The Best Panera Copycat Recipes

Picture this: you're sitting at your desk at work, and your stomach starts rumbling. But, wait! You forgot to do meal prep again. Or maybe this: you get home after a long day of work, and you're craving some of your favorite fast food out there — Panera Bread. But you just can't bring yourself to stand up and travel back into the world to pick up some food.

We've all been there before. You're dying for some Panera, but you don't want to get up and make your way to the closest location. Or maybe you can and you just don't want to spend the cash when you know you have plenty of food at home. Whatever the case may be, you don't have to go without your favorite flavors for long if you know about these easy Panera Bread copycat recipes.

Yes, you actually can make Panera Bread dishes in the comfort of your own home. They're delicious and, in many cases, they're actually really easy to make, too. Plus, it's easy to make bigger batches of many of these recipes so you can share with the whole family and get some valuable meal prep done so you won't be left hungry at lunchtime. This also means that you can go without breaking the bank like you might if you were to go out and buy the stuff from a restaurant.

Ready to get your lunch on? Check out our favorite Panera Bread copycat recipes.

There are some dishes at Panera Bread that have reached iconic status. One of those items is sure the chain's beloved broccoli cheddar soup. You can feel good about getting your veggies in while at the same time indulging in a ton of cheese. How can you not like that? 

Well, if you have a high-powered blender, you can make this same meal at home with our broccoli cheddar soup copycat recipe. It's going to take you about 50 minutes to throw it all together, but the best part? You can make a huge batch at the beginning of the week and you'll have enough soup to indulge in every day. Now that's going to make eating lunch at your desk a bit easier, right?

Of course, the broccoli cheddar soup isn't the only soup at Panera Bread that gets its fair share of attention. You can also dig into a big, hearty bowl of chicken noodle soup. While you may have a variety of noodles at home in your pantry, you're definitely going to want to find some big, savory egg noodles for this recipe. It's what gives your soup that signature Panera Bread feel. 

Other than that, the ingredients you'll need for this soup are pretty standard for what you'd put into any other chicken noodle soup number, including carrots, celery, and onion. In just 45 minutes, you'll have a full meal that's packed with veggies and is supremely warm, comforting, and delicious.

Panera Bread is known for taking delicious classics that you already love and bringing them to the next level of flavor. That's exactly what they did with their mac and cheese. We all love how incredibly, well, cheesy it is, thanks in large part to the addition of cheddar cheese.

Luckily, this copycat Panera Bread mac and cheese recipe is super easy to make, so you can enjoy it any time you want it. Don't forget to add the Dijon mustard here, as it's essential to make sure that your mac and cheese is as flavorful as can be.

When fall rolls around, you want everything you eat to be a little celebration of the season, whether that's a scarf in your ensemble, a decoration on your door, or a wonderfully tasty meal on your table. After all, there's nothing that makes you feel cozier than curling up with a warm bowl of soup — especially when that soup is our Panera Bread copycat autumn squash soup

First of all, you're going to love how healthy and filling this soup is. It's excellent to serve as a side before you start in on your main dish. But you'll also enjoy this colorful meal, making it a feast for the eyes, not to mention a delightful addition to just about any table. Of course, you don't have to wait until autumn to make this soup for yourself. It really does taste amazing all year long, so get started on it whenever the mood strikes you.

Okay, we know that you may not necessarily go to Panera Bread for the salad. Sure, it's a bonus on the side, but we all know that you're really there for the bread bowl. Well, unless you're a fan of the Fuji apple salad, that is. This salad is seriously out of this world, and we'd frankly eat it for lunch every day if we could. 

Turns out, we can actually do that with this copycat Panera Bread Fuji apple salad recipe. The best part of this recipe is the fact that you can put it together in just 10 minutes — and most of that time will be merely chopping the fruit and vegetables. Just make sure you make your dressing from scratch. Yes, this adds a small amount of prep time, but a homemade dressing makes all the difference and sets the final meal apart from any average salad you've ever had.