P.F. Chang's Hot and Sour Soup Recipe - Recipes.net (2024)

We all tend to grab a bowl of soup for comfort, especially during the cold season. This hot and sour soup is the perfect recipe for that. A dish with many names, this Southeast Asian staple is known for its thick broth that’s flavored with vinegar and seasoned with pepper. You can mostly find this as a starter in Chinese restaurants, and one of the most beloved variations come from P.F. Chang’s. They specialize in hand-crafting meats and vegetables and turning them into a variety of Asian dishes. For this recipe, we recreated P.F. Chang’s Hot and Sour Soup, bringing a hearty dish to your dinner table.

P.F. Chang's Hot and Sour Soup Recipe - Recipes.net (1)

What makes a soup hot and sour? We won’t have you boiling this soup until it’s piping hot. In fact, white pepper packs a light punch, adding milder heat in the soup. Vinegar gives a sour punch into our dish, while wood ear mushrooms and bamboo shoots give it a subtle flavor. The mushrooms and bamboo shoots also have a soft yet crunchy texture which is a great addition into the dish. They’re well-known ingredients for Asian cuisine so having them for this Chinese-inspired recipe is a must. The eggs create what we call egg ribbons. They’re the white strands you see floating around in the soup. Apart from giving the dish an amazing flavor, it also builds personality and vibrancy.

You can always make this soup ahead of time. To find out more about how to store this hot and sour soup for make-ahead or leftovers, head right into our CAQ section down below! If you enjoyed making this recipe, you can try other copycat P.F. Chang’s recipes like our Copycat P.F. Chang’s Garlic Noodles with Shrimp for another go-to Asian meal. So, let’s head right into the kitchen and make a flavorful bowl of soup!

P.F. Chang's Hot and Sour Soup Recipe - Recipes.net (2)

How To Make P.F. Chang's Hot and Sour Soup

A hearty bowl with a warm broth, delightful strips of mushroom, and silky tofu to make a flavorful fish. You’ll instantly fall in love with this hot and sour soup recipe plus its quick and easy to make!

Prep: 15 mins

Cook: 10 mins

Total: 25 mins

Serves:

Ingredients

  • 6 oz chicken breasts, boneless, skinless, poached and cut into thin strips
  • cups chicken stock, divided
  • 1 cup soy sauce
  • 1 tsp ground white pepper
  • 6 oz bamboo shoots, canned, cut into strips
  • 6 oz wood ear mushrooms, used dry, or any fresh or dried mushrooms, rehydrated if using dried, and cut into strips
  • ½ cup cornstarch
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 4 oz rice vinegar
  • 6 oz silken tofu, cut into cubes
  • ¼ cup green onions

Instructions

  1. In a soup pot, bring 5 cups of chicken stock to a boil. Add in the soy sauce, white pepper, bamboo, mushrooms, and chicken. Stir and let it cook for 5 minutes.
  2. In a separate bowl, combine ½ cup of chicken stock and the cornstarch to make a slurry.
  3. Add the slurry to the saucepan a little at a time and stir until thick.
  4. Throw in the eggs while stirring and cook for 30 seconds or until the eggs are done.
  5. Turn off the heat. Add in the vinegar, tofu, and green onions. Stir to combine.
  6. Ladle into bowls, serve warm, and enjoy a delicious bowl of hot and sour soup!

Nutrition

  • Sugar: 10g
  • :
  • Calcium: 84mg
  • Calories: 479kcal
  • Carbohydrates: 44g
  • Cholesterol: 159mg
  • Fat: 15g
  • Fiber: 2g
  • Iron: 5mg
  • Potassium: 964mg
  • Protein: 39g
  • Saturated Fat: 4g
  • Sodium: 5037mg
  • Trans Fat: 1g
  • Vitamin A: 309IU
  • Vitamin C: 3mg
Nutrition Disclaimer

Recipes.net Team Modified: February 19, 2024

Commonly Asked Questions

How does white pepper differ from black pepper?

Though white and black pepper came from the same peppercorn plant, it’s how they’re picked and process that changes everything. Black peppercorns are naturally sun-dried while white peppercorns have their outer layer removed before or after drying, leaving the white seed. Black pepper packs a bold and stronger flavor as compared to white pepper. You can use black pepper as a substitute but use half of the white pepper measurement unless you want it spicier.

Can I make this completely vegan-friendly?

Definitely! You can substitute chicken stock with either vegetable stock or mushroom stock. Having the tofu in itself can replace the chicken breasts without compromising texture.

How can I store my hot and sour soup?

Place it in an air-tight container once it cools and store them in the fridge. That would last 2 to 3 days while storing them in the freezer add weeks to its lifeline. Reheat them in a saucepan under medium heat, stirring occasionally until hot, and it’ll still taste like freshly made soup. You can also reheat it in an instant pot using the “Keep Warm” feature to gradually warm it up.

