The One Ingredient You Need For A Copycat Arby's Beef And Cheddar

A majority of people worldwide enjoy fast food for its price and convenience, especially on busy, hectic days or when cooking a meal at home just isn't feasible. In 2019, it was estimated that each American household spent about $3,500 eating out, whether sitting down at a restaurant or picking up some fast food from a drive-thru chain, per Statista. Furthermore, in 2021, the food and drink industry in the United States was valued at around $876.3 billion. While price and convenience are two reasons fast food is popular, there's no denying that it also tastes pretty good, or customers wouldn't go back time and time again.

However, there may be times when a craving for a particular fast food item arises, but it's unobtainable for whatever reason (like craving Chick-fil-A on a Sunday when they are closed). Luckily, there are plenty of copycat recipes out there that are pretty dang close to the original fast food item, and many of them don't require that many ingredients. Unsurprisingly, the #copycatrecipe hashtag on TikTok has around 94.6 million views as of December 2022, with copycat recipes for anything from Starbucks' pink drink to Chick-fil-A's chicken sandwich. The Arby's beef and cheddar sandwich copycat recipe, for example, only needs four ingredients — one of which is essential for getting that iconic Arby's flavor.

A classic beef and cheddar sandwich from Arby's comes piled high with the chain's iconic roast beef, red ranch sauce, and cheddar cheese sauce all on a toasted onion roll, per Arby's. Thankfully, a TikToker posted their copycat recipe for the beef and cheddar sandwich from Arby's, which featured an onion roll, sliced roast beef from their local Kroger grocery store deli, Ken's Steakhouse Country French salad dressing as a copycat for the Arby's red ranch sauce, and Velveeta cheese sauce.

Another Arby's beef and cheddar copycat recipe was shared by a TikTok user and their recipe also featured onion rolls and Ken's Steakhouse Country French salad dressing as a mock red ranch sauce. However, they used Oscar Mayer roast beef and Rico's premium cheddar cheese sauce. It's unclear if using different ingredients changes the taste of the end result, but the comments were loving their copycat recipe. One user wrote "[I] made this today! Soooo good and taste[s] exactly like the restaurant!" Another person said "[This] looks 1000% better than Arby's. [I] bet it tastes better too!"