THE MOST TRUSTED COPYCAT RECIPES
THE MOST TRUSTED COPYCAT RECIPES

P.F. Chang's

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    P.F. Chang's Banana Spring Rolls

    The crispy banana spring rolls are just one delicious component of this signature dessert—it also comes with a big scoop of coconut-pineapple ice cream for an extraordinary flavor combo. The perfect mash-up of the warm spiced banana and the sweet tropical ice cream is why this is the number one dessert at the restaurant, and no other copycat recipe I’ve seen provides methods for you to make both parts at home.

    The bananas are wrapped in spring roll dough and fried, but first they are rolled in sugar and seasoned with Chinese five-spice, which is a blend of anise, star anise, cinnamon, cloves, and ginger that you can find in most big food stores.

    The ice cream hack is made by combining your favorite vanilla ice cream with toasted coconut bits, coconut extract, and real pineapple in a frozen bowl. Chains such as Cold Stone Creamery mix chunks into ice cream in a similar way­­—on a frozen slab of stone—so that the ice cream doesn’t melt while mixing.

    I’m also sharing with you an easy way to make the vanilla bean sauce from scratch, because there’s nothing better than fresh when it comes to vanilla sauce. For the caramel sauce, just pick your favorite from the many delicious bottled sauces available, and try to get one that comes in a squirt bottle so your dish looks great.

    Bring it all together, and you’ll have a beautiful hack of P.F. Chang's Banana Spring Rolls, with enough for four people to share.

    Click here for more amazing copycat recipes from P.F. Chang's.

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    P.F. Chang's Chicken in Soothing Lettuce Wraps (TV)

    While seeking out information to help make the ultimate hack of these lettuce wraps for my TV show Top Secret Recipe, I talked to Eric Justice, V.P. of Culinary Development at P.F. Chang's China Bistro who informed me that the restaurant uses a jet cooker stovetop with a high flame to cook food quickly. Jet cookers that blast out powerful 185,000 BTU flames can be found in restaurant supply stores, but I created a clone recipe requiring only the heat provided by most standard home stovetops (a gas flame stove is best).

    I also found out that a well-seasoned wok is preferable for this recipe, but it is also possible to produce a close re-creation of these famous lettuce wraps even without one. If you don't have a wok, use a well-seasoned cast-iron skillet and get it nice and hot. You'll also want to track down the right ingredients: black mushroom soy sauce contributes the dark caramel color to the lettuce wrap filling, and it's best to use Lee Kum Kee brand of hoisin sauce and oyster sauce, just as the restaurant does. And finally, Shaoxing rice cooking wine, a secret I learned from Cecilia (Mama) Chiang.

    Heat up your wok (or large skillet) until it smokes, and keep the ingredients moving around in the pan so that nothing scorches. 

    I hope you'll try my P.F. Chang's lettuce wraps recipe below. It fooled all three judges in a blind taste test on my CMT show. You can find more of my P.F.Chang's copycat recipes here

    Source: Top Secret Recipes Step-by-Step by Todd Wilbur. 

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    P.F. Chang's Asian Pear Mojito

    You may be surprised not to find any pear ingredients in this drink. Rather, the flavors of lime juice, sour apple schnapps, citrus rum, and pineapple juice combine to create what P.F. Chang's bartenders claim is a refreshing pear-like flavor. Does it taste like pear to you? Regardless, the drink is excellent, especially if you dig mojitos.

    You might also like P.F. Chang's Key Lime Pie Martini copycat recipe.

    Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur.

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    P.F. Chang's Key Lime Pie Martini

    This cocktail requires a vanilla-flavored Spanish liqueur called Licor 43. When it's mixed with key lime juice, sugar, and cream in just the right proportions, you get a remarkable liquid version of key lime pie. The restaurant uses bottled key lime juice which can be found at specialty stores such as Trader Joe's, or you can just squeeze your own key limes. In a pinch, you can use regular limes. And if you can't track down Licor 43, I found that Tuaca liqueur substitutes nicely. Cheers.

    You might also like P.F. Chang's Asian Pear Mojito copycat recipe.

    Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur.

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    P.F. Chang's Crispy Honey Chicken

    I'm not sure why it took me so long to clone this dish, considering that it was my daughter's favorite thing to eat at P.F. Chang's when she was a kid. I recently tackled it and created a spot-on copy of the chain's signature sweet-and-sour honey sauce, and in the process found some new intel that improved on my earlier version of the chain's crispy chicken which I had already hacked for a different P.F. Chang's recipe. The dish came together beautifully on the plate, and it cleared the final taste test by earning an enthusiastic thumbs-up from my now-grown little girl.

