13 Creative Uses for Store-Bought Pancake Mix Beyond Breakfast

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Cupboards without pancake mix in them feel empty, regardless of how much food is actually taking up space on the shelves. That’s because even if nothing else in the cupboard looks good enough to eat, pancakes usually do. They’re a good remedy for the there’s-nothing-to-eat-in-this-house syndrome. However, the power of pancake mix goes beyond just ensuring that you have something to eat when nothing else appeals to you. It has the capacity to be the culinary wonder that shortens cooking time, decreases the length of any ingredients list, and leaps over tall buildings in a single bound.

And while the last statement is hyperbole, it isn’t by much. Store-bought pancake mix is an all-in-one ingredient that steps in at a moment’s notice to crisp up a plate of fish and chips. But that’s not all. It binds together the disparate makings of a party appetizer, brings the fun of carnival food to your kitchen table, and gives you the taste of your favorite un-pancake breakfast. In other words, it’s an excellent ingredient to have around, even if you don’t want a stack of pancakes with copious amounts of whipped butter and maple syrup. Intrigued? Good, because on this list, you’ll get a look at 13 ways you can use store-bought pancake mix to make all of your recipes easier and tastier without sacrificing quality.

For those who live life with one foot perpetually in the running position, breakfast sandwiches are a lifesaver. At fast food joints like McDonald’s, sweet-and-savory combos like eggs, bacon, and cheese McGriddles on a hotcake branded with an “M” get the day started for many commuters, possibly even you. However, the drive-thru can be tedious and expensive over time. The DIY solution for this dilemma is to whip up some sweet breakfast bread using your favorite pancake mix and have morning sandwich staples like bacon and scrambled eggs prepped ahead of time.

This solution works for a couple of reasons. First, because you make the bread from pancake mix, it gives you the sweet flavor of fast food pancakes in bread form. Second, it’s homemade, which means doctoring up the recipe to make it more to your liking is totally possible. You want some blueberries in the mix? Done. How about a little grated cheese? That’s possible, too. All you need to do is add those extra ingredients to the batter before you pop it into the oven. It’s bread made to order.

During some of the most difficult times in American history — the Great Depression, the Civil War — people turned to homemade dumplings to stretch out ingredients like chicken, pork, and seasonal vegetables. The recipe for homemade dumplings is fairly simple. A little flour, some seasonings, butter, salt, and sugar are all it takes to bring a pot of dumplings to the table (though some recipes include eggs, too). You know what else includes all of those ingredients (or ones that are pretty close to it)? Pancake mix.

Just as you would expect, dumplings made from pancake mix still soak up the flavors in the soup or stew you’re making, just like they do with a traditional dumplings recipe. That said, spices like oregano, basil, garlic, or onion powder produce a savory kick that makes them more satisfying to eat, so feel free to add those spicy additions to the dumpling dough if you so choose. And if you’re looking for something that makes good leftovers, dumplings won’t disappoint. Although you can’t stash them in the fridge for more than two days, they will keep long enough for you to enjoy a second round tomorrow if you put them in a container with a lid. When you’re ready for round two, just pop the container in the microwave for a few before dropping them into a soup or stew.

Go into any pancake house in America, and you’ll likely find at least one option for waffles. Usually, these are served with lots of whipped butter and lakes of syrup, and that only accounts for the plain waffles. More elaborate offerings include toppings like glazed strawberries, sugared pecans, and whipped cream with chocolate shavings for good measure. Regardless of what tops these waffles, they all have one thing in common. They’re sweet, so sweet in some cases they’ll make your lips pucker.

But there are no rules that say that waffles have to be sweet. Like the oatmeal you love, waffles taste most excellent when you make them on the savory side. On the simplest level, it can be a matter of adding some garlic and white pepper to the batter and topping the finished waffle with some grated cheddar cheese and bacon bits or ham, depending on which strikes your fancy. If you’re having a savory waffle in the morning, eggs, bacon, and cheddar stuffing make a quick-and-easy bite. For lunch, it’s grilled or fried chicken, lettuce, tomatoes, and honey mustard on a garlic or onion waffle. It probably wouldn’t take much to turn a savory waffle into that favored diner staple, the patty melt, either – different take, but so yummy.

Store-bought pancake mix might be all the stand between you and a whopping batch of cinnamon rolls tomorrow morning. Despite them being a favorite of many foodies, it’s probably accurate to say they’re not something that most people whip up on a Monday morning. Blame this on the inherent challenge that comes with them. It wouldn’t be so much, probably, if it were just a matter of rolling a little dough into a bed of cinnamon and sugar and calling it good. However, there is the making-the-dough part that eats up some additional time, something you probably don’t have if you work a typical nine-to-five job Monday through Friday.

