A lot of people are out there searching for copycat recipes, and this PF Chang’s lettuce wrap recipe is one of the best out there. I know because I’ve eaten it many, many times, both in the restaurant and here at home, so I’ve had a lot of time to refine it and make it the best it can be, using fresh chicken and natural ingredients. This easy copycat recipe quickly became a favorite at our house, and I think it will be on constant rotation at your dinner table as well.
Americans love to eat out, and it’s pretty clear that this habit is tough to let go of when the economy tumbles, taking your dining-out budget along with it. So why not try to make your favorite restaurants dishes at home? Using copycat recipes, you’ll even be able to change them up a bit, using fresher, healthier ingredients than you’d likely find at a chain restaurant.
There are lots of great sites out there that specialize in copycat recipes, one of the best being Copykat.com. On this robust cooking blog, Stephanie Manley (the copycat herself) masterfully recreates some of America’s favorite dishes at home, for much cheaper (and much healthier!) than you’d find at your local TGI Friday’s, Macaroni Grill, or Outback Steakhouse. So, give copycat recipes a try and see what you think. And then leave a comment to let me know about your favorite copycat recipe, either that you’ve found or created yourself.
Copycat Recipe: PF Chang’s Lettuce Wrap Recipe
Recipe for dipping and pouring sauce
- 4 tablespoons sugar or agave nectar
- 1/2 cup hot water
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce or gluten free tamari
- 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons ketchup or canned tomato sauce
- 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1/4 teaspoon dark sesame oil
Recipe for stir-fry sauce
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce or gluten free tamari
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar (not packed tightly)
- 1/2 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
Recipe for stir-fried chicken
- 1 teaspoon hot water
- 1 tablespoon nice dijon mustard (use the good stuff, it will make a difference)
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons dark sesame oil
- 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into half-inch cubes”
- 1 – 8oz can sliced water chestnuts, drained and minced
- 1/2 cup minced mushrooms (minced to the same size as the water chestnuts)
- 1/2 yellow onion, minced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 6 large leaves of iceberg lettuce
Method for Pouring Sauce Recipe
- In a large bowl, dissolve sugar in 1/2 cup hot water. Blend in soy sauce or tamari, rice wine vinegar, ketchup, lemon juice and dark sesame oil. Mix well and set aside in the refrigerator until the rest of the dish is ready.
Method for Stir-Fry Sauce Recipe
- In a small bowl, combine soy sauce or tamari, brown sugar, and rice vinegar. Mix well and set aside.
Method for Stir-Fried Chicken Recipe
- In a small bowl, combine 1 teaspoon hot water, dijon mustard and minced garlic and set this aside.
- In a wok or large frying pan over high heat, combine olive oil and sesame oil. Heat until it shimmers, about one minute. Add chicken chunks and stir fry until entirely cooked through, about five minutes. Remove from the chicken pan and allow to cool, but reserve the oil in the wok or pan, keeping it hot over a low flame.
- Take the pan or wok that you cooked the chicken in (with the still warming oil) and turn it up to medium-high heat. Add another tablespoon of olive oil to the pan, wait one minute, and then add the garlic, onions, water chestnuts, mushrooms, cooked chicken, and the stir-fry sauce. Cook everything, stirring constantly, until the mushrooms have cooked through and are tender, about four minutes. Remove from pan and place in a serving dish.
- Add mustard/garlic mixture that you set aside to the pouring sauce, 1/2 a teaspoon at time to taste.
- Serve the entire lettuce wrap recipe in a nice, big serving tray, complete with stir-fry and iceberg lettuce leaves, and pouring sauce in small bowls. Wrap the stir-fry in lettuce leaves, then top with pouring sauce.
I challenge you to try this copycat recipe against the lettuce wrap recipe at PF Chang’s. Let me know what you think!
If you liked this PF Chang’s lettuce wrap recipe, here are some other posts you might like:
- Cooking in Chiang Mai + Pad Thai Recipe
- Stuffed Cabbage Rolls Recipe
- The Asian Barbecue Book, and Curried Potato Wedges
- How to Roast a Chicken
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PF Changs is upscale fast food. It has no provenance nor history.
Why copy recipes that have been created in a corporate kitchen setting, rather than recipes passed down through generations.
There really are better places to eat than corporate fast food, aren’t there?
IMHO
I agree, BUT – I find that snubbing a dish just because of its origin is a little obtuse. Why ignore the potential in a recipe that can be taken home, made your own, and added to your own personal repertoire? It’s not like PF Chang’s invented lettuce wraps. They just made one recipe that I particularly like, giving it a spin I hadn’t thought of.
Stephanie: please accept my heavy handed comment. It wasn’t my intention to speak in the manner that my words pronounced.
My apologies. I’m a restaurant reviewer for NJ Monthly, Edible Jersey and the Morris Cty., NJ Daily Record newspaper. Often, I get wrapped up in the fine dining and not so fine dining…and fast food is another language entirely. I think my difficulty lay in the PF Chang name, not the dish. I often seek out a very similar preparation for a local Thai restaurant- please accept my apology.