    Since P.F. Chang’s sells a version of this dish in the freezer aisle of my local grocery store, I was able to improve my chicken batter formula by extracting some good info from the ingredients listed on the product box. Based on this new information, I added more cornstarch to the batter along with corn flour and egg whites for a much better, crispier coating.

    The sauce in my P.F. Chang's Crispy Honey Chicken copycat recipe is sweetened with honey and sugar, soured by wine and rice vinegar, and thickened with cornstarch and gelatin powder to create a flavorful finishing glaze that sticks to the crispy chicken like the real thing. In the restaurant, the chicken is served over a bed of fried maifun rice sticks so I’ve included prep notes for that in the Tidbits, but you may prefer to forego that step and serve the chicken over or alongside cooked white or brown rice.

    Check out more of my P.F. Chang's clone recipes here.

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  • Score: 5.00 (votes: 1)
    P.F. Chang's Kung Pao Brussels Sprouts

    Use my recipe for P.F. Chang’s incredible Kung Pao sauce and toss it with fried Brussels sprouts, peanuts, and Thai chilies and you get one of this Chinese bistro’s most popular new starters. And now, with this exclusive Top Secret Recipe, you'll have possibly one of your new favorite ways to serve Brussels sprouts. 

    You’ll get a half cup of the secret kung pao sauce—that will be enough to sauce 1 pound of Brussels sprouts in 2 separate batches.

    Oven baking, like other "hackers" recommend, will not give you the crispy texture of the original. These must be deep-fried. Even though you’ll be frying 8 ounces of Brussels sprouts at a time, you’ll want a wide-mouthed pan like a large saucepot, Dutch oven, or a deep fryer so that you don’t crowd the Brussels sprouts. Also, they will spatter for about 30 seconds when they first hit the oil, so a lid or a spatter guard will definitely come in handy.

    Once the oil is hot and the sauce is made, it takes just 5 minutes to get this delish dish on your table. Try my P.F. Chang's Kung Pao Brussels Sprouts copycat recipe below and find more P.F. Chang's recipes here.

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    P.F. Chang's Short Rib Fried Rice

    Fried rice is one of life’s simple pleasures, but add kimchi, edamame, mushrooms, tender short rib, and a wasabi-mayo drizzle, and you’ve just elevated a common dish to something truly special. That’s why P.F. Chang’s new Short Rib Fried Rice is so popular. And that’s why it needed to be cloned, ASAP.

    As with my recipe for P.F. Chang’s Fire-Braised Short Ribs, you’ll make a tasty braising liquid with Chinese cooking wine, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, oyster sauce, brown sugar, green onions, and garlic, to pour over your short ribs before they slow-cook in your oven for 3 hours.

    When you're ready to serve the dish, dice the cooled short ribs, then sear them and add them to the rice along with all the other ingredients in a hot pan or wok over high heat.

    Plate the rice, drizzle wasabi-mayo sauce over the top, sprinkle on some fresh chopped green onions, and serve up a spot-on clone of the hit dish, and possibly the best fried rice you’ve ever crafted.

    Try my P.F. Chang's Short Rib Fried Rice recipe below, and find more popular P.F. Chang's copycat recipes here

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    P.F. Chang's Fire-Braised Short Ribs

    Good short ribs should practically melt in your mouth, and my P.F. Chang’s Fire-Braised Short Ribs recipe below will produce flavor-pumped short ribs that will do just that. Just as in the restaurant, these sliced boneless short ribs sit on a bed of pineapple fried rice and come with a side of the sweet-and-savory Asian braising sauce to pour over the top. If you dig short ribs, you're going to love this dish.

    To craft the 30-dollar entrée at home (but for much less) the short ribs are braised for 3 hours in a secret liquid made with Chinese cooking wine, garlic, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, oyster sauce, and a few other key ingredients. The cooked short ribs are then chilled, sliced, and seared while being doused with the robust braising liquid for a perfect burst of flavor.

    When you arrange the sliced short ribs on the pineapple fried rice made with the Top Secret Recipe I’m including below, and sprinkle the plate with some micro sprouts, you’ll have created a dish that looks and tastes just like the fabulous original restaurant version, but at a mere fraction of the cost.

    For a great side, try this hack for P.F. Chang's Short Rib Fried Rice, and get more P.F. Chang's copycat recipes here.

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  • Score: 5.00 (votes: 1)
    P.F. Chang's Shrimp Dumplings

    Menu Description: "Served with a ginger chili pepper soy sauce. Steamed or pan-fried."