However, those foodies who have a box of pancake mix in the cupboard have a basic cinnamon roll starter pack that puts cinnamon rolls back on the menu on weekday mornings. It takes three cups of Bisquick pancake mix to one cup of milk to set those cinnamon rolls to bloomin’. The stuffing consists of all the things that make a tasty compound butter recipe, though in this case, instead of stuffing the butter with the likes of basil and rosemary, it gets brown sugar and cinnamon. Although you may not be able to bake up a batch in the mornings, you have to wake up extra early in the morning. This pancake mix hack is just waiting for you to try it come the early part of Sunday morning.

A Crock-Pot and a box of pancake mix is all that stands between you and some slow-cooked Mediterranean quiche. Unlike the crust on your mushroom and leek quiche, which cradles all that bubbling eggy goodness, a slow cooker quiche sleeps in no crusty bed. Instead, one cup of pancake mix, along with some eggs, milk, meats, and veggies of your choice get mixed together and tossed in the Crock-Pot to cook for a couple of hours. It’s a crustless quiche recipe that goes into the slow cooker before bed. Six hours later, it’s ready to eat, just in time for breakfast.

In its simplest form, this dish fancies up the eggy mixture with just some sea salt, white pepper, and a little cheddar cheese. For a bit of spice, add some pepper jack. Or bring in your favorite fast casual flavors (think taco or pizza flavored). And tasty. However, like most quiche recipes, there’s also room for you to cook up something a bit more elaborate, like a Mediterranean-inspired quiche complete with Feta cheese, spinach, and bell peppers. After that, the whole dish gets an infusion of seasoning thanks to some Italian sausage flavoring the eggs. It’ll be good to the last bite, and all thanks to that one scoop of pancake mix that skipped the frying pan and syrup and landed in the slow cooker instead.

For many people, corn dogs are a treat that’s reserved for the annual trip to the local carnival every fall. With their sweet-and-puffy cornbread exterior and their savory-and-juicy interior, it’s hard to eat just one, (or to wait until the carnival comes back to town next year so that you can have another). Fortunately, for impatient foodies, there’s no need to wait for a whole year just to get a corn dog. If there is a box of corn flour, a few beefy dogs, and some Krusteaz pancake mix in your cupboard, there are homemade corn dogs to be had.

Some KingSeal Store bamboo skewers and a pancake-thickened batter gets this party started. It’ll need a bit of doctoring to get the right consistency. An egg or two accomplishes that. A dip in the deep fryer crisps the dogs up nicely. Finally, if you’re afraid your dogs will get a little lonely, serve them up with some deep-fried cheese. You make it with the same batter and skewer sticks that you use for the corn dogs. Just be sure to serve dogs and cheese with lots of mustard.

Game day isn’t the same without all those snacks. Oh, those Buffalo chicken wings. Or spicy curly fries. And sausage cheese balls. Although all of those snacks are delish, in the latter case, you’re really getting a big bite of everything that makes game-day snacking so enjoyable. Some sausage. Cheddar and Parmesan cheeses. And pancake mix. Bet you were counting on that last one, were you? Aside from giving this nibble just the right amount of sweetness to juxtapose the savory, it functions as a binding agent to keep the ingredients stuck together long enough to allow you to take a bite.

As with many recipes of this sort, it is meant to be an appetizer. It’s quick to make. It only takes 30 minutes and is served with a dip of your choice, like your favorite hot onion dip. But there’s more to it than just being a tasty morsel. This snack offers a good lesson for flour-strapped home gourmands. If you’re out of flour, you’re not necessarily out of luck if you need to whip up some appetizers. Just break out the pancake flour and get to work.

On the surface, apple fritters are merely stuffed doughnuts filled with everyone’s favorite fall fruit plus a sugary glaze that puts you into a sugar coma at first bite. In a world where fancy Krispy Kreme doughnuts get top billing in the pastry wars, the old-fashioned apple fritter still holds its own. This might be due to the wholesomeness of the recipe. Unfortunately, most traditional apple fritter recipes require a long list of ingredients that makes whipping some up a bit off-putting. However, a quick switcheroo that replaces the traditional flour and baking powder in the fritter recipe with pancake mix takes your doughnuts from complicated to simple.

In fact, when you make this substitution, you go from 10 ingredients down to five, not counting the stuff you’ll need to use to put together that famous sugary glaze they’re known for. The modified recipe is just a little flour, a fresh apple or two, and some cinnamon. Additionally, a little water and a little oil whets the whistle, so to speak, making it possible to bring all of this sweet goodness together.

There is a debate among foodies about the difference between shepherd’s pie and cottage pie, and while some involved in the culinary tussle may argue beef versus lamb, others might throw down the gauntlet for potatoes versus biscuits as a topping. Although for those in the biscuit camp, the most important question may be “Can you make those biscuits with pancake mix?”

