Do you love eating out but your budget can’t take the hit? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered with our top five favorite copycat recipes so you can eat like you’re at your favorite restaurant without having to pay the expensive tab.
Copycat Recipes: Eating Out at Home
Confession: I don’t love eating out. My social anxiety struggles with the hustle and bustle of all the different conversations surrounding me. I always want substitutions for my meal, which either aren’t possible or cause significant upcharges. And with my recent gut issues, it’s really hard to dine out without paying for it for days after.
But there are certain meals I love that are restaurant staples.
The solution?
We’ve learned to make copycat recipes at home. Not only are they easier on my gut and exactly what my palette prefers, but it’s SO much cheaper. It’s a great alternative to dining out when you’re looking to trim down expenses. And while you might think cooking takes more time, a lot of these are on par with, if not faster, than eating out to prepare once you factor in:
- Driving to and from the restaurant
- Waiting to be seated
- Waiting for the server (this seems to take longer and longer these days with the recent labor shortages, especially in hospitality)
- Waiting for your order
- Waiting for the check
My husband and I split dinner duties. I meal prep for the week, make the grocery list, and make dinner. He, in turn, does the grocery shopping and takes care of the dishes. We divide and conquer to help minimize the time requirement of cooking.
But this is a budgeting blog, not a relationship advice column. So let’s look at the money and cents. It’s hard to say for certain how much you can save cooking at home versus eating out. That’s because it can be highly dependent on what you’re cooking or buying at a restaurant. McDonalds is going to be a lot cheaper that Ruth’s Christ Steak House, just like spaghetti and meatballs is going to be a lot cheaper to cook than surf and turf night with T-bone steaks and lobster.
I’ve done my best for this article to include an approximate cost to make each copycat recipe (typically four services) at home versus what it would cost getting the “real deal”. Overall, we seem to trim the bill in half to a third (and get larger portions) by making our favorite dining out meals at home.
Disclaimer: This isn’t to say I think you should never eat out. We eat out once a week with a set restaurant budget. Sometimes it’s nice to get out of the house, especially if we’re going to a nicer restaurant and we get to dress up for date night. Just make sure you aren’t using dining out as a crutch that, at the end of the month, you can’t afford. Be mindful of the quick trips past McDonalds and the gas station for energy drinks and snacks, because it really does add up, often to over $1,000 a month. And for the love of the Lord’s chicken, avoid expensive takeout like Chick-fil-A.
Favorite Copycat Recipes
Hibachi Night
Where we like to go: Kobe Steakhouse
What we like to get: Hibachi chicken with salad (ginger dressing – yummmmm) and extra white sauce
How much it costs eating out: Typically around $23.00 a plate. For my husband and myself, once you factor in tax and gratuity, it’s around $59. Unless it’s a really special occasion (like when my then-boyfriend paid off his student loan debt), we usually only going during my birthday month when we have the BOGO option. So if we’re doing it on the cheap, it’s closer to $39, because my husband does like to get a soda or tea when we’ve got the BOGO deal going.
How we make it at home:
Yum Yum sauce – because it isn’t hibachi without the yum yum
Fried rice, noodles, vegetables, and chicken
How much it costs making it at home: about $19 to feed four, or two people for two meals
Chick-fil-A Night
I won’t lie and pretend I can make waffle fries. Even if I could, I don’t think I’d have the time or patience for it. It just seems like a lot of work. But I can make potato wedges, and there are some great Chick-fil-A knock off sauces, including store bought ones that save time.
What we like to get: My husband usually gets the original chicken sandwich when we go, but he joins me on the grilled nuggets bandwagon when we make it at home. We both like to do the fries with honey as well. He gets the meal eating out, I do the nuggets with a side order of fries.
How much it costs eating out: Y’all, let’s be honest. Chick-fil-A is expensive. I got receipt shock the first time we went recently because it had been over a year and I did not remember “fast food” being so dang expensive. I know chicken prices went up (Pro tip: buy in bulk, section into half pound or one pound portions, and freeze in individual freezer bags with the date on them) but good golly. Coupled with the bananas drive-thru layout and resulting parking lot congestion and the fact that at some locations you can’t even go to the counter and order anymore, this is a new must-do at home for us now.
When we go to Chick-fil-A, our dinner (we are too cheap to go out for lunch here) ends up being $22.