Conclusion

This recipe brings P.F. Chang’s Hot and Sour soup into your table. It’s a bowl bursting with flavors that would excite your taste buds. The white pepper adds a delightful heat as the vinegar gives delicious sour notes. As the mushrooms and bamboo shoots make a great texture, so do the moist and tender chicken breasts. You can easily slurp the broth out of the bowl! This recipe recreates a traditional Asian dish that your family will surely love.

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P.F. Chang's Hot and Sour Soup Recipe - Recipes.net (2024)

FAQs

What are the stringy things in hot and sour soup? ›

What are the black stringy things in Chinese food? It is seaweed that is usually used in home made soups such as tofu and seaweed soup or egg drop and seaweed soup. It comes in a dried cake form and is called zicai (紫菜).

What is Chinese hot and sour soup made of? ›

Chinese Hot and Sour soup broth is made with chicken stock which is flavoured with typical Asian ingredients such as soy sauce, sugar, pepper and ginger. The soup is thickened slightly using cornstarch/cornflour – I love how the glossy broth coats the ingredients when you scoop it up!

What makes hot and sour soup gelatinous? ›

Simmering chopped up chicken carcass and chicken feet with classic Chinese aromatics and smoked ham produces a superior stock rich with gelatin in just about an hour. Using a judiciously small amount of cornstarch adds body to the soup and helps the solid elements stay suspended.

Is hot and sour soup full of sodium? ›

Hot & sour soup nutrition information isn't always obvious when you're dining out, nor do you always know the ingredients it contains. The soup is low in calories, but high in sodium and fairly rich in protein from pork and tofu.

What is the brown stuff in hot and sour soup? ›

The foundation of the broth consists of dried lily flowers and dried shiitake mushrooms. They both have a very concentrated smoky, earthy, and woody aroma. Once you rehydrate them, the rehydrating water will turn a dark brown color as it becomes infused with the great flavor.

What are the black strips in hot and sour soup? ›

Shiitake: Shiitake adds a wonderful umaminess and flavor to the broth. Woodear or Black Fungus: Adds a nice texture and crunch. You can purchase these whole or in pre-cut strips (pictured below).

What is the slimy stuff in hot and sour soup? ›

The ingredient that makes it gelatinous is cornstarch (aka corn flour).

How do you make sour soup taste better? ›

Mix in a small spoonful of sugar into lighter soups.

Stir the sugar thoroughly into your container of soup, then taste test it. If the soup still tastes a bit acidic, stir in another small spoonful of sugar into the dish. This solution works better with dishes that have lighter flavors, like lemon. Don't overdo it!

Is Chinese hot and sour soup healthy? ›

Is hot and sour chicken soup healthy? Yes, homemade hot & sour chicken soup can be very healthy as you control the ingredients. Optimize nutrition by minimizing added starch, using lean protein, and avoiding adding sugar.

Which Chinese soup is healthiest? ›

Egg Drop Soup

Of the soups commonly found on Chinese restaurant menus, egg drop is the healthiest. Totally starving when you walk into a Chinese restaurant? Order soup as an appetizer, and egg drop is tops. "It's really made with eggs, so it does offer quite a bit of protein," says London.

How do you make hot and sour soup less salty? ›

Add Raw Potato

If making more soup or diluting the soup isn't possible, try adding raw potato. It will help to extract some salt from the liquid, says Krimsky. To do so, add a whole peeled potato to simmering soup and let it cook through, about 20 minutes.

Is Chinese hot and sour soup high in carbs? ›

Nutrition info:

One serving of this soup (1 1/4 cup or 315 ml) has 3.3g net carbs (5.1g total carbs and 1.8g dietary fiber), 8.5g fat, 14.7g protein and 157 calories.

What are the black stringy things in Chinese food? ›

Fat choy (traditional Chinese: 髮菜; simplified Chinese: 发菜; pinyin: fàcài; Jyutping: faat³ coi³; Nostoc flagelliforme) is a terrestrial cyanobacterium (a type of photosynthetic bacteria) that is used as a vegetable in Chinese cuisine. When dried, the product has the appearance of black hair.

What is the jelly like substance in soup? ›

Jelly, traditionally, is animal collagen that is cooked down just like stock without seasoning. It's very normal for stock to be gelatinous. It means you did a good job.

Why is my chicken soup stringy? ›

The white stringy parts in chicken breasts are tendons.

Collagen is a protein that is found naturally in bones, cartilage, and other parts. When you make bone broth, the rich liquid is typically rich in collagen because of the marrow bones that are most often used.

Why is my cheese stringy in my soup? ›

To prevent cheese from becoming stringy in your soup, it's important to avoid overheating it. High heat can cause the proteins in the cheese to tighten and become stringy.

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