Perfect Panda Express Chow Mein Copycat with about half the oil! It tastes exactly like you’re eating a combo plate with your favorite side.
Believe it or not, it’s easy to recreate your favorite Panda Express Recipes at home like Orange Chicken, Beef and Broccoli, and Honey Walnut Shrimp. The best part is you can reduce the oil and sodium without sacrificing that authentic restaurant flavor!
Sabrina’s Panda Express Chow Mein Recipe
Chow Mein is a type of Chinese fried noodle stir fry, usually with crunchy vegetables like celery and cabbage. Panda Express Chow Mein has been a popular recipe on the site since the beginning and with good reason. Cabbage, celery and onion sautéed and tossed with Yakisoba noodles in a soy and oyster sauce mixture make for a perfectly recreated food memory. You can take it a step further, and enjoy with our favorite, Panda Express Mushroom Chicken.
Ingredients
- 2 packages dry Yakisoba noodles , (cooked without spice packets and drained)
- 3 tablespoons oil
- 1/2 yellow onion , sliced
- 8 oz cabbage , sliced
- 2 oz celery , cut into small pieces
- 1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoons oyster sauce
Instructions
- Slice the onions and cabbage thinly.
- Cut the celery on a bias thinly as well.
- Put the oil in the pan, set to high and when the oil is hot add the veggies.
- Let cook for a couple of minutes until it is caramelized a bit.
- Stir and let more of it caramelize.
- Add the noodles and toss together.
- Add the soy sauce and oyster sauce and toss together.
Video
Nutrition
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Table of Contents
Key Ingredients
- Noodles: For ease and cost, this recipe calls for using Yakisoba noodles and omitting the spice packet. You can find Yakisoba in the international section of your grocery store. If you have trouble finding them, you can always substitute spaghetti noodles.
- Veggies: The thinly sliced cabbage, onion, and celery in this dish add aromatic flavor and a nice crunch that complements the soft chewy noodles. If you prefer different veggies, you can swap them out on a 1:1 ratio for your favorites. Just make sure you slice them thinly so they will soften and combine well with the other ingredients.
- Soy Sauce: Use low sodium soy sauce in all your Asian recipes. It will give you the same flavor without the salt overpowering the rest of your ingredients.
- Oyster Sauce: Oyster sauce is a thick condiment that is a common ingredient in many Asian sauce recipes. It does contain oyster extract, the briny liquid from cooking oysters, and it is reduced with sugar, thickener, and salt. A little goes a long way in lending a wonderful umami flavor to any dish.
Why Make Chow Mein At Home
Learning to make your favorite takeout dinners at home offers so many benefits! You can easily feed your family a complete meal that costs a fraction of what you would spend at a restaurant. When you cook at home you also have more control over how much sodium and oil you are using. You get to enjoy a healthier version of the same flavors you love from your favorite restaurants at home! The best part of this Panda Express Chow Mein is it isn’t even hard to make.
How to Store
- Serve: Do not leave copycat chow mein at room temperature longer than 2 hours.
- Store: In an airtight container, the noodles can last up to 5 days in the refrigerator.
- Freeze: After cooling completely, freeze noodles in freezer bags or an airtight container for 1-2 months. Thaw completely before reheating, adding a little soy sauce if needed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yakisoba Noodles are the perfect (easy find) noodles for Panda Express Chow Mein if you’re looking online or in the store. There are more authentic versions, but for the money and the ease, buy the packages and ditch the spice packets. In a pinch, you can always use regular spaghetti noodles.
Oyster Sauce is a unique flavoring ingredient. If you avoid seafood and want another option I recommend vegetarian oyster sauce (made from mushrooms) but I don’t recommend you swap this out for something else altogether. Sometimes people recommend hoisin sauce as a replacement, but it would not give you the authentic flavor.
A wok is great for high heat, quick cooking. The angled sides of a wok help to increase the surface area for browning which speeds up the process significantly. A wok is a great addition to your kitchen if you love cooking Chinese food or stir fries in general.
Both Lo Mein and Chow Mein use chewy egg noodles combined with veggies, but for Lo Mein, you do not fry the noodles. Lo Mein typically uses soft, fresh noodles that soak up a savory sauce. Chow Mein usually uses dried noodles that have been par-boiled and then stir fried to maintain a more chewy and crispy texture.
Variations
- Protein: After cooking the veggies, remove from the pan and cook thinly sliced beef, chicken, pork, or shrimp before combining the rest of the ingredients together. You could also use ground chicken, beef, turkey, or pork.
- Spice Level: Add crushed red pepper flakes or Sriracha sauce to make a spicier noodle dish. Taste as you go to get the spice just right for you.
Related Recipes
More Asian Copycat Recipes
Photos used in previous versions of this post
Awesome recipe. I used ramen noodles (putting the flavor packets aside for future use) because i had them on hand. It turned exactly like the Panda Garden version. Thank you so much.
The ramen noodles are a great idea, I’ll have to keep that one in mind for future use. Thank you for the positive review.
Thank you so much for this recipe. you NAILED IT. Cant thank you enough
You’re very welcome, Sandra.
So delicious and easy. I made it just the way you posted it and would not change a thing. This dish has always been a weakness of mine and Panda Express.
A favorite in our house too Ruth! Thanks for the five star review.
I absolutely loved this recipe!! I used spaghetti noodles because thats all I had at the time but they were still delicious! I highly recommend trying this and I will be making it religiously. ?????
So glad to hear and thanks for the five star review!