How we make it at home:
Grilled Chick-fil-A nuggets with Chick-fil-A Sauce
Potato wedges: we’ve made these so many times that I don’t have a standard recipe I use. It’s typically two or three russet potatoes cut into wedges, tossed in a mixing bowl with either a lid or wrapped in a plastic grocery bag with a Tbsp or two of olive oil, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, salt, and pepper, baked at 400F for around 45 minutes (flipping once). You can find several different recipes if you search the internet for wedges.
How much it costs making it at home: $9.50
General Tso Chicken
Where we like to go: We aren’t that boujee here. My husband loves a good “bad” Chinese food place (one of those tiny two-table strip mall joints named China [Something] where you order off the sun-faded menu with pictures and numbers).
What we like to get: I’m simple and want a big heaping pile of beef lo mein in a takeout container. My husband is a sucker though for General Tso’s chicken special combo with the egg drop soup.
How much it costs eating out: When we grab it out, it’s a $30 tab.
How we make it at home:
General Tso’s chicken, served over rice with a side of steamed broccoli
I haven’t made the egg drop soup in a while, but there are plenty of recipes out there, such as this one.
How much it costs making it at home: $9.00 without soup; about another $2.00 to add the soup
Chipotle Night
What we like to get: I used to love a good burrito stuffed full of dairy, but my snowflake gut can’t handle gluten or dairy at the moment, so I stick with the salad bowl with chicken. My husband, however, still goes all out with sour cream, cheese, and a big old tortilla. While we also like a good Moe’s burrito, they cook everything in soy, which I’m allergic to, so we’ve had to shift to Chipotle.
How much it costs eating out: We’re always too stuffed (and too cheap) to do chips or drinks since they are an upcharge at Chipotle. (The husband gets them at Moe’s when he does the Moe’s Monday promo deal.) For just his burrito and my salad, it’s $20
How we make it at home:
Chipotle chicken (warning: if you get fire in the bumhole at Chipotle, this may be more of a copycat than you want with similar side effects at work the next day. If so, you can ease back on the spices you use.)
How much it costs making it at home: $10.50
Wings and Wedges
Where we like to go: Buffalo Wild Wings, AKA Bdubz
What we like to get: My husband likes to get the fire in the bumhole even worse than Chipotle. I prefer parm garlic and honey BBQ. We get an order of the potato wedges as well.
How much it costs eating out: We try to only go on BOGO nights, which makes this dinner a little more friendly on the budget, similar to our Kobe Steakhouse hack. If we don’t go on boneless BOGO night, it’s $51. Going for the special drops it down to around $35, which is more manageable but still a bit painful, especially when you get those really tiny wings that are basically fried flour coupled with someone in the kitchen who skimped on the sauces.
How we make it at home:
Boneless buffalo wings with potato wedges (as noted above, we don’t have a specific recipe we use, but they are all over the internet and pretty similar)
Since we have different preferences in sauces, we bought a 3-pack of the BWW Fan Fave Sauces so I don’t have to prep three different sauces each time we make these.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that we have to buy Hidden Valley ranch. No store bought knockoffs for my picky ranch partner.
How much it costs making it at home: $13.00
Honorable Mention Copycat Recipes
Above are our favorite top five copycat recipes to make at home. Here are a few other honorable mentions that didn’t make the cut but are worth mentioning.
Fresh Kitchen: I like to make a bowl with grilled citrus chicken, brown rice, and maple sweet potatoes.
Bolay: I did his and her bowls and, for the record, would not recommend doing that again. Stick with one menu to make it easier and save yourself a bunch of time.
Panera Bread Broccoli and Cheddar Soup
Wawa Caramel Drink: I haven’t been able to have any of these ingredients in a few years, so for the life of me I can’t find the recipe, but it’s a simple mix of milk, ice, caramel syrup, and whipped topping.
Zuppa Toscana Soup: this was the recipe that convinced us that kale isn’t always completely disguishing
Sushi rolls, burritos, or bowls are another staple in our house. Which version we have depends on how lazy I am that week.
Poll the Audience
These are some of our favorite copycat recipes. What about you? Have you tried any of these? Are there any restaurants you refuse to give up or you’ve found are too much of a hassle to make on your own? (For me, it’s the German restaurant my husband likes to go to for his birthday. I only needed to spend one entire day making schnitzel, heaven and earth mashed potatoes, späetzle, and beer cheese dipping sauce before I realized I would never complain about the prices to take him there ever again.) Share your favorites and failures in the comments below!