Panda Express has an extensive menu and always offers a satisfying and delicious experience, but that doesn’t mean you always want to pay restaurant prices or even drive all the way over there. We have some good new for you – you can still enjoy the very best Panda Express recipes by creating copycat versions right there in the comfort of your own kitchen! Whether you want beef, pork, noodles, chicken, or something else, you’re going to be impressed with all these tasty copycat dishes from the Panda Express menu!
Black Pepper Chicken – Copycat Panda Express
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Make restaurant-style black pepper chicken at home in just 30 minutes with this delicious copycat Panda Express recipe. Satisfy your Asian food cravings with this easy and flavorful stir-fry. Get the Recipe:Black Pepper Chicken – Copycat Panda Express
Wok Seared Steak and Shrimp – Panda Express Copycat
Make this tasty Panda Express copycat wok-seared steak and shrimp dish at home with soy sauce, chili sauce, ginger, and garlic flavors. Impress your friends or enjoy it for lunch or dinner – it’s like an Asian surf and turf with beef and shrimp! Get the Recipe:Wok Seared Steak and Shrimp – Panda Express Copycat
Easy Copycat Panda Express Mushroom Chicken Recipe
Love Panda Express but can’t make it to the restaurant as often as you’d like? This Copycat Panda Express Mushroom Chicken Recipe will cure your craving any time it hits. Get the Recipe: Easy Copycat Panda Express Mushroom Chicken Recipe
Honey Walnut Shrimp – Panda Express Copycat
This Panda Express honey walnut shrimp copycat recipe coats crispy deep-fried tempura shrimp in a tantalizing sweet and savory sauce that’s served with candied walnuts. This will become one of your favorite quick dinner recipes! Get the Recipe: Honey Walnut Shrimp
Let your instant pot get the flavor of Panda Express fried rice on your table in no time. This recipe is easy, tasty and best of all, budget friendly so you can get your Panda fix anytime! Get the Recipe: Instant Pot Fried Rice
Orange Chicken – Panda Express Copycat
Panda Express Copycat Orange Chicken has tender chunks of pan fried chicken that are smothered in a delicious orange sauce that has a kick of heat! The perfect quick night dinner option that’s ready in just 35 minutes! Get the Recipe: Panda Express Copycat Orange Chicken
Broccoli Beef
If you love broccoli beef over rice from Panda, then you have to try this copycat recipe. It is so tasty, and you are going to love how quick this dish comes together for a weeknight meal. Get the Recipe: Broccoli Beef
Kung Pao Chicken
This recipe for kung pao chicken might be even better than what you can get at Panda Express! You are sure to love the flavor of this easy and budget friendly take out fake out! Get the Recipe: Kung Pao Chicken
Vegan Orange Tofu
This 15 minute meal is a perfect vegan option for those nights you want take out, but don’t really want to go out and get it. It is made with simple ingredients for a flavorful and filling meal when served over rice. Get the Recipe: Vegan Orange Tofu
Crispy Sweet and Sour Pork
Use crispy pork belly to make this restaurant quality sweet and sour pork. This tastes even better than what you will get from Panda Express. It is also not too complicated to make on a weeknight for fast, homemade food. Get the Recipe: Crispy Sweet and Sour Pork
Black pepper chicken makes for such a wonderful and easy dinner option. This recipe is loaded with celery to make a healthy one dish meals that tastes even better than an order from your favorite fast food spot. Get the Recipe: Black Pepper Chicken
Chow Mein Copycat
If you can’t resist chow mein from Panda Express, then you need to make this at home, as soon as possible. It is so easy to make on a busy night and it pairs well with chicken, pork, beef or shrimp for a versatile homemade meal. Get the Recipe: Chow Mein Copycat
Mushroom Chicken
Serve this mushroom chicken with zucchini over rice for a homemade meal that tastes even better than what you can get at Panda Express. This is so fresh and flavorful for a fast weeknight meal. Get the Recipe: Mushroom Chicken
Bella Bucchiotti
Bella Bucchiotti of xoxoBella is a storyteller, food lover, dog mom and adventure seeker living on the Pacific coast. She shares her passion for recipes, dogs, sustainability, adventures, travel and philanthropy, in hopes of encouraging followers to run the extra mile, try new recipes, visit unfamiliar places and stand for a cause. Bella lives with Type 1 Diabetes and Celiac Disease.
