Panda Express Honey Walnut Shrimp are fried with tempura batter and tossed in a honey sauce with sweetened walnuts. The perfect copycat!
Panda Express Honey Walnut Shrimp has been long overdue. Crispy, sweet, and savory, these tempura-battered shrimps are the perfectly balanced dish and the crunchy sweetened walnuts add a wonderful texture.
Sabrina’s Panda Express Honey Walnut Shrimp
For shrimp recipes I tend to not be as spontaneous as I am with other proteins. If I have a craving for a steak or pork chops I have a pretty darn good chance one of my favorite grocers will have a sale price I can take advantage of. Shrimp, and seafood in general, doesn’t normally go on sale. If you’re a fan of shrimp, I highly suggest you watch for such sales and that you stock up as much as your freezer will allow so that when you’re having a craving you don’t end up paying more than you need.
Recipe Card
Ingredients
- 1 cup water
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup walnut halves
- 4 large egg whites
- 2/3 cup cornstarch
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- 1 pound large shrimp (raw), 18-20 count, peeled and deveined
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoon sweetened condensed milk
- 1 cup vegetable oil for frying
- scallions for topping , optional
Instructions
- Add the water, sugar, and walnuts to a small saucepan and bring to a boil.
- Boil for two minutes and remove the walnuts and dry on a dish to dry.
- Whisk the egg whites until they are foamy then add cornstarch and continue whisking until combined.
- Add the shrimp to the batter and one at a time using a fork or my favorite pig tail flipper pick up 1 shrimp at a time allowing it to drip off so that the shrimp has a thin coating and maintains it’s shape.
- Heat your oil in a medium sized pot on medium high (350 degrees) and fry until light golden brown, 4-5 minutes.
- To make the sauce, add the honey, mayonnaise, and sweetened condensed milk and whisk to combine.
- Add the fried shrimp to the sauce and coat with a large spoon.
- Place into your serving plate and top with the candied walnuts.
- Serve immediately with steamed rice.
- Optionally you can top with sliced scallions.
Nutrition
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Table of Contents
Chef’s Note
You want to be sure to use raw shrimp for this recipe. If you used cooked shrimp, they will become a bit over-cooked and tough after you coat and fry them. You may also notice there is no flour in this recipe. For this tempura batter, you’ll use just cornstarch mixed with egg whites. This will create a crispy and less-greasy result after you fry your shrimp.
Serving Ideas
The best part of this recipe is that it’s super easy to make and I don’t charge you the extra $1 for a shrimp entree on the blog! You can create your own complete Panda Express meal at home and serve the Honey Walnut Shrimp with my copycat Fried Rice recipe or Chow Mein recipe. If you want a more simple side dish, you can try my recipe for perfect Chinese Steamed Rice. If you’re up for it, create a whole feast by adding some more Panda Express Copycat dishes to the table like Beijing Beef and Black Pepper Chicken.
Related Recipes
More Delicious Shrimp Recipes
Tasty! But not Panda
Made this tonight exactly as written for my husband who’s in love with Panda. Served with steaming hot white rice, which helped warm back up the shrimp and sauce, which got cold after frying multiple batches.
We both enjoyed it, the shrimp were nicely done (I hadn’t fried them like that before – I will always fry from frozen now!), and I liked the sauce (I was skeptical after tasting it by itself, but on the shrimp and rice it was transformed!).
But my husband said it wasn’t the same. Since I minimize eating takeout (sodium constraints), I can’t diagnose what may have been different. It was also a lot of dishes to clean, but that’s to be expected when frying anything with your own batter.
However, I am going to praise this recipe because I know exactly what I put in it and it was delicious.
Question – how do you keep your fried shrimp warm in between batches? I wasn’t sure when to add the sauce, but it seemed to glaze better when warm.
Thanks for creating and posting!
I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe, despite not tasting like the real deal. Unfortunately for us, many chain restaurants don’t like to share recipes, so we try to get as close to the original as possible. As for keeping the fried shrimp warm, I suggest using a larger pan when frying to reduce the amount of batches down to 2 or 1. Once the shrimp is done frying, you’ll want to coat it immediately with the sauce.
Don’t make the mayo and vinegar and sweet milk the night befor it makes the sauce tast overwhelming of vinegar . I made the mistake although the tempura mix is unmistakably delicious
Glad the recipe worked out for you in spite of the disappointing sauce.
