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!

America's Most Wanted Recipes - Cheesecake Factory Chicken Fettuccine

America's Most Wanted Recipes - Sage Richardson

I don't know about you, but one of my favorite things to order at a restaurant is chicken fettuccine. One of those restaurants being The Cheesecake Factory, I decided to attempt the copycat recipe! This dish includes "fettuccine with chicken, fresh tomato, and a garlic-parmesan sauce" (Douglas, 53). This recipe features a "lighter sauce than you'd normally find in a fettuccine dish, as well as fresh flavors from the tomato and basil" (Douglas, 53). I chose this as my third recipe because it's a step forward from the side dish I made last time. As I did for my first cooking endeavor, I wanted to make a meal that could serve my whole family.

Mincing onion

Ingredients

Chopping garlic cloves

- 8 ounces fettuccine
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
- 1/4 yellow onion, minced
- 6 medium mushrooms, sliced thin
- 1/4 cup white wine
- 1/4 cup chicken broth
- 1 tomato diced
- 6 fresh basil leaves, chopped
- 2 grilled boneless chicken breasts, cut into thin strips
- 2 tablespoons butter
- Parmesan cheese for garnish

(Douglas, 53)

I didn't have any mushrooms or fresh basil with me when I created this recipe, so I improvised by skipping the mushrooms and substituting stir-in basil paste for the fresh basil. I also added dried basil for a more pronounced flavor. Also, using "precooked, sliced, and frozen chicken breasts" will save time (Douglas, 53).

Instructions

Sauce before mixing with pasta

- Add pasta to boiling salted water. As the pasta cooks, heat the olive oil in a 12-inch saute pan.
- Add the garlic to the pan and saute for 30 seconds, careful not to overcook the garlic.
- Add the red onion and mushrooms and saute for 2 minutes.
- Add the white wine and reduce by half, then add the chicken broth and reduce by half.
- Add the tomato, basil, and grilled chicken.
- Saute for 1 minute, then add the butter to the sauce.
- Mix with cooked, drained pasta. 
- Top with grated Parmesan cheese.

(Douglas, 53)

Final product!

I really enjoyed this recipe, it was very flavorful! Comparing this recipe to the restaurant dish, the sauce wasn't as thick. I had to add some corn starch to the saute pan to thicken the sauce a little more, and I added some parmesan cheese for taste. Those two alterations helped the dish a lot, and I recommend doing them if you run into the same thickening problem I did. Other than that though, the recipes were more similar than I thought they'd be! What is your go-to menu item at a restaurant you've never been to? Thanks for reading!

Douglas, Ron. America's Most Wanted Recipes: Delicious Recipes from Your Family's Favorite Restaurants. 1st ed. New York N.Y.: Atria Paperback, 2009. Print.

America's Most Wanted Recipes - Olive Garden Bread Sticks

America's Most Wanted Recipes - Sage Richardson

The amount of times I've heard people say, "Man, I'm craving those Olive Garden bread sticks!" is immeasurable. I myself had never tried them until recently, and for the first time ever, I can agree with the statement above! So I grabbed my handy dandy recipe book, and voilà! There was the copycat recipe, renown for being "fast, simple, and virtually indistinguishable from the original" (Douglas, xi). Now, I'm here to share it with you!

Chopped butter

Ingredients (bread sticks)

- 1 loaf frozen bread dough
- Cooking spray
- Garlic powder (for dusting)
- Dried oregano (for sprinkling)

(Douglas, 136)

While the recipe calls for store-bought frozen bread dough, I decided to challenge myself and create the bread dough myself. Therefore I substituted the store-bought bread dough with homemade bread dough, according to my great grandma Lucille's recipe.

