Applebee’s is a popular restaurant with locations that can be found all over the United States, as well as other countries around the globe in places such as the Middle East, Europe, and South America. It is a casual dining restaurant which styles itself as an affordable place that has a neighborhood environment. And although the food is reasonably priced, many think it is quite good, so naturally there is a desire for recipes of Applebee’s signature dishes.

Unfortunately, the restaurant does not make their recipes available to the general public. According to Applebees.com:

“We appreciate the interest in our craveable menu items, but due to proprietary and confidential reasons, recipes are not available for any menu items.”

This little fact, however, does not stop many out there from creating their own recipes based on Applebee’s dishes. These recipes are dubbed “copy cat” recipes, and are basically home made versions of recipes for dishes one would find in a popular restaurant. They are created by home chefs, and the internet is rife with them, as thousands of sites feature some form of copy cat recipes, not just from Applebee’s, but from all sorts of restaurants around the world.

Applebee’s is no exception to this rule, as it is easy to find such recipes online just by doing a search for “Applebee’s Recipes”. Amateur chefs post recipes for everything from appetizers, entrees, and even desserts. For instance, one recipe available on the first page of a Google search is for the restaurant’s famous Hot Artichoke Spinach Dip appetizer, while I have also found a recipe for Applebee’s Blonde Brownies, which look very tasty. And still another features Applebee’s French Onion Soup, which is a favorite in my family. Recipes vary in scope and complexity, as some seem to be very simple to make and others look fairly difficult.

Sites that feature these copy cat recipes are typically user-driven, where anonymous users can post different recipes online when they find or create them, for the benefit of the rest of the site’s users. Often, other users can comment on the recipes as well, and this is especially useful if the user has made the recipe and can report back on how well it tastes and if the posted recipe is a reasonable approximation of the actual dish from the restaurant.

So if you would like to try and recreate Applebee’s dishes in your own neighborhood, you won’t be able to locate official recipes directly from the restaurant, but it’s very easy to find knock off recipes online with a simple internet search. As with most other information found on the internet, your results may vary depending on the user posting the recipe. In addition, different Applebee’s locations may prepare dishes slightly differently, varying their menus and ingredients according their regions. But the only way to find out if you’ve got a good copy cat recipe is to try them out and see for yourself whether they taste just like the real thing.