This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of P.F. Chang’s Home Menu. All opinions are 100% mine.
Having friends over for lunch doesn’t have to be a lot of work! Sometimes I just need life to be simple. P.F. Chang’s Home Menu line of frozen foods in your local grocery store makes it easy to prepare beautiful food for guests in about 30 minutes! I am going to give you all the tips and tricks to creating a Wok Wednesday get together that will have you friends saying, “Wow! That looks beautiful!” Mine did.
I invited 4 friends for lunch. Before inviting them over I wanted to test which of the meal options my family liked best before serving it to guests. I settled on Chicken Mini Egg Rolls, Mongolian Beef, Mongolian Chicken and Orange Chicken served over either PF Chang’s Steamed Brown Rice or Steamed Jasmine Rice. There were so many PF Chang’s Home Menu Entrees in the frozen section of the grocery store, it was tough to choose. I was impressed with the variety of choices. They all have their own sauces, we like that the veggies are crisp and colorful and you will find a great selection is in grocery stores nationwide.
It was nice to be able to have my friends over without a lot of fuss. We are all so busy, and it was nice to get together at home rather than a restaurant. We usually don’t do that, because it is too much work. But this made it much more simple. And Chinese inspired food at home is something I would not try at home! It was a great break from regular lunch fare. Make sure to watch the quick video at the bottom of this post showing us having a great time! You will see how easy it is to decorate and prepare for your own Wok Wednesday with friends. Keep it simple and have fun!
As it turns out, it didn’t really matter what I had planned. Because when I went shopping for the big day, I must have been in a hurry. I did get the Orange Chicken right but I came home with Mongolian Chicken and instead of Mongolian Beef somehow Honey Chicken snuck its way into the cart, and I have no idea how that happened! Gotta say, not sorry. That Honey Chicken ended up being our favorite by far.
The Mini Chicken Egg Rolls come with a sauce packet that we found to be quite tasty. We decided to get adventurous and try pairing it with sriracha sauce. It was a hit! We loved the sweetness of the sauce combined with the heat of the sriracha. Everybody but one of us tried it. One friend did not bow to peer pressure and decided spicy was just not for her!
To make a beautiful presentation I spread the Steamed Brown Rice along the length of one half of my platter and Steamed Jasmine Rice along the other half. Then I put the three entrees widthwise on top of the rice and topped with sesame seeds. Everybody oohed and aahed when I set it on the table! It was nice because then guests could choose which kind of rice they wanted with each entree.
This is my home menu graveyard after we killed all the food. There was nothing left! Here are few of my tips for everything to turn out top quality:
There is a microwave option, and it is fine, but we found the flavor and texture of everything to be better when cooked in the oven or stovetop, right down to the rice.
The instructions on the rice packet say to cook one at a time, but there are two packets in each box, and on the stovetop both packets at once turned out to have great texture. That was a time saver when serving several people.
We were surprised by how much we liked the brown rice. In fact, the brown rice went first.
We did feel that adding a little bit of salt to the rice would make it taste even better. Next time I will add it to the water when cooking.
And while everything was really good, veggies crisp, meat tender, the Honey Chicken stole the show. Totally the tops!
Check out all the fun we had!
Wok Wednesday Giveaway:
One lucky reader will receive a Wok Wednesday Kit to enjoy your very own P.F. Chang’s Wok Wednesday meal!
Wok Kit includes: branded woks, chopsticks, and tableware.
Here is how you enter: Leave a comment sharing your #WokWednesday celebration ideas. What would you do on #WokWednesday? Entry deadline is Wednesday, November 18th.
I love this idea! We have tried a couple of the PF Changs entrees, General Tso has been our favorite but we haven’t had them in a while. For Wok Wednesday I would have a dinner party with some of our couple friends, never a bad time for a double or triple date.
Our family loves Chinese but we have never tried the PF Chang entrees. We definitely need to change that after reading your review! We would have a great time cooking the food and then eating with chopsticks. Maybe we could also try learning a few Chinese words and eat some fortune cookies too of course!
I would make a veggie stir fry for #WokWednesday and I would have my kids help me make egg rolls as a side dish.
I would invite my family over to enjoy some P.F. Changs and laugh and joke and let our dogs play together while we enjoy all the delicious food.
I would make a beef and brocoli stir fry for #WokWednesday
I would make beef and broccoli for my family, it sounds like a lovely dinner choice
I would make chicken fried rice for #WokWednesday. For sure I would have my husband watch as I demonstrated my copy cat skills from the hibachi chef at our favorite restaurant.
I would attempt fried rice
This would be fun! My kids would love the idea of using chopsticks for dinner! It would make family time more fun and we would do their favorite with orange chicken.
I would make veggie stir fry with shrimp and rice! #WokWednesday
Enjoy your Wok Wednesday, Laura! You are our lucky winner! Watch your email for details. Congratulations.
Asian is always a big hit in my household! Would love a wok.
I would do beef and broccoli which we love for wok wednesday! Thanks so much for the chances to win. We just got a new PF Changs here in VA too.
I would make beef and broccoli for #WokWednesday and enjoy a homemade Chinese meal.
I would make some stir fry noodles with veggies for #WokWednesday.
I love chicken / rice stir fry so that would have to be on the menu
I would make a steak stir fry
I would make P F Chan’s Egg Rolls for #WokWednesday my family loves them!
A good fried rice is always good on Wednesdays, especially when paired with General Tso’s chicken.
I love P F Chang’s!! Both the restaurant and the freezer selection. So I would probably let them do the cooking for me for the most part and cook up something from their frozen foods. #WokWednesday
I would make General Tso’s chicken with Jasmine rice for #WokWednesday, that is one of our favorites.
Hands down, I would make Shrimp&Veg stir fry!
I love #WokWednesday: we usually make the Mongolian Beef, egg rolls, some steamed veggies and rice. Easy “take out” date night at home!
THe honey chicken sounds delicious!! I would hope they offer their lettuce wrap filling to cook up! That’s my favorite PF Chang menu item!
I would combine Wok Wednesday with Wine Wednesday and enjoy some Pinot Grigio while I made chicken stir fry in sesame oil
I love Chinese food. I’ve eaten at PF Chang’s a couple of times, and although the frozen does not compare to fresh at the restaurant, it’s the next best thing. What would I do for #WokWednesday? Wok and Roll!!!
Peanut oil makes for very hot oil for searing meats. Add precooked noodles to crisp them. Put on plate. Add veggies and if needed some water to steam. Put all on plate…ta da done.
My idea of a celebration for #WokWednesday is having a bunch of friends over and being able to actually hang out instead of cooking for hours. Can’t wait to try these! the Egg rolls look nice and crispy, I love serving them with at least 3 sauces: Soy, sweet Thai chili sauce and hot mustard.. can’t go wrong!
Tomorrow I will be working, going to the dr, doing a billboard shoot for Real Estate and then hopefully coming up with something interesting for dinner!!
But if it were a celebration #wokwednesday I would be making my fav – Chicken Fried Rice with my new WOK!! LOL
I’d love to try my hand at fried rice #Wokwednesday