Denny's

First impressions are important, and after my first bite of Denny's new buttermilk pancakes, I couldn't stop thinking about waffle cones. Back in the lab, I mashed together a standard waffle cone recipe with one of mine for buttermilk pancakes and was able to create the perfect recipe for Denny’s new, improved buttermilk flapjacks. And because of their unique waffle cone flavor, these pancakes taste just as great doused with maple syrup as they do topped with a big scoop of ice cream.

My Denny's Buttermilk Pancakes copycat recipe makes eight big 6-inch pancakes, which you will form by measuring 1/2 cup of batter onto your preheated griddle or skillet. If you have a large griddle pan, you may be able to make a couple of these at a time. With smaller pans, though, you’ll have to make one at a time, which will take a little longer. And that’s why they invented mimosas.

Looking for more Denny's copycat recipes? You can find them here. 

My favorite new Denny’s pancakes are these tasty whole-grain-filled buttermilk flapjacks, peppered with healthy flax seeds. At the base of the formula is my hack for Denny’s buttermilk pancakes, and to that I’ve added whole wheat flour, a little flax seed, and a hot cereal blend with nine different grains in it. Okay, mine had ten grains in it, but who’s counting?

Regardless of how many grains are in the cereal blend you use, I find it best to give the grains a quick soak to soften them up before making the pancakes. Just let the cereal and flax seeds rest for a bit in the liquid before mixing them into the dry ingredients, and you'll end up with a perfect copy of Denny's Hearty 9-Grain Pancakes.

Find more cool breakfast copycat recipes here.

This soup is only served on Mondays at the Denny’s near my house, and it’s not even on the menu. But of all the soups served at the huge diner chain, this one tops the list for cloning requests we get here at TSR HQ. 

My Denny's broccoli cheese soup recipe is beautifully simple: make a roux with flour and butter, add milk, shredded Cheddar cheese, chicken broth and broccoli, and simmer until thick. The only suggestion I would make is to shred the Cheddar yourself rather than using the pre-shredded stuff. I find that in soups like this, freshly shredded cheese melts much better, giving the soup a creamier and less grainy consistency.

Find more of your favorite famous copycat recipes here.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur.

Menu Description: "Three thick slices grilled golden brown and sprinkled with powdered sugar."

This popular breakfast choice at America's number one diner chain takes center stage on the cover of the menu. Three slices of thick bread are dipped in a slightly sweet egg batter, browned to perfection and served up with a dusting of powdered sugar, some soft butter and thick maple syrup on the side. Find the thick-sliced Texas toast bread in your bakery, or use any white bread that's sliced around 3/4-inch thick. My Denny's French toast recipe below will make enough for two servings of three slices each, and it's the perfect recipe for waking up a special someone with breakfast in bed.

Find more amazing breakfast ideas here.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur.

Menu Description: "A Denny's original. Sliced turkey breast with Swiss cheese, bacon and tomato on grilled sourdough. Served with French Fries and pickle chips."

Now you can munch down your own clone of this popular palate pleaser, The Super Bird, a cross between a grilled cheese and a club, and Denny's top-selling sandwich. When shopping for sourdough bread, try to find a high-quality loaf with large slices. The thin-sliced turkey breast is best purchased at your market's deli service counter where they cut it while you wait. If you don't have a service counter like this near your house, you can use the prepackaged thin-sliced meats located in the cold deli section. Or you can move.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

Menu Description: "Three eggs scrambled with Cheddar cheese, mushrooms, green peppers and onions, then topped with diced tomatoes. Served with hash browns, sausage, bacon and choice of toast, homestyle buttermilk biscuit or English muffin."

In 1953, Harold Butler realized his dream of opening a donut shop. The little shop in Lakewood, California was called Danny's Donuts, and Harold's philosophy was simple: "We're going to serve the best cup of coffee; make the best donuts; give the best service; keep everything spotless; offer the best value; and stay open 24 hours a day."

That little donut store made $120,000 in its first year—a good bit of change for any restaurant in 1953. When customers showed interest in a more diverse menu, Harold began offering sandwiches, breakfasts, and other meals; and in 1954 changed the name to Danny's Coffee Shops. The name of the chain would eventually change again, this time to Denny's—the nation's largest full-service restaurant chain when this recipe was created.

In 1977, Denny's introduced the Grand Slam Breakfast—a value priced breakfast that included eggs, sausage, bacon, and pancakes. Later, the successful Grand Slam Breakfast specials expanded to include other variations including the French Slam, Southern Slam, and the Scram Slam, a popular vegetable-and-scrambled egg creation you can now make for yourself.

How about some pancakes or French toast to go with your scrambled eggs? Click here for more copycat recipes from Denny's.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

With its goofy-yet-memorable name, Moons Over My Hammy is a delicious scrambled egg sandwich that can be eaten for breakfast with hash browns on the side, or for lunch with a side of French fries. 

Use my Denny's Moons Over My Hammy recipe below to make a killer home version. When you shop for the sourdough bread, try to find a good-quality loaf with large slices.

Click here for more amazing copycat sandwich recipes.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes by Todd Wilbur.

Menu Description: "Thinly sliced turkey, crisp bacon, lettuce and tomato on toasted white bread."

Get out your toothpicks, because you'll have a hard time keeping the slices of this triple-decker sandwich from falling apart when slicing the only way you slice a true club sandwich: from corner to corner. This trusty, old-fashioned club sandwich recipe seems like it's been around forever, and yet this sandwich is still one of the top choices from Denny's for lunch. One day you'll find yourself with some white bread, sliced turkey, bacon, lettuce, tomato and mayo, and you'll realize you're just a Top Secret Recipe away from the secret stacking that will give you the perfect club sandwich.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur.

