P.F. Chang's Fried Rice Secrets Revealed

Today I'll show you the correct recipe for P.F. Chang's signature fried rice. We'll go over the exact ingredients and techniques they use at the restaurant, and we'll discuss how to make every possible variation of fried rice on P.F. Chang's menu. Chicken, beef, pork, shrimp, and even their vegetarian version. To get started, we'll first need to address the type of rice P.F. Chang's uses for their fried rice. So, just judging by looks at the restaurant, it appears to be a long grain white rice. I've spoken with several people at various locations and gotten conflicting answers on the exact brand. So, I have to assume each restaurant gets different brands depending on the availability and their suppliers. The only one mentioned multiple times was Riceland brand long grain white rice. And Riceland is widely available, so this is what I recommend. However, any American long grain white rice should work fine for this recipe. To prepare the rice, you'll start by washing it under several changes of water until it runs clear. This will help remove the surface starch that causes rice to clump together and become sticky. And P.F. Chang's uses large rice cookers to prepare their rice. Once you've dialed in your ratio of water to rice, you can use rice directly from the rice cooker to make fried rice. Most restaurants use fresh rice for fried rice. You'll just want to let it cool down to room temperature before using it because the steam from hot rice can introduce moisture that will make your rice mushy. But if you're making it on the stovetop via the absorption method, you'll need to experiment with the ratio of water to rice until you find something that works for you. It's typically around 1 to 1.5 parts water to 1 part rice. And with rice cooked on the stovetop, it's almost always best to spread it out on a baking sheet to let it cool down completely and then lightly cover it and store it in fridge overnight to dehydrate a little more. For proteins, P.F. Chang's gives you 4 options. Chicken, beef, pork, and shrimp. And I'll break down how to deal with each one separately. But before we get to that, let me show you how to make the alkaline soy marinade P.F. Chang's uses to ensure they have the most tender and flavorful meat imaginable. So we'll start by adding 1 cup of water to a large bowl. And to that, add half a teaspoon of baking soda and whisk to dissolve. This will raise the pH of the water to make it more alkaline. What this does is make it harder for the protein bands in the meat to tighten during the high heat of wok cooking or deep frying. This is what most Chinese restaurants use to give their proteins that fork tender texture that is often associated with takeout style stir fry meat. If you've ever added baking soda directly to a protein and felt like it gave it an off flavor, using a brine like this is a way to get all the tenderizing effects of baking soda without imparting such flavors. Then add 1 third cup of soy sauce to the alkaline water and whisk it in. And P.F. Chang's currently uses Lee Kum Kee low sodium soy sauce, the one in the green bottle. And you can store the alkaline soy marinade in a covered container in the fridge indefinitely. Now for the first protein, we'll start by taking a boneless, skinless chicken breast and removing the tenderloin. Then cut the breast lengthwise into about 1 inch strips. Now take each of these strips and make 1 eighth inch cuts across the grain. And the finished slices should look something like this. Then you'll place the chicken slices into the alkaline soy marinade for at least 2 hours or up to 24 hours. At the restaurant, they brine all their meats for 24 hours. And just make sure to refrigerate it the entire time it's marinating. For the beef, P.F. Chang's uses flank steak. Because of its pronounced beefy flavor, this is arguably the most popular choice for stir fry dishes in Chinese restaurants. One of the biggest problems home cooks face when dealing with flank steak is how to properly prepare it for stir fry. Because of the long muscle fibers in this particular cut, if you slice it incorrectly, it can become inedibly chewy. To start, what you want to do is identify the fibers that run along the steak. We'll first make about 1 inch cuts with the grain to get our meat into manageable pieces. Then take each of these sections and turn them perpendicular to you. Take your knife, tilt it at about a 30 to 40 degree angle, and cut them into about 1 eighth inch slices. If you're having problems slicing the beef thinly enough, toss it in the freezer for about 20 to 30 minutes and this will firm it up, making it much easier to cut. And this is what the beef slices should look like if you've done it correctly. Then place the beef slices in the soy marinade for at least 2 hours and up to 24 hours. And make sure to refrigerate it the entire time. For the pork, P.F. Chang's uses either pork loin or pork sirloin. But the problem with these two cuts for home cooks is that you'll often have to buy a large portion. So what I like to get is these thinly sliced center cut pork chops, which are from the same part of the pig as the pork loin, and are generally only a few bucks, because you can buy a much smaller portion. No matter what cut you grab, you'll follow the same process as the chicken and beef. Cut your pork into strips about 1 inch wide, then cut the strips into about 1 eighth inch slices. Add the sliced pork to the marinade for at least 2 hours and up to 24 hours. And make sure to refrigerate it the entire time. To cook the meat, P.F. Chang's deep fries their proteins before adding them to the fried rice. So all the meats are cooked before adding them to the rice. So we'll start by heating some neutral oil to 350 degrees. Then remove the protein, whichever one you're using, from the alkaline soy marinade and pat it dry with paper towels. Now, working in small batches, add the marinated meat to the oil and make sure to agitate it so it doesn't clump together. And depending on how much you're deep frying, it generally takes about 2 minutes to finish the cooking. You'll know it's ready when you see the edges start to brown. Then remove the meat to a baking sheet lined with paper towels to drain. Once it's cooled off, you can store the prepared proteins in the fridge for about 2-3 days. For the shrimp, P.F. Chang's uses medium size, 41-50 count, frozen, peeled and deveined shrimp. You should be able to find these in most grocery stores in the seafood freezer section. To prepare the shrimp, all you'll do is add them to a large bowl and pour over the alkaline soy