Best Copycat Olive Garden Recipes
Are you a fan of Olive Garden? Now you can eat their tastiest dishes whenever you get a craving for them. Whether you're cutting back on eating out or you just can't get enough of their delicious bread sticks, these Olive Garden copycat recipes can be made right from the comfort of your own kitchen.
Creamy chicken gnocchi soup
In a hurry? Try making this creamy chicken gnocchi soup. This hearty soup is thick and rich, so while you might serve it up as an appetizer, it could also be a meal all by itself. The best part? It's really easy to make. According Alyssa Rivers, the food blogger behind this yummy recipe, it can be made in under half an hour.
Zuppa toscana
This favorite Olive Garden recipe is surprisingly easy to make. It's quite flavorful, seasoned with garlic and red pepper in a chicken broth and heavy cream base. Zuppa toscana is perfect for a simple lunch or as a starter course to what's sure to be a filling dinner. With so many ingredients, it'll keep you in the kitchen for a while; this isn't the kind of soup you can just throw on the stove and let simmer away. Still, the entire thing only takes an hour and a half to prepare — not too bad for such a delicious dish.
Five-cheese ziti al forno
This budget-friendly five-cheese ziti al forno is about to become your new go-to pot luck dish. This copycat recipe comes from Budget Savvy Diva and only costs around $10 for all of the ingredients. For just a few bucks you can feed up to six people and wow every single one of them with your cooking prowess.
Toasted ravioli
Making pasta, let alone filled pasta, from scratch might sound like a complicated endeavor, but it's thankfully pretty simple. You'll be surprised at just how easy it is to make toasted ravioli that tastes just as good as what's served at the restaurant. Once you get the hang of it, you'll want to keep these bite-sized morsels on hand to snack on whenever you get a craving for a taste of Olive Garden.
Chicken and shrimp carbonara
Forget Olive Garden prices. Why dish out the big bucks for chicken and shrimp carbonara when you can make this entree yourself? This Italian favorite is a bit complicated for the novice chef, but the results are so worth it. This copycat recipe from Food.com serves eight, so you might want to split the recipe in half if you're serving a smaller crowd. Then again, if you have leftovers they'll be yummy enough that no one will mind eating it two days in a row.
Peach iced tea
You're going to need something to drink with your copycat Olive Garden meal. While you can't go wrong with a bottle of wine, you might also try your hand at making some peach iced tea. This cool, refreshing drink pairs wonderfully with Italian cuisine and all you need to copy the recipe is tea, sugar, water, and fresh fruit. Keep a pitcher in your refrigerator and get yourself excited for your upcoming meal by sipping while you cook.
Chicken piccata
Cancel your dinner reservations, because you'll want to stay in for this homemade chicken piccata. This recipe isn't as complicated as it looks, although it does require a lot of attention as it cooks. The capers in the recipe lend the dish a bit of a tangy flavor which is balanced out by the sweetness of the heavy cream. If the flavors are too powerful for your liking, you might want to put in a smaller serving of capers.
Breadsticks
This is probably the copycat recipe that you care the most about, right? Olive Garden breadsticks are pretty much the best part about eating there. Now you can make these scrumptious breadsticks whenever you want and have them with every meal...and maybe even between meals too. Serve them on the side of a bowl of zuppa toscana or creamy chicken gnocchi soup or just keep them on standby to serve as a midday snack.
Stuffed chicken marsala
Don't be put off by the long list of instructions on this recipe. There are a lot of steps to making this copycat stuffed chicken marsala, but most of them are fairly simple. The marsala wine and cream based sauce is rich and flavorful and the provolone and gouda stuffing makes for a delightfully decadent dish. The recipe suggests serving it alongside garlic mashed potatoes, but it can easily be enjoyed on its own.
Steak gorgonzola alfredo
Olive Garden has a lot of chicken dishes, but their steak is just as good—if not better. Take, for example, Olive Garden's steak gorgonzola alfredo. This copycat recipe features tender cuts of steak set in a bed of fettuccine and covered in a creamy alfredo sauce. It also mixes in a healthy portion of spinach, so you will be getting a serving of veggies to balance out all of that red meat.
If the steak gorgonzola alfredo is too rich, you can instead try a simpler chicken alfredo copycat recipe or go meatless with this alfredo pasta.
Salad dressing
You can turn any salad into a gourmet side dish with Olive Garden's salad dressing. Or, at least, a salad dressing that taste just like Olive Garden's. This copycat recipe is very easy to make, and a ready-made packet of Italian dressing mix makes the recipe even easier. You can make a big batch of this and store it in your refrigerator; it'll stay good for up to three weeks.
Baked parmesan shrimp
If seafood is more your style, you'll absolutely love this baked Parmesan shrimp recipe. While some people might think cheese and shrimp are an odd combination of flavors, this mouth-watering dish will prove all those naysayers wrong. It is served with a helping of penne (although you could easily substitute another pasta) which provides a nice combination of flavors and textures. This meal can be ready in just over half an hour, and serves four.
Black tie mousse cake
Hopefully you don't fill up on bread sticks, because Olive Garden also has some incredible desserts. This black tie mousse cake is such a great copycat recipe that people might not believe you made it yourself. One of the upsides of making your own dessert at home is that you'll get a much bigger portion than you would at the restaurant. Go ahead and cut yourself an extra large piece — you deserve it.