Fast Food At Home! 4 Copy Cat Recipes You HAVE to Try!

Hey Lovelies! I’m back today with a post that I’m SO excited about! When the coronavirus first his Michigan back in March, pretty much everything shut down. (And it still is.) While fast food restaurants remained open, Trev and I weren’t super comfortable going through a drive through and passing germs back and forth through a window. The first two weeks we didn’t eat anything that we didn’t make at home. Which was wild for us. We love grabbing fast food (not a great habit, we know) and we especially love going out for date night on Friday nights.

Fast forward two months and we’re still not big on getting our food from other places unless we can get contactless delivery. (We like to order from local pizza shops every Friday to help support our community!) So, we got creative and decided to try to make a few of our favorite Fast Food treats at home!

Today I’m sharing FOUR recipes with you and I have to say they are all freakin’ amazing!

So Pitter Patter, Let’s Get At’er! (Anyone else watch Letterkenny?!)

Big Mac Sliders

Something you might not know about me is that I love Big Macs. Like SO much. I have such a passion for Big Macs that I even convinced Trev to let me get one for dinner during quarantine one night. (Bad idea, FYI. After not having greasy fast food in so long it made me feel awful.) And since that wasn’t the best experience, I realized I could probably make a slightly healthier version at home. And guys… they are SO yummy!

Here’s what you’ll need for your Big Mac Sliders! (This recipe makes six sliders. I ate 2, Trev ate 4! I would definitely double it if you’re cooking for more!)

• 1 lbs Ground Beef
• Sprinkle of Steak Seasoning
• Pinch of Sugar
• Kraft Singles
• Slider Buns
• Dill Pickle Slices
• Minced Onion
• Shredded Lettuce
• Thousand Island Dressing

Start by pressing your ground beef into a 13×9 baking dish. Heads up, this shrinks A LOT while it bakes! Then, sprinkle steak seasoning and a pinch of sugar! (Seriously, a small pinch is all you need.)

Bake your meat at 425 for 15-20 minutes, until the juices run clear.

While your meat is in the oven, prep your slider buns! I’ve seen people use literally any and every kind! We had these dinner rolls leftover from a previous meal, so that’s just what we used! Slice your rolls in half, and butter the insides. Place on a baking sheet covered in tin foil, butter side down. (You can also take this time to add sesame seeds to the top of your buns for a more authentic Big Mac experience. We aren’t super big on sesame seeds so decided to skip this.)

When your meat is cooked, drain the juices and cover it with sliced American cheese. Put back in the oven for a few minutes until cheese is nice and melty! At the same time, toss your buns in too! They will get warm and toasty.

Now, it’s time to assemble your sliders! I started with a layer of Thousand Island dressing before adding my meat! I chose to slice my sliders here and finish them off individually. I added more Thousand Island, Sliced Pickles, and Shredded Lettuce. This is where you’d also add shredded onion! (We chose to skip onions this time.)

Put the top of your bun on and pour yourself a nice cold Coke. Just like that, you’ve got McDons at home!

Oh! And if you want to make an authentic Big Mac sauce instead of Thousand Island dressing, this one is really close!

Now, let’s move on the the HOLY GRAIL of Fast Food Chains… Taco Bell!

Cheesy Gordita Crunch

Okay. This recipe is SO GOOD, let me start by saying that! However, this isn’t going to be exactly like the Cheesy Gordita Crunches you get at TBell. But, it’s a good substitute! Here’s what you’ll need…

• 1 lbs Ground Beef
• Taco Seasoning
• Shredded Cheese (I chose Cheddar Jack)
• Shredded Lettuce
• Hard Taco Shells
• Gordita Shells (Our store was sold out so we just got Flour Tortillas)
• Sauce (Being vague here! You’ll see why in a minute.)

This recipe is SO easy because you’re pretty much just making a fancy taco. Simply brown ground beed and season with Taco Seasoning as the packet suggests. Set aside.

Add cheese to a soft shell and cook let melt over medium heat.

Once cheese is melty, wrap your soft shell around a hard shell. Put shells on foil-lined baking sheet, and bake at 350 for 3-4 minutes. (I did two minutes on each side so both got golden brown!)

Take your shells out and fill them with meat, more cheese and lettuce!

Now, add your choice of sauce! There are SO MANY different ways that people make this Taco Bell sauce. I saw so many recipes that I really wasn’t sure which to make. Then, I saw a YouTube video saying tat Drew’s Chipotle Ranch dressing was super close to it. So that’s what we decided to do because it was easiest. Honestly, it didn’t taste anything like Cheesy Goridta Crunch sauce to me. But it was still really good! I suggest trolling Pinterest to find a really good copycat sauce recipe… that’s what we’re going to do next time!

Either way, these are SO YUMMY and a fun way to mix up a typical Taco Night at Home!

Next up…

Animal Style Fries

Sooooo we don’t have an In n Out anywhere near us, so making animal style fries at home is the next best thing! This is so simple it’s not really even a recipe, but I figured I share it anyways!

Typically, Animal Style means fries that are topped with grilled onions, cheese and their famous sauce. However, I like them with just sauce!

To make these fries, we simply deep fry frozen fries and then top with In n Out Copycat Sauce. We use this sauce ALL THE TIME for burgers and I’ve shared the recipe a million times on Instagram!

Here is how we make it…

We really like to eat this sauce on Hamburger Meatballs too 🙂

And last, but certainly not least, we’ve got…

Beef and Cheddars

Arguably the best sandwich that’s not a burger at any fast food restaurant! We love Beef and Cheddars at our house and they are SO simple to make at home! Here is what you’ll need.

• Onion Buns
• Thin Sliced Roast Beef
• Honey French or Catalina Dressing
• Cheddar Cheese of Your Choice (A liquid cheddar cheese!)

This one is SUPER simple! Begin by heating up thinly sliced roast beef on your stove top.

While roast beef is warming, add dressing to the bottom of your onion bun. Top with warm roast beef.

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Then, heat up your cheddar cheese, and drizzle on top!

Anddddd that’s it! Hahaha Told you, super easy! We like to wrap ours in tin foil for a few minutes so the buns get steamed just like at Arby’s! We also serve with frozen Arby’s fries that you can find at the grocery store 🙂

So… who is ready to try some fast food at home?! Do you make any copycat recipes? If you do, leave them in the comments below! We’re looking for some more to try!

Alright my loves. I’m signing off for the weekend! I’m hoping for some sunshine so I can work on my tan 🙂

I’ll be back on Monday!

Xx.
Savannah