marinade. It should take about half an hour for the shrimp to thaw. Once they're thawed, remove the shrimp from the marinade and pat them dry with paper towels. To cook the shrimp, bring some water in a large pot up to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer and add them to the water. Cook for about 1-2 minutes or until the shrimp are done and remove them to a baking sheet lined with paper towels and let them cool off completely. Once cooled, the cooked shrimp can be stored in a covered container in the fridge for about 2-3 days. Now, the final piece of the puzzle we'll need is P.F. Chang's dark sauce. This is the sort of base sauce they use at the restaurants to make the sauces for about half of their dishes. But before we get started, let me give you a quick rundown of a few of the specialty ingredients we'll need. To color the sauce, P.F. Chang's uses Lee Kum Kee's mushroom flavored dark soy sauce. If you're not familiar with dark soy sauce, it's typically added to dishes more for color and less for flavor. But mushroom soy sauce has the added benefit of mushroom seasoning for extra savoriness. And you should be able to find some version of a mushroom soy sauce at most Asian grocery stores. For the oyster sauce, P.F. Chang's uses Lee Kum Kee Panda Brand Oyster flavored sauce in the green bottle. And this is the gluten-free version with no added MSG. All of Lee Kum Kee's oyster sauces are legit, but if you're able to find their premium oyster sauce, the one with the bucolic scene of a mother and son harvesting gigantic oysters on the label, this is the one I recommend. For the base of the sauce, P.F. Chang's uses a chicken broth made from Miner's Original Chicken Base. And you should be able to find this on Amazon. I'll include a link in the video description. But if you don't want to spring for this exact brand, both Knorr and Lee Kum Kee Asian Style Chicken Bouillon Powder will also work fine for this recipe. And finally, for the rice wine, P.F. Chang's uses a style called Michu. This is a very popular choice for cooking wine in many Cantonese and Taiwanese kitchens. It's very similar to the more popular Shaoxing wine, and while there are some subtle differences flavor-wise, they are essentially interchangeable. You should be able to find Michu at most Asian grocery stores, and it is available on Amazon, but if you're not able to locate it, just grab a bottle of Shaoxing. Now, to make the dark sauce, let's start by adding ¼ cup of the prepared chicken broth to a small pot, along with ¼ cup of white granulated sugar. Bring it up to a simmer over medium heat, and whisk just until the sugar has dissolved. Then kill the heat and add ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of mushroom soy sauce for color, 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce, and 2 tablespoons of Michu or Shaoxing rice cooking wine. Give it a whisk until everything is incorporated, and this is the actual recipe for P.F. Chang's dark sauce. After it's cooled down, you can store the sauce in a covered container in the fridge for about a month. When you're ready to cook the fried rice, it's essential to have everything prepared and ready to go. We'll go over all the ingredients you'll need while we're making the rice, but because this is a stir-fry dish, everything is cooked within just a couple of minutes, so you'll need to have all the components prepared beforehand. To get started, let's heat some neutral oil in a wok over medium-high heat. Once the oil is hot, crack in one large egg and let the whites of the egg set around the edges. Stir the egg until it's almost done, and then add 6 ounces of the protein of your choice. If you're doing a combination fried rice with all the meats, add 2 ½ ounces of each kind. Give it a stir until the meats are up to temp, and then toss in 16 ounces of cooked rice. Press the rice down with the back of your spatula and break up any large chunks of rice while mixing in the eggs and proteins. Then toss in ½ cup of bean sprouts, ½ cup of julienne carrots, and ⅓ cup of sliced green onions. And most grocery stores will have bags of julienne carrots if you don't feel like cutting them yourself. Stir the veggies into the rice until they've started to soften, and then add ¼ teaspoon of white pepper to the wok. Stir it into the rice until it's mixed in, and then pour ¼ cup of the dark sauce around the edges of the wok. This will help caramelize the sauce somewhat and give the rice a nice toasty flavor. Work the sauce into the rice until you see no white chunks left, and turn off the heat. Give the rice a taste and adjust the final seasoning with extra salt. I typically use about a teaspoon. And this is it. This is the actual recipe for P.F. Chang's fried rice. Now very quickly before our taste test, I want to break down how to make their vegetarian option. It's essentially the same process, but instead of meat, we'll add shiitake mushrooms, broccoli, and snap peas. And for the dark sauce, you'll just use a vegetarian bouillon base and a vegetarian oyster sauce. You can typically find vegetarian oyster sauces made from mushrooms at most Asian grocery stores. To prepare the vegetables, let's start by pouring boiling water over some dried shiitake mushrooms and letting them steep for about 30 minutes. Then drain the mushrooms and slice them into small pieces, like this. For the snap peas, you'll just pinch the end like this to remove the thread, then toss them into a pot of boiling water Then drain the veggies and set them aside. To cook the rice, start by heating some oil in a wok over medium-high heat. Once the oil is hot, add 16 ounces of cooked rice, half a cup of bean sprouts, half a cup of julienne carrots, and one third cup of green onions. Stir the rice, breaking up any large chunks you see, until the rice and vegetables are evenly mixed. Then toss in the mushrooms, the broccoli, and the snap peas, and stir them into the rice. Add a quarter teaspoon of white pepper, and stir it into the rice until it's mixed in well. Then pour in a quarter cup of the vegetarian dark sauce around the edges of the rice. Stir in the sauce until you no longer see any white chunks, then kill the heat and adjust the final seasoning with extra salt. And this is the vegetarian option for PF Chang's fried rice. Alright, back to the taste test. This is a perfect addition to the PF Chang's dishes we've made on this channel, and you should be able to make it at home for much cheaper than what you'd pay at the restaurant. And if you enjoyed this video, make sure to check out PF Chang's spicy chicken here. Thanks for watching. See you next time.