    P.F. Chang's serves scrumptious shrimp dumplings. Mounds of shrimp and other yummy ingredients are wrapped in wonton wrappers and steamed. You can also order them pan-fried, which makes the bottom of each little package a nice crispy brown. The dumplings are served with a soy-based dipping sauce that can be cloned by combining six ingredients in a saucepan. You don't have to be concerned about the size of the shrimp you buy for my P.F. Chang's Shrimp Dumplings recipe, since you're going to purée the shrimp in a food processor. Oh, by the way, you'll need a food processor to purée the shrimp.

    I've hacked a ton of dishes from P.F. Chang's. Find your favorites here.

    Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur.

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  • Score: 4.50 (votes: 2)
    P.F. Chang's Lemon Pepper Shrimp

    Menu Description: "Stir-fried with chives and bean sprouts."

    Chefs at P. F. Chang's China Bistro cook most dishes in heavy woks over extremely high heat, with flames nipping at their noses. The special stove is designed so that the tall fires work at the back end of the wok, away from the chef. The well-ventilated stove is built with a steady stream of running water nearby to thin sauces and rinse the woks after each dish is prepared. 

    Since we don't have those blaster stoves at home, I had to tweak my P.F. Chang's Lemon Pepper Shrimp recipe below for standard kitchen equipment. A gas stove and a wok will give you the best results, but this recipe can be knocked-off just as well with a large sauté pan, if that's all you've got. 

    Things are moving fast in P.F. Chang's kitchens. The chefs are well-trained, but they eyeball measurements for sauces with a ladle, so each wok-prepared dish is going to come out a little different. Considering this, I figured the best way to get a good clone would be to order the dish several times. I averaged the flavors by combining several batches of sauce into one large bowl, and then copied that. The shrimp is lightly breaded—they use potato starch, but cornstarch is a good substitute—and flash fried in oil. Strain the shrimp out of the oil, add it back to the pan with the sauce, and you've got yourself a clone.

    I've copied a ton of famous dishes from P.F. Chang's. See if I hacked your favorite here.

    Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur.

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  • Score: 5.00 (votes: 5)
    P.F. Chang's Mai Tai

    Menu Description: "It's our signature recipe."

    Bring the tropical spirit of this drink home with my P.F. Chang's Mai Tai recipe, a clone of the potent cocktail from the growing Chinese bistro chain. Mai tai is Tahitian for "out of this world," and P.F. Chang's recipe is one of the best and most authentic. The secret to a true mai tai is found in the original recipe developed by Trader Vic in 1944: almond-flavored syrup, called "orgeat." (Try my recipe here). 

    You can find the sweet stuff in stores that sell coffee flavorings (Torani is one very popular brand), or from bar supply outlets. If you can't find orgeat, there's a clone recipe included in the Tidbits below.

    Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur.

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  • Score: 4.97 (votes: 34)
    P.F. Chang's Mongolian Beef

    Menu Description: "Quickly-cooked steak with scallions and garlic."

    Beef lovers go crazy over this one at P.F. Chang's. Flank steak is cut into bite-sized chunks against the grain, then it's lightly dusted with potato starch, flash-fried in oil, and doused with an amazing sweet soy garlic sauce. The beef comes out tender as can be, and the simple sauce sings to your taste buds. 

    I designed my P.F. Chang's Mongolian Beef recipe using a wok, but if you don't have one, a sauté pan will suffice. You may need to add more oil to the pan to cover the beef in the flash-frying step. 

    P. F. Chang's secret sauce is what makes this dish so good, and it's versatile. If you don't dig beef, you can substitute with chicken. Or you can brush it on grilled salmon.

    I've cloned some of the best dishes from P.F. Chang's. Click here to see if I coped your favorite.

    Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur.

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  • Score: 4.63 (votes: 8)
    P.F. Chang's Garlic Snap Peas

    Menu Description: "Stir-fried with garlic."

    This is a standard side dish at the country's biggest Chinese dinner chain, and it'll take you just a couple of minutes to duplicate it at home. It's a great veggie side for any meal, Chinese or otherwise. It's especially good when you're pressed to slam together a last minute vegetable for tonight's dinner. 

    You can use a wok for my P.F. Chang's Garlic Snap Peas recipe, but I just use a medium-size sauté pan. The trick is to sauté the snap peas quickly over high heat, tossing often, until they're hot, yet still crispy and bright green. You get the garlic in right at the end, and then quickly pull the pan off the heat, so the garlic doesn't scorch. 

    Have you decided on an entrée? There's a lot more P.F. Chang's copycat recipes here.

    Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur.

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  • Score: 5.00 (votes: 4)
    P.F. Chang's Chang's Spare Ribs

    Menu Description: "Wok-seared with Chang's barbecue sauce."