I was trying to edit my comment but it looks like it deleted the whole comment and just added my edit 😛 My apologies if this comment is now a duplicate.
This is my favorite Panda dish, and I am very excited to try it at home! I don’t see where you’ve listed flour anywhere…it’s not in the ingredients or the instructions. Should there be flour? How much.
Step 3 of your instructions say to whisk the eggs and cornstarch, but there’s no mention of flour. Did I overlook it?
Thank you for all your wonderfully delicious recipes!
Blessings,
Susie
Hi Susie, flour isn’t needed for the batter since the cornstarch is taking its place. Cornstarch is commonly used for most fried Chinese dishes. And the best part, is that it’s gluten free!
My family loves the Honey Walnut Shrimp from Panda so in the hunt for a make-from-home recipe, we landed on this–and glad we did! Thumbs up from all four kids, two in-laws, and my husband. Thanks for sharing!
You’re welcome Dixie and thank you for your kind review!
It ain’t Panda, but it ain’t bad.
We’ll definitely be adding it to the menu.
What were you missing? I would love to hear your feedback on our many Panda Express Copy Cat recipes on the site!
Tasted just like Panda Express! I don’t live near a Panda Express anymore and this definitely scratched the itch.
Great! Thank you Maria and thank you for the five stars.
I would skip the mayo all together, but good recipe
Good feedback. Thank you!
I used pre cooked but it still turned out very good. We will use raw shrimp next time.
Is it raw shrimp or already cooked
1 pound raw large shrimp , 18-20 count, peeled and deveined
I love the recipe for the tempura batter! However; the mayo in this is very strong. Next time I will definitely make it with a honey glaze.
This was an easy recipe to follow and really did taste like Panda Express honey walnut shrimp. I will definitely make this again.
Very nice recipe. Im almost completely certain theres a miniscule amount of yellow mustard in the sauce. A trick to the sauce though is sweeten and thicken it with light corn syrup. While this isnt healthy it more closely approximates the final result. Also dont forget to add a dash of msg in both the sauce and tempura batter. No im not joking. Yes, it makes a difference. Also if you think MSG is bad for you, youve been misled. Glutamates are naturally occurring in sea life and have certain biological properties. Just dont overdo it. Go buy a bag of MSG from your local asian grocer. The rice flour issue isnt at all an issue. Use half cup cornstarch and 1 whole large egg for the best tempura batter youll ever cook with. Scale up if needed. Good luck and have fun, lovely people!
EDIT: the rice flour issue isnt at all an issue. Use half cup cornstarch and 1 whole large egg for the best tempura batter youll ever cook with. Scale up if needed.
Just wanted to note that, as other reviewers mentioned, the rice flour described in your comments isn’t listed in the ingredient section or the recipe steps. That’s probably why so many reviewers are having their batter turn out too runny.
it was very good, almost like Panda Express, but, too time consuming and too many ingredients that I hardly use and gone to waste, I’ll stick to getting it at the restaurant
This tastes absolutely nothing like panda express
Fantastic!!! Whole family loved it! I did warm up the sauce before pouring over the cooked shrimp, but followed the recipe outside of that and it was lovely. For anyone wondering, I used coconut oil for the frying, and it was great!! I chopped the nuts to small pieces, as we all prefer smaller nut bites, and liked that. All in all, truly delicious! Somewhat time intensive, (not terribly, just something to be aware of) but not difficult to obtain good results. Will definitely be holding onto this recipe! ??
What kind of mayonnaise do you use? I seen some peoples recipes and they used Kewpie mayonnaise but you didn’t specify.
I used regular mayonnaise for this recipe.
Does it matter if the shrimp is thawed or frozen? super excited to try this!! (:
I used frozen, I just rinsed,peeled and pat dry so batter won’t run off and I also added extra cornstarch to make batter a little thicker
Is there any way to make a vegan version of the sauce? I believe I could substitute vegan mayonnaise for the regular mayonnaise, but I’m not sure about the honey/sweetened condensed milk!
They have vegan honey at Sprouts and also I’ve seen coconut condensed milk in common grocery stores! I’m attempting a vegan version of this tomorrow
You could try to use Agave for honey. Sweetened condensed coconut milk for sweetened condensed milk……maybe??
Sabrina, there is no flour listed in the recipe for Honey Walnut Shrimp. Please recheck the recipe and make corrections. I would love to try it when its fixed.
Hi Delsa, this recipe calls for rice flour, which is listed.
