America's Most Wanted Recipes - P.F. Chang's Chicken-Lettuce Wraps

America's Most Wanted Recipes - Sage Richardson

For my fourth cooking project, I decided to attempt a recipe by P.F. Chang himself! While I am yet to try a dish from P.F. Chang, my parents have. Therefore, they will be the ones comparing this copycat recipe to the real dish. Today I'll be making chicken-lettuce wraps, which is definitely a more complex recipe compared to the ones I've done previously. This recipe consists of, "quality cooked, spiced chicken with cool lettuce leaves for wrapping" (Douglas, 172). P.F. Chang's recipes "attain harmony of taste, texture, color, and aroma by balancing the Chinese principles of fan and t'sai" (Douglas, 173). I know it will be difficult for me to achieve this harmony, especially since I'm not very experienced in cooking yet. But that's exactly why this recipe will be a good challenge, and perfect for my blog! So I'll try my best, and see how this turns out!

Marinade & Cooking Sauce

Ingredients

Cooking Sauce
- 4 teaspoons hoisin sauce
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon dry sherry
- 2 teaspoons oyster sauce
- 2 teaspoons water
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 2 teaspoons corn starch

Chicken Marinade

Prepping Ingredients

- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 2 teaspoons dry sherry
- 2 teaspoons water
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce

- 1 1/2 lbs.boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into think strips
- 5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon peanut or vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup minced mushrooms
- 1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 small dried chiles
- 2 green onions, minced
- 1 cup minced bamboo shoots

Stir-fry

- 1 cup minced water chestnuts
- 1 1/2 cup cooked cellophane noodles
- 1 head iceberg or Bibb lettuce, separated into leaves (for wrapping)
(Douglas, 172)

Instructions

- Mix ingredients for cooking sauce in a bowl, set aside.
 - Combine 1 teaspoon cornstarch, sherry, water, soy sauce, and chicken. Stir to coat chicken thoroughly. Stir in 1 tsp. peanut/vegetable oil and let sit 15 minutes to marinate.
- In a wok heated over medium-high heat, add 3 tablespoons of the oil, then add the chicken and stir-fry for 3-4 minutes. Remove from the pan and set aside.
- Add 2 tablespoons oil to the pan, then add ginger, garlic, chiles, and green onions. Stir-fry for 1 minute.
- Add bamboo shoots, mushrooms, and water chestnuts; stir-fry for additional 2 minutes.
- Return chicken to pan, and add cooking sauce. Cook until thickened and hot.
- Cover bottom of serving dish with cooked cellophane noodles, pour chicken mixture on top of noodles. Serve with lettuce leaves for wrapping.
(Douglas, 172-173)

Finished Product!

All in all, this recipe was delicious! I had to substitute the chicken for ground turkey (it was on sale), but that didn't affect anything too much. My parents said that the flavor was the same, but not as strong as the dish at the actual P.F. Chang restaurant. I think that this might be because of the ground turkey, since it was more absorbent of the sauce flavors. Next time I'll definitely use the chicken the recipe calls for. This dish was tons of fun to eat, the lettuce wraps were really cool!

Like I predicted, this recipe was very difficult. There was a lot to keep track of, which required a lot of multitasking. I should have prepped all the ingredients before marinating the chicken, because the 15 minute marinating time was definitely not enough time for me to finish the preparations. I recommend this recipe to anyone looking for a cooking challenge! What is the most difficult recipe you've ever tried? How did it turn out? Thanks for reading, I hope you can try and enjoy this recipe sometime!