Mixing in butter (as for pie crust)

Ingredients (bread dough)

- 3 c. flour
- 1/3 c. sugar
- 1/2 lb. butter
- 1/4 c. warm water
- 1 package yeast
- 3/4 c. milk
- 2 eggs slightly beaten
- 1 additional cup flour

Yeast before

Instructions (bread dough)

- Mix dry ingredients, excepting the additional cup of flour.
- Add yeast to water, let sit until it's risen.
- Cut up butter, put in as you would for pie crust.
- Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients.
- Mix in mixer until a dough forms.
- Add additional cup flour, mix until dough ball forms.
- Refrigerate overnight.
- Cut dough ball into 4 equal parts.
- Cut each of those into 8 equal parts, making each chunk of dough look like a slice of pie.
-  Roll each piece from the wide end forward, forming a crescent      shape.

Yeast after

- Let stand for 2-3 hours to rise at room temperature.

(Lucille Bennett)

After I made the bread dough, I continued with the bread stick recipe.


Instructions (bread sticks)

- Heat oven to 375 degrees.
- Hold can of cooking spray about 8 inches from rolls and lightly spray the top of each one.
- Dust evenly with garlic powder.

- Sprinkle evenly with oregano.

Before bread stick topping

- Place in oven, cook for 10-15 minutes

Rolls rising

(Douglas, 136)

All in all, this variation of Olive Garden bread sticks was absolutely delicious! I served it with "alfredo and marinara dipping sauce," as recommended by the author (Douglas, 136). In comparison to the real thing, the topping wasn't as salty as the restaurant kind. But I do like the roll rather than the bread stick, because the roll is fluffier and a bit sweeter. Despite the slight differences, this recipe definitely conquered my craving! Have you had any persistent cravings lately? If so, what for? Thanks for reading, I hope you can find this recipe helpful!

Final product!

Douglas, Ron. America's Most Wanted Recipes: Delicious Recipes from Your Family's Favorite Restaurants. 1st ed. New York N.Y.: Atria Paperback, 2009. Print.

America's Most Wanted Recipes - Macaroni & Cheese

America's Most Wanted Recipes - Sage Richardson

Everyone gets a craving once in a while, whether it's for KFC's famous fried chicken, Dairy Queen's soft serve ice cream, or Starbucks' strawberry-acai refresher. Our first thought would be to go to the restaurant and order it - but did you ever consider trying to make it yourself? There are thousands of other people out there with the same cravings as you, and they're desperately trying to clone these recipes on a daily basis. "These people range from everyday hobbyists to professional chefs," and by working together they've come very close to replicating these famous restaurant dishes (Douglas, xii). In America's Most Wanted Recipes, chef Ron Douglas tested and tweaked hundreds recipes to taste just like the originals, with the help of cooking fanatics across the US. 

Today I tried the copycat recipe of Boston Market's macaroni and cheese. I chose this recipe because I recently ate there with my family, and I ordered this dish. I figured that since I ate the original recipe recently, I'd be able to compare it with this recipe easily.

Ingredients

- 1 tablespoon minced onion
- 4 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 cups milk

Ingredients (feat. my brother)

- 4 ounces American cheese, cubed
- 1/4 cup cubed Cheddar cheese
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Pinch of pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
- 4 ounces elbow pasta, cooked al dente

(Douglas, 36)








Instructions

Cubed Cheeses & Sauce

1. Sauté the onion in the butter until translucent.
2. Stir in the flour and cook for two minutes.
3. Slowly stir in the milk.
4. Stir in the cheesed, salt, pepper, and mustard.
5. Continue to stir over medium heat until thickened.
6. Stir in prepared macaroni
(Optional)
7. Preheat oven to 400°F
8. Lightly butter casserole dish and pour the pasta mixture into the dish.
9. Bake for 20 minutes

(Douglas, 36)

I didn't do the optional steps, because my family doesn't like casserole-style mac and cheese.

Finished Mac & Cheese

In the end, the macaroni and cheese turned out very well, and tasted just like the one I got at Boston Market! The only difference was that the sauce I made was more rich than the one at the restaurant, but I can fix that next time by adding less flour. I was honestly very surprised, because I didn't expect the copycat recipe to be so similar to the original dish. If you were to choose a dish from your favorite restaurant to copy, what would it be? 

Douglas, Ron. America's Most Wanted Recipes: Delicious Recipes from Your Family's Favorite Restaurants. 1st ed. New York N.Y.: Atria Paperback, 2009. Print.