During the holiday season we’re all dishing out more cash than we normally do. With that, I find I want to cook at home more frequently than going out to eat to save a couple bucks.
Eating at home doesn’t mean you have to miss out on some great restaurant dishes, however. Both RecipeLion.com and our sister site, AllFreeCopycatRecipes.com, offer a variety of great restaurant copycat dishes that you can make at home for a lot less money!
I love Italian food, and I particularly love eating Italian dishes when it’s cold outside, because they are hearty, warm the belly and can often be enjoyed with a glass of wine.
RecipeLion recently featured 15 great copycat recipes in a December email newsletter. If you haven’t subscribed to the newsletter yet, you’re missing out, but it’s never too late! You can subscribe here. Here is one of my favorite Italian options among those 15:
Buca di Beppo-Style Chicken Marsala
Ingredients:
- Olive oil, to taste
- 4 thin chicken breast cutlets
- 2 ounces low salt bacon, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- Coarse salt
- Freshly ground pepper, to taste
- 1/2 cup dry Marsala wine
- 3 tablespoons heavy cream
Instructions:
1. Coat a large skillet lightly with olive oil and set over medium-high heat. Add bacon and cook until crisp and lightly browned. Remove with a slotted spoon; set aside. Leave fat in pan.
2. Put flour on a plate. Pat cutlets dry. Season lightly with salt and pepper, then dredge in flour.
3. Heat pan with bacon fat over medium-high heat. Add a touch more olive oil if necessary to make approximately 2 tablespoons. When fat is hot, shake excess flour off cutlets and place in pan.
4. Saute, turning once until browned on both sides. Thin cutlets should only take a few minutes per side. Remove cutlets. Pour excess fat from pan.
5. With pan over medium-high heat, add the Marsala and scrape up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Cook Marsala until it is reduced by one quarter.
6. Stir in cream and simmer until you get a nicely thickened sauce. Return the chicken and bacon to the pan and turn the cutlets to coat and reheat for a minute.
7. Serve with the sauce over the top, with a sprinkling of parsley.
On AllFreeCopycatRecipes.com, I found a delectable recipe for lasagna that’s a copycat of an Olive Garden treat. It includes sun-dried tomatoes, a variety of scrumptious cheeses and spinach pasta:
Olive Garden Five-Cheese Lasagna
Olive Garden Five-Cheese Lasagna is one of the most robust secret restaurant recipes out there for lasagna. If you love Olive Garden and don’t want to get in your car for a trip to the restaurant, try this great copycat dish.
Cooking Time: 1 hr 30 min
For the full recipe, click here.
For other great copycat recipes, Italian or otherwise, check out RecipeLion.com and AllFreeCopycatRecipes.com. You’ll never have to eat out again and you’ll definitely save some cash!
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