    One of the most popular eats on P. F. Chang's appetizer menu is the Chinese spare ribs that arrive slathered with Asian-style barbecue sauce. The Asian flavor comes from the addition of sweet hoisin sauce to a fairly rudimentary barbecue sauce formula. Chang's menu says these ribs are spare ribs, although they appear to be much smaller, more like baby backs. You can certainly use either for my P.F. Chang's Spare Ribs recipe below. Just be sure to trim the ribs first, since the restaurant version is lean, clean ribs with no extra meat or fat hanging off. T

    There are several ways to cook pork ribs—P. F. Chang's boils theirs first, then fries them. After that, the ribs are tossed with the sauce in the wok and served piping hot. A serving of these ribs at the restaurant is 6 individual ribs, but since a full rack is as many as 12 ribs, this recipe will make twice what you get in a serving at the bustling bistro chain.

    Find more of your favorite P.F. Chang's dishes here.

    Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur.

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  • Score: 5.00 (votes: 3)
    P.F. Chang's Chocolate Torte

    Menu Description: "Served with vanilla bean and raspberry sauce."

    To produce these delicious flourless chocolate cakes, P. F. Chang's contracts with local bakeries in each city where the Chinese bistros are located. The restaurants aren't built for baking, and this way the chain can ensure a fresh product every day. If you're a chocolate lover, or you know one, my P.F. Chang's chocolate torte recipe is the one to make. The torte is only 5 ingredients, and the versatile sauces create the perfect gourmet touch. Any leftover torte and sauce can be frozen, and thawed when a quick dessert is required.

    Complete the P.F. Chang's experience with more of your favorite dishes here

     Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur.

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  • Score: 4.75 (votes: 4)
    P.F. Chang's Orange Peel Chicken

    Menu Description: "Tossed with orange peel and chili peppers for a spicy/citrus combination."

    Several of P.F. Chang's top-selling items are similar in preparation technique: bite-size pieces of meat are lightly breaded and wok-seared in oil, then doused with a secret sauce mixture. This dish is made the same way. The heat in the citrusy sauce comes from chili garlic sauce, which you'll find in the aisle with the Asian foods in your supermarket—the rest of the sauce ingredients are common stuff. The orange peel is julienned into thin strips before adding it to the dish. Since the flavor from the peel is so strong, we won't need to add it until the end. Cook up some white or brown rice to serve alongside your homemade P.F. Chang's Orange Peel chicken and get the chopsticks ready

    What else are you craving from P.F. Chang's? See if I hacked your favorite dish here.

    Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur.

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  • Score: 5.00 (votes: 8)
    P.F. Chang's Chang's Spicy Chicken (General Chu's)

    Menu Description: "Lightly-dusted, stir-fried in a sweet Szechwan sauce." (Our version of General Chu's.)

    The delicious sweet-and-spicy secret sauce is what makes this dish one of P. F. Chang's top picks. Once the sauce is finished, all you have to do is sauté your chicken and combine. You'll want to cook up some white or brown rice, like at the restaurant. If you can't find straight chili sauce for my P.F. Chang's spicy chicken recipe, the more common chili sauce with garlic in it will work just as well.

    Check out my other P.F. Chang's clone recipes here.

    Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur.

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  • Score: 5.00 (votes: 2)
    P.F. Chang's Oolong Marinated Sea Bass

    Menu Description: "Broiled and served with sweet ginger soy, baby corn and spinach."

    Grab a couple half-pound sea bass fillets (not too thick), whip up a simple marinade and you're on your way to cloning one of the most beloved dishes at America's fastest growing Chinese bistro chain. The marinade is made with only six ingredients so you'll have that done in no time. If you can't find oolong tea, you can use green tea. Loose tea is best, but if you can only find bags, that's okay. One teabag contains 1 teaspoon of tea, so you'll just need half of a teabag for this recipe (in fact, the recipe still works even without the tea). 

    You will need to plan ahead for my P.F. Chang's Oolong marinated sea bass recipe, since the fish must marinate for 5 to 7 hours. Once the fish is marinated, fire up the oven to bake it, then finish it off under the broiler. Sauté some spinach, garlic, and tiny corn for an optional bed that makes the dish indistinguishable from the real thing.

    You'll find a lot more P.F. Chang's copycat recipes over here.

    Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur.

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  • Score: 4.42 (votes: 12)
    P.F. Chang's Dan Dan Noodles

    Menu Description: "Scallions, garlic and chili peppers stir-fried with ground chicken nesting on hot egg noodles. Garnished with shredded cucumber and bean sprouts."