No worries. In fact, I welcome the discussion because honestly, it’s not something I’d given much thought to. You definitely made me think about the origin of recipes and the merits thereof, so thanks.
If I had read the copy more closely, I would have seen that my friend from the real time internet Stephanie Manley penned this recipe.
Please accept my heartfelt apology Stephanie for my boorish behavior. Friends don’t do this. My blunder. wb
Ok, I get snubbing MacDonalds, and Twinkies…but stuff that tastes great to you, and you can recreate, more healthfully, and no doubt less expensively, at home? That is a no brainer. Forget provenance; it’s all about palate. And joy. (My cooking joy of the moment is the blog round up SummerFest–check it out over at The Sister Project.)
I’d have to agree with this – it’s all about palate, regardless of origin. Especially when it can be improved upon!
I came here via Paige and her RT on Twitter, and I agree with the sentiment of not worrying about where the recipe came from in terms of recreating it in a tasty healthy way at home.
I was actually thinking about this question of restaurant recipes from a different perspective though because of a personal project, and I’ve found that it’s hard to try to follow actual recipes from restaurants, good recipes from places that use quality local ingredients because of quantities and such. You’d think it would be fairly easy for an experienced cook home cook to just adapt and cut down recipes, but I’ve been surprised to find that it’s harder than it seems.
I agree. Snubbing a recipe just because it came from a chain restaurant is folly. Even chains come up with great ideas. A personal favorite of mine is one I learned when I worked at Lyon’s restaurant. It’s a recipe I still make today, and one I need to post on my blog.
I love it that much. Who cares where it came from?
You worked at Lyon’s? I worked at their corporate office like fifteen years ago, doing marketing stuff. How funny! Would love to see this recipe when you post it.
Whether or not this recipe is based on one from a fast-food type of restaurant, it tastes darn good. While I appreciate recipes that have a story and are passed down from generation to generation, I believe that we can make our own stories by sharing good food with the people we love.
True. And who’s to say that these restaurant recipes aren’t someone else’s old family dish, redone on a mass scale?
Your lettuce wraps look delicious! This is a great dish, any time of year. (And who cares who created the recipe; not me!)
Thanks, Kalyn! Besides the flavor, I think they’re so good because they let you eat with your hands, which is always fun and takes me back when finger foods were the best thing ever.
I know a lot of people find these wraps incredibly addicting. Whenever we were ordering takeout for my office, people would fight over them!
I am excited to try these out sometime (just have to wrangle together all the sauces – moving west made me ditch many pantry items). But I am wondering about turning them vegetarian.
Do you think I can just drop the chicken, or would I need to to sub in tofu to give them some heft? It sounds like most of the other items in the filling would probably cook down.
I think subbing tofu or some other seitan-based chicken analogue would be great. Though, if you’re gluten free, seitan would be out since it’s made with vital wheat gluten. If this isn’t an issue for you, then go for it!
I have made them with tofu. They were very good.The chicken-based recipe I copy-kat’ed had oyster sauce and fish sauce in it too – this was where my search for gf and vegetarian oyster sauce started. I might have to try your recipe now since it doesn’t have either of those in it. I subbed in more hoisin and gf soy sauce instead.
http://beyondriceandtofu.com/2010/06/05/p-f-changs-lettuce-wraps-vegetarian/
This is a dish that I would love to make. I have never been to P.F.Chang, but I am sure this bright and appetizing dish will be my favorite.
My mom actually made this over the weekend for us. I’m not sure what recipe she used or where she got it. It was good. I’m like you – I don’t care what restaurant it’s from or who came up with it if it tastes good!
I’ve had versions of this recipe from a variety of different locales–including a very local Malaysian restaurant in our town (not to be confused with PFC’s). At home, we’ve tried it with pork and it was tasty.
Will try this. In France, I really liked the wraps at the Vietnamese restaurants with mint leaves inside. Ever thought of adding mint?
Any time there’s a healthy version of a food that was (formerly) on my list of no-no’s, I’m game. Thanks for posting this. Just printed it out and am looking forward to making it!
I can’t weigh in on the back and forth BUT I would like to try this recipe, Stephanie!
If I go to P.F. Chang’s, it’s usually for the lettuce wraps! Love ‘em, though as a veggie I go for the tofu version. Looking forward to seeing how this recipe adapts to tofu. Thanks.
I love the flavor of these wraps and will try this at home. Thanks for interpreting the recipe!
First, Yum! We just had these wraps for dinner and I had to stop myself and walk away because I knew I was full but I really didn’t want to stop… it tastes so good.
A question for you… when you cook the chicken, do you get a bunch of liquid from the chicken? And if so, do you drain it or keep it when you add the chicken back? I kept it tonight but it made things really juicy
Love putting a spin on different finds from places I visit. I’ll definitely try this one. Thanks Stephanie!
I am going to have to try out your recipe. Lately I have been swapping out to organic raised chicken, and have a bottle of agave nector I have trying to use. Healthful choices are always good
Stephanie