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

My personal favorite chicken dish at P.F. Chang’s is also the top spicy chicken entrée at the 89-unit China bistro chain. The secret for a great clone is in 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 acid. 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 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. I admit, figuring out this clone took some time, but it was still a lot easier than trying to pick up peanuts with chopsticks. Still working on that.