    To clone P.F. Chang's take on this traditional Chinese noodle dish you should use a wok, but I found that a large saucepan works well too. Sauté a couple of chicken breasts ahead of time and give them a chance to cool, so you can finely mince them up. Get out the cleaver, if you've got one, and chop away. Or just use a big chef's knife. You can prepare the chicken ahead of time and keep it covered in the fridge until you're ready to make the dish. Once you've got the chicken hacked up, you'll have a tasty dish on the table in less than ten minutes.

    Try my P.F. Chang's Dan Dan Noodles recipe below, and find more of my P.F. Chang's copycat recipes here.

    Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur.

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  • Score: 4.20 (votes: 5)
    P.F. Chang's Kung Pao Chicken

    Menu Description: “Quick-fired with peanuts, chili peppers and scallions. Our hot favorite.”

    My favorite chicken dish at P.F. Chang’s is also the top spicy chicken entrée at the 89-unit China bistro chain. The secret to homemade P.F. Chang's Kung Pao chicken is combining the right ingredients for the perfect marinade that will also become the sauce. Soy sauce and oyster sauce provide the saltiness. Mirin, which is sweetened sake, contributes the sweet flavor component. Chili oil gives the sauce its spicy kick, and a little rice vinegar adds the necessary acidy. 

    Sliced chicken breasts take a soak in this sauce for about an hour, then the chicken is dusted with a little cornstarch and flash-fried in peanut oil. You can use a wok for the frying stage and then rinse it out for use in the final sauté, or you can use a medium saucepan to fry the chicken and a sauté pan to finish cooking everything with the reserved sauce. Either way, you’ll get a great clone that goes perfect with a side of white or brown rice. Sure, I nailed the P.F. Chang's Kung Pao chicken copycat recipe, but I still can't pick up peanuts with chopsticks.

    Find more cool P.F.Chang's copycat recipes here.

    Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur.

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  • Score: 4.00 (votes: 1)
    P.F. Chang's Vegetarian Lettuce Wraps

    Menu Description: “Wok-seared tofu, red onions, water chestnuts with mint and lime. Served with cool lettuce cups.”

    After publishing my recipe for this chain’s Chicken in Soothing Lettuce Wraps, I began receiving requests for a clone of the vegetarian version. I was hesitant to even try the vegetarian version, thinking that it could not possibly be as delicious as the chicken version. Boy, was I wrong. The red onion, lime juice and mint set these lettuce wraps apart, and finely diced baked tofu replaces the chicken. 

    Baked tofu has a dark exterior and is much firmer than regular tofu. If you can’t find it at your supermarket, you can get it at Asian markets or in specialty stores such as Whole Foods. It comes in a variety of flavors like teriyaki and curry, but you want the unflavored stuff. For my P.F. Chang's Vegetarian Lettuce wraps recipe below, you will slice the tofu by cutting it into thin slices, cut those slices in half lengthwise, and then cutting across those julienned slices so that you end up with very small diced pieces. Crank your stove up as high as it goes for this one.

    Find more clone recipes for your favorite P.F. Chang's fare here.

    Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur.

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  • Score: 5.00 (votes: 2)
    P.F. Chang's Spicy Green Beans

    Menu Description: "Stir-fried with Sichuan preserves, fiery chili sauce and garlic."

    Here's an easy side dish that you can start a day or two before you plan to serve it. Planning ahead like this will allow the spicy Sichuan mixture some time to pickle in the salt and acids. When you're ready to cook, a high-heat sauté is put on the beans, and in less than five minutes you've got yourself an impressive, flavorful side that goes great with a slew of entrées—Asian-style or not.

    Try my P.F. Chang's Spicy Green Beans recipe below, and find more of my P.F. Chang's copycat recipes here.

    Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur.

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  • Not rated yet
    P.F. Chang's Buddha's Dream

    Even though bartenders are instructed to make this creamy drink without adding ice, go ahead and thicken yours up by adding a few cubes to the blender for more of a shake-like drink with the perfect richness level.

    Source: Top Secret Recipes: Sodas, Smoothies, Spirits & Shakes by Todd Wilbur.

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  • Not rated yet
    P.F. Chang's Heat Wave

    Go from zero to hero in seconds with this easy-to-make, and always refreshing, light rum drink.


    Source: Top Secret Recipes: Sodas, Smoothies, Spirits & Shakes by Todd Wilbur.

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I'm Todd Wilbur, Chronic Food Hacker

For over 30 years I've been deconstructing America's most iconic brand-name foods to make the best original copycat recipes for you to use at home. Welcome to my lab.

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