I officially fell in love with eggplant, nearly 10 years ago, when eating PF Chang’s ground chicken with eggplant. Since then it has claimed the #1 spot on my list of favorite vegetables. We’ll be growing some in the garden this year…I am dying to see how they turn out.
I’ve been craving a bit of pf chang’s and decided to try to make our own version of the recipe:
1 1/2 lbs chicken, cut into small bite-sized pieces
1 large eggplant, sliced into 1″ x 3″ strips, soaked and salted for an hour
2 tbs soy sauce
2 tbs fish sauce
2 tbs water
2 tbs olive oil
1 tsp chili paste
3 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
1 1/2 tbs sesame seeds
2-3 scallions, chopped
1/2 c fresh cilantro, minced
1 1/2 c brown rice, cooked
salt to taste
- Begin cooking rice and prepare eggplant. About 20 minutes before rice is done, begin cooking your sauce:
- In a large saucepan, warm oil, soy sauce, fish sauce, water, and chili paste.
- On medium low heat, add garlic and sesame seeds to slightly brown
- Add chicken and scallions and cook for a few minutes with lid a top.
- Once chicken is no longer red, add eggplant and replace lid.
- Just as eggplant is getting tender, add cilantro for another minute.
Serve over rice and salt to taste.
Enjoy!
Serves 4-6
the daily delights by katrina berg 
yum this looks great i love eggplant and chicken.. this is a great combination. somewhat middle-eastern
Oh my, I love PF changs eggplant. I will be so excited to try it this year. I think I will plant some in the garden and see how they do. Thanks for posting it!
We planted ours inside last nite…a diamond (purple) eggplant and a white one. I can’t wait! 🙂
wow this looks great i love eggplant in all forms and his looks yummy with the chicken and all
I think there’s some stuff missing in this recipe. Are you cooking the garlic, sesame seeds and chicken in the oil before adding the sauce? Are you cooking them in the sauce? Are you using two pans or one? You never actually mention where you use the oil so it’s a bit hard to follow. From my own experience, I’d guess what you’d do is cook the garlic, sesame seeds, chicken and scallions in the oil, then add the sauce, then the eggplant. Would love to hear you clarify it. Thanks!
Sorry it didn’t make sense to you. It is a one dish wonder and I don’t cook the chicken first, I love to have it soak up all the good sauce and spices as it cooks…but do what works for you. With good ingredients I really don’t know how you can go wrong. all the best, trina
Ah, well that helps some. Normally when people write a recipe called for pre-cooked meat, they list “cooked chicken” or “cooked beef”, etc.
That would probably explain why mine didn’t turn out so well. I went ahead and made it before you replied, and I used the oil to cook the chicken. Extra oil would probably have helped a lot with the sauce.
One other tip I’d have to try to replicate the pf chang’s experience – use ground chicken. Grinding chicken in a food processor is super-easy. Just cube it up in about inch chunks (freezing it slightly helps) and drop it in. Then just pulse it a little until it looks to be ground. While my sauce didn’t turn out very chang-like, the ground chicken was a match!
Augh, reading comprehension, where art thou? When I read your reply, I thought you said “I cook the chicken first”, not “I DON’T cook the chicken first.” I think I just need to work on the sauce. Maybe it works better with the cut up chicken, but I want to make it ground as that’s one of the features of the original dish I love.
Thanks again.