese – shredded low-moisture mozzarella and whole-milk ricotta.
- Regular lasagna noodles: While classic dry lasagna noodles are typically boiled before they’re layered, there’s no real reason why you have to cook them ahead of time — they can actually be layered in with the sauce and cheese as is. And yes, this is just regular lasagna noodles!
Good Food, Good Meat, Good God, Let's Eat! 