If you’ve looked up a P.F. Chang’s lettuce wraps recipe online, almost every version you’ll find includes hoisin sauce. The actual restaurant recipe doesn’t use hoisin at all. I tracked down the specific ingredients and brands P.F. Chang’s uses, and the flavor comes from an entirely different sauce than what most recipes suggest.
If you’ve tried making lettuce wraps at home and they tasted more like a stir-fry in a leaf than anything from the restaurant, the recipe you were following probably had the wrong sauce. The real flavor comes from a simple umami sauce made with oyster sauce, mushroom dark soy sauce, and Michiu cooking wine. Once you get that sauce right, the rest of the dish comes together in about two minutes.
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This recipe has several components, but each one is straightforward on its own. Think of it as an assembly project where most of the prep work happens ahead of time and the actual cooking takes about two minutes.
Lee Kum Kee Panda Brand Oyster Sauce is the specific oyster sauce P.F. Chang’s uses for the umami sauce. It comes in a green bottle and is the gluten-free version with no added MSG. If you can find Lee Kum Kee’s premium oyster sauce, the one with the mother-and-son serenely harvesting gargantuan oysters on the label, that’s what I recommend for the best flavor.
Mushroom dark soy sauce adds the dark color to the chicken and contributes extra savoriness from the mushroom seasoning. You can use regular dark soy sauce as a substitute, but the mushroom version gives you an extra layer of flavor that regular dark soy doesn’t have.
Michiu cooking wine is a Cantonese and Taiwanese style of rice wine, and it’s the specific one P.F. Chang’s uses for this recipe. You should be able to find it at most Asian grocery stores. If you can’t track it down, Shaoxing cooking wine is essentially interchangeable.
Lee Kum Kee low sodium soy sauce in the green bottle is what P.F. Chang’s uses for the special dipping sauce, but any Chinese light soy sauce will work for this recipe.
Dried shiitake mushrooms need about 20-30 minutes of soaking in hot water before you can use them. After soaking, drain, squeeze out the excess water, cut off the tough stems, and roughly chop into small pieces.
Sliced water chestnuts are what give lettuce wraps their signature crunch. You’ll find them in small cans at most grocery stores. Grab the ones labeled “sliced,” drain them, and roughly chop into small pieces. If you can’t find water chestnuts, cashews or peanuts can give you a similar texture.
Dehydrated minced garlic is the specific form P.F. Chang’s uses. You’ll find it in the spice aisle at most grocery stores. It needs 20-30 minutes of soaking in hot water and draining before you can use it. Once reconstituted, it keeps in the fridge for about a week.
Lee Kum Kee pure sesame oil is what P.F. Chang’s uses as a finishing oil for its rich, nutty flavor. It goes in at the very end of cooking, around the rim of the wok, so the heat doesn’t cook it out. Any toasted sesame oil will work here.
3 Ladies Brand rice vermicelli in the medium size is what I’ve consistently gotten the best results with for the crispy rice sticks. At most Asian grocery stores, you’ll see these labeled as rice vermicelli, rice sticks, or mei fun. They’re all variations of the same thing: thin dried rice noodles.
Ground chicken is what P.F. Chang’s uses for the meat. You should be able to find it at most grocery stores. If your store doesn’t carry it, ground turkey also works well and the flavor difference is minimal once the umami sauce is added.
For the chili oil, you’ll need Sichuan chili flakes (sometimes labeled Sichuan chili powder) and dried Chinese black beans. The chili flakes should still have visible pieces of pepper in them, not a fine powder. The black beans are salted and dried black soybeans, not the kind you’d find in a Western grocery store. They should feel slightly soft when you pinch them, and they have a funky umami flavor that’s hard to describe. They’re the main ingredient in black bean sauce.
This looks like a lot of components, but the key is that almost everything gets prepped ahead of time. The chili oil needs at least an overnight rest, so start that a day before if you want it. The chicken mixture, sauces, and lettuce can all be prepped hours or even days in advance. When it’s time to eat, the actual stir-fry takes about two minutes. If you’ve made my Chinese Takeout Fried Rice, you already know how much easier wok cooking is when everything is prepped and waiting.
1. Make the umami sauce. Add 1 tablespoon each of oyster sauce, Michiu cooking wine, and mushroom dark soy sauce to a small bowl, along with 1 tablespoon of white sugar and 1/4 teaspoon of white pepper. Whisk until the sugar dissolves completely.
2. Make the special dipping sauce. Combine 5 teaspoons of white sugar, 1/4 cup water, 3 tablespoons of light soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of unseasoned rice vinegar, 2 teaspoons of chili garlic sauce, and 2 teaspoons of Chinese hot mustard in a small pot over medium heat. Whisk until you reach a light simmer and all the sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat and let it cool completely before serving.
3. Cook the chicken mixture. Heat neutral oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add 8 ounces of ground chicken and break it up with a spatula or potato masher into very small pieces. You want tiny bits, not big chunks. About 2-3 minutes before the chicken is done, add 2 tablespoons of chopped water chestnuts and 2 tablespoons of chopped rehydrated shiitake mushrooms. Finish cooking, then let the mixture cool.
