Crispy Tempura Green Bean Stir Fry

hello hi everyone! Wesley here. Today we’re diving back into our series dedicated to Chinese American food hacks with a shot at another item from the PF Chang’s menu, which is their iconic “Crispy Green Bean” appetizer. For those following along in this series, we have been dissecting classic items from Americanized Chinese cuisine, then reassembling them through the lens of more traditional Chinese wok cooking. In our case today, the PF Chang’s crispy green bean is probably one of their most popular small bite items (so popular in fact, that a frozen version is sold in grocery stores now).

Their crispy green bean is essentially a tempura battered and deep fried green bean, which is then served with a side of what they call their “signature” dipping sauce. Today we’re going to do our best to replicate this with an amped up Siracha aioli done with a bit of dashi powder and rice vinegar. Paired with this, we’ll also be doing a doublefried tempura green bean, and finally rounding it all out with a Chinese 5 spice dry seasoning that I think is really going to elevate the dish today with some nice iconically Chinese aromatics. Finally to top this all off because…why not? I also took a shot at an alternate version of this dish with a Thai inspired ground pork and crispy green bean stir fry as well, which again, for those following along, should look fairly similar to the pad gra prow that we did a while back because…that’s essentially the same thing, but without the tempura fry. Hope you try it.