The Secret Recipe Behind Costco’s Chicken Bakes—Revealed

They’re one of the reasons Costco is your favorite store. Now, you can make them in your own kitchen, thanks to one former employee who spilled the beans.

If you’re not at Costco for the great shopping deals, you’re there for the food court.

And we’re not judging you. The menu items may be your typical concession stand grub—hot dogs, pizza, sausages—but for some reason, they’re way tastier probably should be. Hot food sold at a big box store automatically lends itself to pretty low expectations, so anything edible with a bit of flavor would satisfy hungry shoppers. Costco’s food court? Cheap and surprisingly delicious.

One of their most famous menu items is the chicken bake, the object of an inexplicable cult following. It looks like a cross between a stromboli and an oversized mozzarella stick, but it’s what’s inside that really matters: chicken, Caesar salad dressing, bacon bits, and tons of cheese. More importantly, they’re not to be confused with Costco’s other equally famous poultry. Find out everything you need to know about Costco’s $4.99 rotisserie chickens.

Costco also sells frozen chicken bakes that you can make at home, but according to former Costco employee and Reddit user ricecracker420, those are nothing compared to the ones at the food court. The user also revealed the secret recipe for real food court chicken bakes.

Ingredients:

  • Pizza dough
  • Caesar salad dressing
  • Precooked chicken breast
  • Bacon bits
  • Shredded cheese (or as ricecracker420 calls it, “pizza cheese”)

Instructions:

  • Preheat oven (ricecracker420 says to bake it at 600˚F, but many standard ovens max out at 500˚F. If yours does, preheat to 350˚F.)
  • Lightly brush the inside of the dough with the Caesar dressing
  • Add chicken, bacon, and cheese
  • Roll dough into a tube and pinch the ends closed
  • Brush dough with more dressing
  • Top with more cheese
  • Bake in 600˚ oven for 6 minutes, or a lower heat like 350 to 420˚until golden brown

There you have it! Now you can indulge in Costco’s chicken bakes even when you’re not out on a shopping trip. That’s not the only insider tip from the superstore giant. Check out these 15 secrets Costco employees aren’t telling you.

[Source: The Kitchn]

Claire Nowak
Claire is a writer, editor and digital strategist with more than 10 years of experience reporting on facts, trivia and quotes. Her natural curiosity lends itself to stories on history, trivia and "Did you know?" curiosities, and her work has appeared in Taste of Home, The Family Handyman, The Healthy and iHeart Media. A former editor at Reader's Digest and proud Marquette University grad, she lives in Milwaukee with her fiancé and their corgi and enjoys binge-listening to true-crime podcasts.