peppers have different tastes.....I think hot pepper flakes are pretty much just red chilis, dried and crushed....but habaneros are different taste as are scotch bonnet etc etc.
to my taste siricha tastes different than tobasco....and different than hor pepper flakes. if it's just heat you want....why not just add some jalapenos and remove them when the desired level of hot has been reached?
Linda C

When you take a chef's recipe and sub this for that, and change cooking techniques, and modify to suit your tastes, you have not made that chef's recipe. You have made something similar, but totally different. If you serve it and call it by what that chef called it you do the chef a tremendous disservice. You can't sub Lime Juice for Lemon in Chicken Picatta and still have Chicken Picatta, even though they're both citrus. You can't make Crepe Suzette with flour tortillas instead of French Crepes and still have Crepe Suzette, even though they are the same shape. Same with Annie's Mongolian Beef. She obviously used Red Pepper Flakes for a reason, not just because they were on the counter and the Sriracha was in the cabinet. First time you make a recipe follow the directions to the letter. After that you can substitute to your taste, but call it something else!

Steve

Steve, I'm not sure whether to agree with you or disagree with you. What's in a name? Do you think PF Changs makes their Mongolian Beef like Annie? No, they don't. Does Chicken/Veal Picatta require capers? I always thought so, until I read that capers are a southern Italian thing; in the north you won't find them in the dish. True? Who knows. But it doesn't stop the Palm from publishing a recipe "without."

I'm mostly with you on following a recipe to the 'T' first go-around as long as you are attacking this as "trying a recipe." If you're making major changes - lemon to lime in Picatta - then realize you were just "inspired" by a recipe, but can't really judge it. On the other hand if there's a minor substitution or omission that you know you'd prefer, then I say have at it. Just be sure to mention it in a review.

Sriracha for CRP? It'll alter the taste, that's for sure. If you prefer it, go for it. Just mention it when you tell us about your results. Oh, and I know for a fact that Annie has both available in her kitchen. ;)

I can't speak for sriracha, but I've tried both red pepper flakes and tobasco in my collard greens and the tobasco just doesn't cut it. It's not only a different kind of heat, but it doesn't blend in, meld if you will, like the red pepper flakes. The only way you'll know if you like the sriracha over pete's in the mongolian beef is to try it both ways.

Beth

You have to wonder how many variations there are in Mongolia and their beef recipes! Not a country known for its culinary delights. I'm sure that like most of us, they make the best of what they have to hand.

My sister makes "mongolian beef" and uses whole hot peppers. She does not know other then a store near her has the "right" pepper... small short purple dried peppers... that are hotter then all get out. Each diner can choose how hot the dish gets by eating or picking out the peppers.

Being my usual picky self I love most all hot peppers but don't care for tobasco sauce at all... yucky yuck.

I think most dried red pepper flakes are sort of dusty, and I love sriracha. To be fair, though, I bought dried red peppers in Rome a couple of years ago(!) and the little devils are still very hot.

Of course you can substitute. There's no kitchen sheriff with handcuffs and a billy club. Unless you're really a cooking novice, you know pretty well what will work and what won't.

I shall be offline for a while re-naming about 800 recipes in my recipe files that I've tweaked to suit our tastes.

LMAO!

I made a beautiful Thai peanut sauce from a recipe going around on Social media and after I made it, I couldn't stop eating it, it was so good. The sauce also calls for scriracha and I was wondering if I'd perhaps try red pepper flakes next time. The above response to you, also answered my question. It won't be the same and the flakes won't distribute the heat in the same way. I'm gonna stick to my recipe as well.

The Mongolian Beef I make uses red chili oil. Lots of ways to add a little heat.