4. Prepare the lettuce. Start with whole iceberg lettuce. Remove the limp outer layers, cut the head in half, then quarter each half lengthwise. Remove the core and peel the outer layers off under cold running water, which makes separating whole leaves much easier. Soak the leaves in ice water for about 30 minutes, then dry them before serving.
5. Fry the crispy rice sticks. Heat frying oil to 425-450°F. Pull the rice noodle bunches apart and tear them into roughly 1-inch pieces. Drop a single noodle in first to test: it should puff up within 3-5 seconds. Fry in very small batches since they expand dramatically. Each batch takes just seconds. Drain on a baking sheet lined with paper towels.
6. The final stir-fry. Make sure everything is assembled and within arm’s reach before you start, because this happens fast. Heat neutral oil in a wok over medium-high heat. Toss in 1 teaspoon of rehydrated garlic and cook for 10-15 seconds to flavor the oil. Add 2 tablespoons of chopped scallion whites and the prepared chicken mixture. Cook about 30 seconds until heated through. Add 1/4 cup of the umami sauce and stir until the chicken has totally absorbed it, about 30-45 seconds. Add 1 teaspoon of sesame oil around the rim of the wok, stir it into the chicken, and kill the heat.
7. Serve. Arrange crispy rice sticks on a plate with iceberg lettuce cups and the special dipping sauce. Spoon the chicken mixture over the rice sticks. The rice sticks, chicken, and lettuce are all meant to be eaten together in each wrap.
Prep everything in advance. The chicken mixture, umami sauce, special sauce, chili oil, and hot mustard can all be made days before you serve. The final stir-fry takes about two minutes. This is what makes lettuce wraps such a great dinner party appetizer: all the real work happens before anyone arrives. If you’re planning a full P.F. Chang’s dinner, the lettuce wraps work well as a starter before P.F. Chang’s Mongolian Beef as the main course.
Use iceberg lettuce, not butter lettuce. Iceberg holds its shape when you load it up with warm chicken and sauce. Butter lettuce looks nicer, but it goes limp almost immediately once the hot filling hits it. The 30-minute ice water soak will give you much crunchier cups that hold their shape for the entire meal.
The rice sticks aren’t optional. They’re there for texture, not decoration. The crispy noodles on the bottom of each wrap create a contrast with the warm, savory chicken that makes the whole dish come together. P.F. Chang’s specifically intends for all three elements to be eaten in every bite.
Keep the frying oil hot for the rice noodles. Frying at lower temperatures causes the noodles to absorb oil and turn an unappetizing shade of brown instead of puffing up white and crispy. Use a high smoke point oil, keep the temperature between 425-450°F, and use a thermometer to monitor it.
Make the chili oil and hot mustard for the P.F. Chang’s tableside experience. At the restaurant, servers customize the special sauce tableside with chili oil or hot mustard depending on how each guest likes it. Having all three sauces available lets everyone adjust to their own heat preference.
Almost every component stores well on its own, which is part of what makes this such a practical dish for entertaining.
The cooked chicken mixture keeps in a covered container in the fridge for 2-3 days. Reheat in a pan or wok with a little neutral oil to keep it from sticking.
The umami sauce and special dipping sauce both keep in covered containers in the fridge for up to a week.
The chili oil needs to sit uncovered at room temperature for at least 8 hours (preferably overnight) after cooking so the flavors can develop. Do not cover it during this resting period, because condensation will introduce moisture and ruin the oil. After straining through cheesecloth, it keeps in a covered container at room temperature for up to a month.
The hot mustard sauce keeps covered in the fridge for up to a week. If you’re using the powder version, keep in mind that the longer it sits after reconstituting, the hotter it gets.
The crispy rice sticks store in a covered container at room temperature for 2-3 days. Do not refrigerate them or they’ll lose their crunch.
Prepped lettuce cups keep in large zip-top bags lined with paper towels in the fridge for 5-7 days.
The final stir-fry is the one component you should make fresh each time, but it only takes about two minutes.
No, and this is the most common mistake in online lettuce wraps recipes. Nearly every recipe includes hoisin sauce, but the restaurant doesn’t use it. Hoisin is sweeter and thicker, and it produces a distinctly different flavor than the combination of oyster sauce, mushroom dark soy, and Michiu cooking wine that makes up the actual umami sauce. If you use hoisin, you’ll end up with something that tastes nothing like what you get at P.F. Chang’s.
Yes. Ground turkey works well, and the flavor difference is minimal once the umami sauce is added. Just make sure you break it into very small pieces the same way you would with the chicken.
Cashews or other nuts soaked in water for about an hour can give you a similar crunch. Jicama cut into small dice is another option. The water chestnuts add a fresh, crunchy texture that’s worth including if you can find them, but the dish will still work without them.
Dehydrated garlic doesn’t burn and stick to the hot wok the way fresh garlic does, which matters when you’re cooking at high heat for just seconds at a time. It also distributes more evenly through the dish once reconstituted, so you get a more consistent garlic flavor in every bite. You soak it in hot water for 20-30 minutes before using, and a prepared batch keeps in the fridge for about a week.
They’re optional, but they’re what takes the dish from good to restaurant-accurate. The special dipping sauce works well on its own, but at the restaurant, servers customize it tableside with chili oil or hot mustard depending on each guest’s preference. The chili oil does need to rest uncovered overnight before straining, so make it the day before if you want to include it.
