Are you missing the taste of your favorite stadium food this season?

Limited attendance at college football stadium has cut down on the concessions menus and the amount of people who are allowed to enjoy them. But don’t fret.

DawgNation is here to help with some copycat recipes that will help you recreate some of your stadium favorites.

Here are five copycat recipes to try from the comfort of your own home on game days this fall:

Stadium Nachos

There’s nothing that screams “sporting event treat” quite like a tray full of nachos and a cold beer.

And in the South, we like to load them down with things that go well beyond your standard nacho cheese sauce and jalapenos. We like our meat!

So, today, we’re going to looking into recreating stadium nachos with barbecued meat on top.

Food Network star Molly Yeh has a perfect recipe for our copycat attempt, because it allows you to choose how committed you are to making each piece to this puzzle.

For example, she has a recipe for just the nachos (corn chips, cheese, red onions, bell peppers, etc.), but she also has recipes for the pork and for the barbecue sauce. So you can go all in with her, or cheat by purchasing pre-made sauce or precooked meat.

If you’re an Alabama fan (Boo!) or have been to Bryant-Denny Stadium for a game, you may be dreaming of recreating their Dreamland Bar-B-Que Nachos. The key to replicating that one is chopped barbecued pork.

Hot Dogs

Depending on the stadium you visit, there are various methods for preparing this gameday classic. They can be boiled, grilled, steamed, baked and more. There’s really no wrong answer as long as you get the dog to an acceptable temperature.

The quality of your copycat hot dog experience is likely going to rely on three things: The quality of the hot dogs you buy, the type of buns you use and the toppings you have on hand.

Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs, which are the official hot dog of the contest that Joey Chestnut dominates each 4th of July, actually has an at-home recipe for recreating the ballgame experience:

  • A pack of Nathan’s Famous Beef Franks
  • 1 pack of fresh hot dog buns
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • Tin foil
  • Your trusty skillet (cooking instructions included in the link above)
  • Your favorite condiments like sauerkraut, mustard, ketchup and relish

If you’re a Tennessee fan, you may be trying to recreate the Smokey Dog. (For Dawgs fans who have never made the trip to Neyland Stadium: This is a staple on the menu there.)

And all it really takes to recreate this is a stripe of melted cheese up the center of the hotdog.

If you’re looking for some creative inspiration for your stadium hot dog copycat, the folks at Food Lust have some ideas:

Garlic Fries

Garlic fries are popular with some our Gators friends to the south, but we can’t let that stop us from including this delicious stadium treat on the list.

Using a recipe from Cook’n, you will need the following ingredients:

  • 3 medium Idaho or russet potatoes
  • 1 container of peanut oil to fill deep fryer or 1/2-1″ in frying pan
  • 3-4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  • extra-virgin olive oil
  • 2 curly parsley, finely chopped

From slicing to frying, you should have these fries done in about a half hour according to the cooking instructions included in the link above.

If you have some time to invest, Sam the Cooking Guy has a full segment where he gives his take on creating both the “best” hot dog and “best” garlic fries. That’s two copycat opportunities in one!

Soft Pretzels

Another stadium classic is the soft pretzel. While you may have wondered how long those pretzels hang in those rotating display boxes on game days, you’ll be able to take the guesswork out by making these fresh at home.

For this recipe and cooking instructions, Sally’s Baking Addiction offers an easy homemade soft pretzel that should do a good job of recreating the stadium experience. Here’s what you’ll need:

  • 1 and 1/2 cups (360ml) warm water (lukewarm– no need to take temperature)
  • 1 packet active dry or instant yeast (2 and 1/4 teaspoons)
  • A teaspoon of salt
  • A tablespoon brown sugar or granulated sugar
  • 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter, melted and slightly cool
  • 3 and 3/4-4 cups (460-500g) all-purpose flour (spoon & leveled), plus more for work surface
  • coarse sea salt for sprinkling

This quick video from Tasty should give you an idea of how this process should go:

Cotton Candy

Let’s finish things off with a sweet treat that almost everyone has come to enjoy at a football stadium from time to time.

While conventional stadium cotton candy is made in bulk by machines and then carried to you by a hawking concessions worker on a large pole, we’re going to take a little different approach with our at-home take on this sugary dessert.

First, you’ll have to make a choice: Are you going to purchase a small, at-home cotton candy machine for your project or are you going to try to make it without one? If you’re going the machine route, you may be overwhelmed by the many different options on the market. I found this cotton candy machine on Amazon to be reasonably priced at around $35.

If you’re not going to use a machine, you’ll need to be equipped with kitchen items such as a whisk, long wooden spoons and a saucepan.

According to this Food Network recipe, we’re going to need the following ingredients:

  • 5 cups granulated sugar
  • 1 1/3 cup light corn syrup
  • 1 cup + 2 tablespoons of water
  • Flavored oil
  • Food color paste

If you’re using a cotton candy machine, you’ll likely just follow the included directions.

If you’re doing this by hand, you should check out this video of Eater’s Clifford Endo. He walks you through the process of hand-pulled cotton candy here:

Do you have a copycat recipe that works for your at-home college football experience? Let us know on the DawgNation message board!