Bella Bucchiotti is a freelance food, travel, and lifestyle writer for MSN and the Associated Press Wire.
There's a reason why this dish is Panda's claim to fame. The restaurant's most popular entree is made with crispy boneless pieces of meat combined with the chain's secret sweet yet spicy orange sauce. Almost everyone who walks through Panda's doors orders orange chicken.
Panda Express entrees and sides contain zero grams of trans fat per serving and adds no MSG in their food. Panda Express uses only 100% pure soybean oil in the preparation of recipes.
The most famous dish at Panda Express is the Orange Chicken. Inspired by flavors of the Hunan Province in China, Chef Andy Kho developed it in 1987, and it has been a consistent part of the menu ever since.
Fried rice from Panda Express contains cooked rice, eggs, peas, carrots, soy sauce, and green onions, offering a simple yet flavorful blend of ingredients.
Unfortunately, if it's a nutritious meal you're on the hunt for, this one isn't it. "Panda Express's Orange Chicken and Chow Mein are considered unhealthy due to their high levels of sodium, sugar, and unhealthy fats," says Young.
Chef Andy Kao develops The Original Orange Chicken® entree for Panda Express. Inspired by the flavors of Hunan Province, the dish features crispy chicken bites in a sweet and spicy orange sauce.
“Panda Express serves multiple dishes that contain vegetables (but only one true vegetarian entrée option) and offers brown rice as a higher fiber option. But the fiber still falls short of daily recommendations and the sodium levels are quite high.
What is in orange chicken Panda Express? Panda orange chicken uses boneless and skinless chicken thighs. The chicken is breaded and deep-fried and served with rice. The famous Panda Express orange sauce combines water, orange extract, distilled vinegar, sugar, salt, garlic, cornstarch, and sesame oil.
Chinese cooks normally use soybean oil, vegetable oil, or peanut oil, all of which have a high smoke point. Peanut oil usually has a pleasant nutty flavor and is suitable not only for stir-frying but also for deep-frying. Canola oil, which has a high smoke point but a neutral flavor, is also a good choice.
Over the course of 45 years, college sweethearts Andrew and Peggy Cherng have grown Panda Express from a single restaurant in a southern California mall to a 2,000-location empire around the world. The married couple founded the company in the early 1980s and continues to own and operate every Panda Express themselves.
History. The Panda Restaurant Group, parent company of Panda Inn, Panda Express, and Hibachi-San, was founded by Andrew Cherng, Peggy Cherng and Andrew's father, Master Chef Ming Tsai Cherng. Andrew Cherng and his father are Chinese born, while Peggy was born in Burma and raised in Hong Kong.
The type of rice matters, too: “Many Chinese cooks add some American long-grain to traditional jasmine, which helps prevent clumping, because jasmine's so starchy in comparison.” (He recommends a ratio of a third long-grain to two-thirds jasmine.)
Or the nutrition side of things? Fried rice has 570 calories (extra calories are from fat) and 900mg sodium. However, chow mien has fewer calories of 400, but a huge amount of sodium 1,060mg! Another thing that you could look at would be the number of vegetables in each dish perhaps.
So what's the healthier order, fried rice or lo mein? Short answer: lo mein. Yes, both dishes usually come slathered in sauce, but the rice offers the unfortunate double-whammy of being fried in oil first.
In fact, at every Panda Express we've ever been to, the dish is served from a bowl on the counter that's nearly twice the size of all the others. It's a true testament to the food's consistent popularity. And the dish isn't just a bestseller because of hype — it's actually pretty good!
Why California Has So Many Panda Express Locations. The California origins of Panda Express aren't the only reason the chain has such a big presence there. There's the matter of scale: California is the most populous U.S. state; about 12% of the U.S. population lives there.
In 1987, the chain's chef, Andy Kao, introduced the famous Orange Chicken. The first version was served bone-in but nowadays you will find that the dish is boneless. The combination of its good food quality, financial discipline and the boom in the Asian restaurant category brought Panda Express to new heights.
No exceptions! How much should I tip food delivery drivers? So we've already established that you have to tip, and ideally you're giving close to 15 to 20 percent. Scale up if your order is especially large, the delivery distance is far, or you live in the top floor of a fifth floor walk-up.
Introduction: My name is The Hon. Margery Christiansen, I am a bright, adorable, precious, inexpensive, gorgeous, comfortable, happy person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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