This Saturday, we tried our hand at chicken lettuce wraps — a homemade version of P.F. Chang’s favorite! Somewhere along the line, someone in Instagram-land decided to make Saturday into Caturday 😹 And while we love our cats, I can’t see making a post about them every single weekend. They pretty much do the same thing daily — judge us.
P.F. Chang’s Chicken Lettuce Wraps Recipe
We were craving a restaurant favorite but only had a tiny bus kitchen — time to get creative!
Ingredients:
- 1 lb ground chicken
- 1 head iceberg lettuce (or romaine for sturdier wraps)
- 2 green onions, chopped
- 1/2 cup water chestnuts, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 1 tbsp hoisin sauce
- 1 tsp sesame oil
Instructions:
- Mix your sauces first so the flavors meld — I always do this ahead of cooking!
- Sauté garlic, ginger, and green onions in a bit of sesame oil, then add the ground chicken.
- Once the chicken is cooked through, stir in water chestnuts and your sauce mixture.
- Serve hot in lettuce cups. We paired ours with white rice cooked in the InstantPot (see InstantPot basics).
- Pro tip: iceberg lettuce tears easily — next time we’ll try romaine for sturdier wraps!
CopyCaturday: Chicken Lettuce Wraps
So I decided to do a play on that and start CopyCaturday. Every Saturday, I’m finding a copycat recipe to try and see which ones come closest (or even improve on!) the originals. We don’t eat much fast food these days, but there’s something fun about recreating those comfort foods from scratch — especially in a tiny bus kitchen.
This week, Zach suggested P.F. Chang’s Chicken Lettuce Wraps! Since I hadn’t had them before, I had to rely on him for details of the restaurant version. I found a few recipes and merged them based on what Zach said worked and what didn’t.
I loved this recipe since the only things I had to buy were lettuce and ground chicken! Frozen green onions and water chestnuts worked just fine. Always prep your spices and sauces ahead — makes cooking so much easier!
Were the Chicken Lettuce Wraps a Complete Copycat?
Zach said YES! It was a near-perfect match — flavorful and fun to make 😋
Will We Make These Again?
Absolutely. They’re now part of our “travel day recovery” menu — easy, comforting, and minimal cleanup. Next time, sturdier lettuce and fresh green onions for the win!
Caturday Recipes Aplenty!
If you’re on the hunt for more weekend kitchen experiments, here are a few of my favorite copycat resources:
- Top Secret Recipes — tons of paid restaurant copycats (or get 8 free a month with a membership).
- CopyKat.com — hundreds of free recipes, plus cookbooks available on Amazon.
Some of my favorite cookbooks to explore these recipes:
Want to see what we’ll CopyCaturday next? Check out the rest of our cozy kitchen experiments in the CopyCaturday Series.