The Best Summer Copycat Recipes

Summer copycat recipes are the menu items people search for most when it's hot — cold drinks (lemonades, refreshers, frozen coffee), frozen desserts (Blizzards, Frostys, milkshakes), grilled mains (smashburgers, ribs, hot dogs), classic cookout sides (coleslaw, street corn, baked beans), and crunchy salads. The chains lean into them every June through August, and so do home cooks.

Not for most of them. A cast-iron skillet handles smashburgers better than a grill (you want the flat surface for the smash). For ribs, the slow-and-low oven or instant-pot route in our recipes actually beats most backyard cooks. Where a grill genuinely helps — hot dogs, chargrilled chicken — we say so in the recipe.

Starbucks frozen drinks. A grande frappuccino runs $6–$8 at the store and costs roughly $0.80 in ingredients at home (espresso, milk, ice, sugar, flavor syrup). Make it twice a week and you've saved $600+ a year. Dunkin's frozen coffee and Sonic's slushes are close seconds.

For a crowd, our Five Guys-style double smashburger is the safest crowd-pleaser — 80/20 ground chuck, smashed thin in a hot cast-iron, melted American cheese, all the toppings. If you want one that holds together better on a grill rather than a flat-top, the Shake Shack-style ShackBurger does well.

A classic spread covers three categories: a creamy side (KFC-style coleslaw or Bojangles-style mac and cheese), a sweet side (Cracker Barrel-style baked beans or Texas Roadhouse-style honey butter cornbread), and a fresh side (street corn or a crunchy slaw). Pick one from each and you've covered the plate.

Most cold sides (coleslaw, potato salad, mac salad, baked beans) actually get better after 4–24 hours in the fridge. Frozen drinks should be blended right before serving. Burgers should be cooked to order. For ribs, smoke or oven-braise them the day before and finish on the grill 10 minutes before serving — that's how restaurants do it.