The Worst Chicken Dish At PF Chang's, According To 19% Of People
When Jennifer 8. Lee explained the fundamental difference between Chinese food and its American adaptation to First We Feast, she said, "Generally [food at American Chinese restaurants] is more sweet. Sweet, fried, and chicken." And looking at a Chinese takeout menu, sweet fried chicken dominates.
So, Mashed decided to ask its American audience which of P.F. Chang's chicken dishes disagreed with them the most. Of the 612 American respondents, only 14.54% considered the Crispy Honey Chicken to be the worst. After that, Sweet & Sour Chicken came in with 15.52%, sesame chicken with 16.18%, and Orange Chicken with 16.50%.
The second worst chicken dish offered by P.F. Chang's is, apparently, Chang's Spicy Chicken, which 18.14% of voters spurned. So, in effect, the actual amount of dislike barely varied throughout the survey. A tad more respondents didn't care for Chang's Spicy Chicken compared to Crispy Honey Chicken. Perhaps it's because as a single casual dining chain, the food comes at a pretty consistent quality, leaving the rest to the preference of the customers.
Just as interestingly, the "worst" chicken meal is still barely worse than the rest, with only 19.12% of the votes ranking it as the worst dish.
The Kung Pao chicken isn't popular
The chicken dish to receive the most hate was P.F. Chang's Kung Pao chicken. As the percentages were so close, it's difficult to say why the results rewarded this particular dish. According to the brand's menu, its Kung Pao chicken features bell peppers, celery, peanuts, scallions, and chicken stir-fried with Kung Pao sauce.
However, if the close loss still turns you off of P.F. Chang's Kung Pao chicken, you might be better off making your own. The recipe given by China Sichuan Food is easy to follow and only takes 20 minutes total. This blog's recipe calls for a marinade of soy sauce, cooking wine, cornstarch, and salt. The chicken is seasoned with Sichuan peppercorn, dried chili peppers, ginger, garlic, and scallions.
For a more American-Chinese style of Kung Pao chicken (like one you'd find at P.F. Chang's), Serious Eats suggests swapping in bell peppers for the dried chilies.