Menu Description: "A seasoned, grilled chicken breast topped with Cheddar cheese and a stack of thin crisp onion rings on a sesame seed bun with lettuce, tomato and a sweet hickory spread. Served with a side of BBQ sauce."

With 1527 restaurants across the country, Denny's is on top as America's largest full-service family restaurant chain. Sure, the chain's famous for its Grand Slam Breakfasts, but Denny's menu is filled with tasty choices for grub way past breakfast time. One such item is this chicken sandwich built with grilled chicken breast, lettuce, tomato, Cheddar cheese, crispy onion rings, and a secret sweet hickory spread. 

That hickory spread is one of the ingredients that makes this sandwich special, so the recipe is here. It requires an ingredient called hickory salt. You can find this blend of salt and hickory flavoring in the spice section from Spice Islands under the name "Old Hickory Smoked Salt." If you can't find that stuff, just substitute with 1/8 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon hickory liquid smoke flavoring. For even more flavor, Denny's serves the sandwich with a small dish of barbecue sauce that tastes remarkably similar to Bull's-Eye Original, so that's what I used in my Denny's BBQ Chicken Sandwich recipe below. While homemade crunchy onion rings are the way to go for a true clone, you can certainly shortcut this step by using the canned French's French Fried Onions found in practically every supermarket.

I've cloned a ton of items from Denny's, see if I hacked your favorites here.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur.

The original version of these bite-size breakfast treats made with extra thick pancake batter and coated with cinnamon sugar are a big success at Denny's. So, chefs there have come up with another version with blueberries and white chocolate chips inside. 

Initially, I thought I could use an instant blueberry pancake mix to clone the new flavor, such as the mix made by Krusteaz. But those "blueberries" in there aren't even real blueberries - they're fake blueberry flavored bits. Not good. I found that the best solution for my Denny's Pancake Puppies recipe is to add chopped up dried blueberries to an extra-thick batter, along with a little chopped up white chocolate chips. 

The batter is easy to portion out using a 1 3/4-inch cookie scoop that's been dipped in oil, but you could also use a tablespoon measure as long as you don't scoop up too much. Keep your batter balls about 1 1/2 inches in diameter, or they may not cook all the way through. Below you'll find my recipes for the original Pancake Puppies as well as the new blueberry and white chocolate chip version.

Denny's does pancakes right! Check out my other clone recipes here.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur.

Menu Description: "One part lime. Two parts cherry. All blended with ice-cold Sprite."

Denny's Fusion Favorites are creative drink mixes blended from the chain's soda fountain with a variety of added fruit flavors. The secret ingredients in these trademarked drinks are the flavored syrups dispensed from giant squirt bottles next to the soda machines, but I discovered that we can easily re-create these syrups using Kool-Aid drink mix powder. 

Use my Denny's Cherry Limeade recipe below to duplicate the top choice on the Fusion Favorites menu. Dissolve the Kool-Aid mix into a little lime juice for a cherry/lime syrup that can be stirred into a blend of Sprite and Minute-Maid lemonade. And if you want to significantly reduce the calories in this drink, use diet Sprite and light Minute-Maid lemonade, and you can hardly tell the difference.

Find more of your favorite famous drink recipes here.

Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur.

Menu Description: "Two scrambled eggs, seasoned sausage, crispy bacon, shaved ham, mayonnaise and American cheese grilled on potato bread with a maple spice spread."

After a successful Super Bowl promotion when Denny's gave away over 2 million Grand Slam Breakfast platters in February 2009, the chain revealed its next generous publicity stunt the following April by offering a free serving of its new Grand Slamwich with every purchase of a Grand Slam Breakfast. This entire breakfast-in-a-sandwich features everything you'd want in a hearty day starter including 2 eggs, bacon, sausage, ham, and cheese, all on potato bread. It seems that the taste buds of Denny's corporate chefs were influenced by the maple-flavored buns used on McDonald's McGriddle sandwich when they got the idea to brush the bread on each Grand Slamwich with a maple-infused buttery spread. Regardless of the inspiration, the Denny's Grand Slamwich recipe works great, and now you can make it at home anytime you like.
 
Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur.

Here's another very popular Denny's creation. This 20-year-old menu item can be easily converted to a reduced-fat version by substituting fat-free cheese and turkey bacon. When shopping for that bacon, I've found that Butterball makes one of the best turkey bacons around—it tastes just like the pork version. Then get yourself some low-fat turkey breast form the supermarket deli counter or prepackaged near the other luncheon meats. A little butter-flavored spray and a hot skillet on the stove, and you're on your way to reducing the fat by around by 60 percent. Now that's super.

Nutrition Facts
Serving size–1 sandwich
Total servings–1
Calories per serving–425 / Original–565
Fat per serving–8.5 g / Original–22 g

Source: Top Secret Recipes Lite by Todd Wilbur.

It's got a goofy name and tons of fans. This is one of  Denny's most popular sandwiches, and it has remained on Denny's menu since 1978. But whether you have it for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, you might like to know there's a way to enjoy the taste of this grilled sandwich for around 30 grams less fat than the real thing. My lower fat Denny's Moons Over My Hammy recipe cuts fat in several ways, but the most significant savings come from using fat-free cheese. Get some low-fat ham at your supermarket deli counter, or you can find it prepackaged near the luncheon meats. Start heating up a couple sauté pans and get ready to devour this delicious lower-fat treat.

 Nutrition Facts
Serving size–1 sandwich
Total servings–1
Calories per serving–460 (Original–700)
Fat per serving–3g (Original–33g)

Source: Top Secret Recipes Lite by Todd Wilbur.