Articles · Copycat Recipes

How to make Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits

By Jayla · 11 September 2026 · 3 min read

The Bisquick version is legitimate, not a cheat. What is not legitimate is the way most people mix them, which is why they come out dense.

These are the most requested copycat recipe in America and among the easiest to get right, which is a rare combination. The failure mode is almost always the same, and it is not the recipe.

Bisquick is a legitimate answer

It genuinely is. The familiar formula — baking mix, milk or buttermilk, cheddar, and a butter topping — is a fair approximation, and there is no reason to feel you are cheating. The retail Red Lobster mix is enriched flour, oil, chemical leaveners, buttermilk solids, dextrose and dough conditioners, so the shop-bought shortcut is closer to the original process than a from-scratch version is.

What it will not do is match exactly. Commercial dough conditioners and industrial mixing give a more uniform crumb and a stronger savoury processed note than anything you can mix in a bowl.

Why yours came out dense

Four causes, in order of how often they are the culprit. Overmixing develops gluten and turns a biscuit into a scone — combine until it is barely a dough and stop. Too much cheese weighs the crumb down; grate it finely so it disperses rather than sitting in heavy pockets. Warm ingredients or tired baking powder cost you lift. And compacting the dough pushes the gas out — scoop it, do not knead or press it.

What you actually need to buy

Our Red Lobster copycats want cheddar cheese, parsley, shrimp, plain flour and baking mix. For the biscuits specifically that is a box of Bisquick, sharp cheddar, butter, garlic powder and parsley — and Old Bay if you want the seafood-seasoning note, which is a plausible copycat addition rather than a confirmed part of the original.

Cheddar biscuits being scooped onto a tray and baked — The Anthony Kitchen — the mixing method, which is where these go wrong.

Finished cheddar bay biscuits being brushed with garlic butter — Good Morning America — the topping and the timing of it.

What to do with the rest of the batch

They are best within about twenty minutes of coming out of the oven and noticeably worse the next day, which is worth planning around rather than discovering. The dough freezes better than the baked biscuit does: scoop the portions onto a tray, freeze them solid, then bag them and bake from frozen with a few extra minutes. If you do have baked ones left, a hot oven for five minutes brings them back far better than a microwave, which turns the crumb rubbery and drives the butter straight out of them.

Cracker Barrel's biscuits are the soft, lightly sweet kind, which is a different dough and a different method.

What you can make tonight

Tell FridgeToForks what is in the fridge and it will tell you which of these is cookable now. The recipes below are the closest Red Lobster copycats we hold.

The topping is the whole finish

It is the step that separates a cheese scone from the thing you were trying to make, so do not treat it as a garnish.

Melted butter, garlic powder, parsley and salt, brushed on the moment they come out of the oven while they are still steaming. That timing is not fussiness — a hot biscuit drinks the butter in, and a cooled one wears it. Brush them generously, more than feels sensible, and give them two minutes before serving.

← All articles