As it turns out, you can. For those not in the know, shepherd’s pie usually wears a crown of taters or biscuits. Depending on the cook and/ or the recipe, the biscuits can resemble the more sturdy kind that await a dollop of butter and a smattering of jam. Other home chefs top their meaty pie with biscuit dough that’s closer to dumplings than it is the biscuits of biscuits-and-jelly fame. Either option is yummy. Both can be made with store-bought pancake mix. Adding some cheddar or Parmesan cheese to the biscuit mix takes things up a notch. Some rosemary and garlic cranks the notch up even more.

In the unlikely event that you have leftovers, you can and should break it out again for a second round. You have up to four days to eat the leftovers. Just be sure to lock them away in a plastic container with a lid in order to get the best results the second time around.

Who knew that the key to really fluffy omelets would be that box of Bisquick in the cupboard? Well, apparently IHOP knew. It’s the chain’s secret trick for making come-back-for-seconds omelets that’s now not so secret anymore. You don’t even need very much pancake mix – just about a tablespoon or so – to get a fluffy omelet. You’ll mix the raw eggs and the powder mix together, fluffing things up as you go. The pancake mix becomes part of the batter, just as any seasonings or spices would. As you might expect, the pancake mix influences the omelet’s flavor. In this IHOP copycat recipe, there are hints of sweetness, thanks to the sweet addition. 

The consistency differs from omelets made in the more traditional way, too. It can be a tad springy, but then again, if you’re having this for breakfast, you want to have a perk to your pancakes-n-eggs, right? The dish perks up even more when you add all the regular fixin’s, so after the eggy batter has been given a good beating, drop in your favorite veggies, meats, and cheeses before tossing everything in a pan to cook until the eggs are almost golden brown.

If it weren’t for all that kneading-the-dough-and-letting-it-rise business, making homemade pizza would probably be much more of a thing for many people than it is now. Depending on the recipe you follow, you’re looking at waiting anywhere from 30 minutes to 24 hours or more in just the dough-rising stage. That’s a long time to wait, especially if the craving for pizza just hit you out of the blue and you want some right now. This is a problem unless you realize that you have another option besides yeasted pizza dough: store-bought pancake mix.

Traditional breads and doughs take a long time to rise because they use yeast as a leavening agent. Commercial pancake mix doesn’t work the same way. Instead, like most quick breads, it taps baking powder for this purpose instead. This, mixed with a bit of cornmeal, creates a pizza dough that rivals the flavor of a traditional dough but takes way less time 12 to 17 minutes versus 30 or more.

From a taste and texture perspective, it won’t be exactly the same. It’ll be crispier, a little more like the crusty bread you use for your bruschetta and less like gooey pizza dough. It’s still delish — just different, and more importantly, ready to eat it right when you are.

Store-bought pancake mix and a little water are all it takes to make a great plate of deep-fried fish. The baking powder in the pancake batter fluffs up the breading, leaving you with a slightly sweet-tasting, crunchy crust on your fish. It’s just what fried fish should taste like and feel like in your mouth. It’s almost perfect.

The only possible way to make it better is to switch from water to beer. This switch turns the powdered mix into a liquid batter, just as the water would, and keeps the sweetness from the pancake mix intact. More importantly, it brings in the malty flavor of beer without the bitterness, particularly if you use a full-bodied beer instead of a light one. Aside from all of this, the bubbles in the beer offer you an additional benefit. They fluff up the batter even more. (For those who aren’t beer fans, the same fluffing effect can be achieved by using seltzer instead of beer or water.)

As for the amounts of the ingredients required, you’ll do a one-to-three-fourths ratio. Practically speaking, this means mixing one cup of pancake flour with three-quarters of a cup of water or beer. If you’d like the crust to boast some additional flavor, sprinkle in garlic or onion powder or possibly chili flakes into the batter.

Chicken Parmesan. It’s a must-have dish on most Italian restaurant menus in America. And while there is some debate about how authentically Italian it is, there are few arguments with regard to how delish it is. Its tender, succulent chicken breasts blanketed with a crisp flour and breadcrumb coating and smothered in tomato sauce and Parmesan and mozzarella cheese. Practically nothing could make this dish better, except maybe to make it faster and easier to produce, and of course, that’s where pancake mix comes in.

Most chicken parm recipes call for ingredients like flour, panko bread crumbs, and olive oil. Many of those same ingredients are included in the pancake mix. That being the case, using Bisquick or Krusteaz in the recipe saves you time, money, and resources. Aside from that, you get a touch of sweetness from batter made from pancake mix. This balances out the acidity in the tomato sauce and wraps the savory flavors from the chicken and cheeses in just the right amount of sweetness. In other words, you get the same almost-Italian goodness without the wait.