The floor isn’t mentioned in the ingredients section nor the instructions. Please provide measurements.
Listed below is the recipe. Where is the RiCE FLOUR. Tell me where you did it was listed or is there another recipe that has your Missing flour
? 1 cup water
? 2/3 cup white sugar
? 1/2 cup walnut halves
? 4 egg whites
? 2/3 cup cornstarch
? 1/4 cup mayonnaise
? 1 pound large shrimp , 18-20 count, peeled and deveined
? 2 tablespoons honey
? 1 tablespoon sweetened condensed milk
? 1 cup vegetable oil for frying
? scallions for topping , optional
Hi Charlie! This recipe doesn’t call for rice flour. Let us know how it turned out! Enjoy.
Unfortunately, this recpie tasted nothing like the Panda Express Honey Walnut Shrimp. The sauce flavor was very off and the batter became soggy very quickly. hate to leave a negative review but this recipe could use several revisions.
How crispy was the shrimp before tossing with the sauce? Was it eaten right away? Also was it very hot when tossed with the sauce? The heat of the shrimp will melt the sauce. This also affects the flavor of the sauce. Happy to troubleshoot, we blind tasted this with a group of neighborhood friends with good results.
My caregiver made this for me as I’m disabled. It was amazing she followed exactly except used more shrimp til batter ran out so batter was thin on shrimp, my daughter liked it so much we are making it again tomorrow
This Panda Express Honey Walnut Shrimp is delicious. I used Kewpie Japanese Mayonnaise and it’s extra creamy. It’s also best paired with Cold Barley Tea that I bought from Karman Foods. A new favorite recipe!
I’m so excited to try this recipe! I have a question though about step 6. It says to add the mayo, honey and condensed milk, but what am I adding it to?? Am I just combining them or am I supposed to add it to the sugar mixture you cook the walnuts in? I didn’t want to risk messing it up so I thought I’d ask!
Tasted and looked nothing like the honey walnut shrimp from panda express. The batter didn’t stick and was very watery. Sauce tasted very strongly of the mayo, and I had to add extra condensed milk and honey just to make it bearable. The walnuts also weren’t the same, they were mostly unchanged after cooking them. Maybe they were a tiny bit sweet, but that’s a big maybe. I will admit, I may have done something wrong, but I followed the recipe exactly. I didn’t skip any steps or change any quantities. I don’t see where I could have made an error. Will not be making this again.
Nicole, I am so sorry this recipe didn’t work well for you. Maybe I have another recipe that will work better for you!
I assume that you don’t realize that you’re a replication of a food chains recipe that has not been released will not be 100% accurate to the real recipe you can always add more cornstarch to the batter and make adjustments as necessary I’ve only been cooking for myself for about 2 months and I got the recipe on point cooking new recipes takes time to perfect and it’s not going to look like what you buy from the actual restaurant you’re just mad you can’t cook
Whaaaat?
Sooooo good!
I made this tonight for my husband, who has been craving it for 5 years since Panda Express disappeared from out city. He was super skeptical and didn’t believe that it would taste the same. IT WAS EVEN BETTER!!! He loved it so much and so did I. Thank you very much for the recipe, you killed it!!
What’s your “pigtail flipper”? I love your site, for “real” recipes! I’m retired dietitian and chef (CIA). I’m also an inveterate “cooking gadget collector” (not retired).
It’s basically a swap for using tongs or forks to flip food. The best part of it is that the breading is completely undisturbed with it, and because of the curvature of the flipper, you can flip things quickly with the flick of a wrist. It’s invaluable to me in the kitchen! Here’s the link to it! https://shop.dinnerthendessert.com/collections/kitchen-utensils/products/food-turner
I honestly have no clue where all the bad reviews went wrong—I followed this recipe to the T, and the food was phenomenal. 🙂
I don’t like mayo, so I had my reservations, but I didn’t find that the finished dish tasted like mayo at all. It might have something to do with the brand, who knows for sure!
Thank you so much for sharing this with us, Sabrina. Panda Express charges so much for mediocre food and tiny portion sizes, so finding a delicious copy cat recipes are a dream come true tbh
Thank you so much, Sandy! You’re right about the brand of mayo possibly making a difference. I’m glad you enjoyed it.
I added extra condensed milk and cooked the walnuts down til they actually candied (soft not hard) and it was pretty close.
I tried doing this and clearly I did something wrong because mines turned out a bit different over all my family still liked them, they didn’t like the sauce much but they still liked it.