Panda Express Mushroom Chicken in just 20 minutes!
Panda Express Mushroom Chicken with quickly sauteed zucchini and mushrooms and tender chicken breast makes a delicious quick Chinese “takeout” meal you’d be happy to eat every night and that your scale won’t exact it’s revenge on your for it!
Update: Over the last year we have made this recipe the original way and with small variations while taste testing against the original. Lots of Panda Express visits, lots of testing (think Monica trying to recreate Phoebe’s grandmother’s chocolate chip cookie recipe) and I think I’ve gotten to the point where we can call this a spot on copycat!
Panda Express has been a go to take out lunch since I was a kid. Orange chicken, beef and broccoli and chow mein had been my go-to order until I turned 21 and started becoming more aware of my calorie intake. When I started looking at the nutritional facts I felt a little sick. I had no idea such a small amount of orange chicken could pack in so much fat and calories.
So I did a bit more research and you can enjoy Panda Express with FAR less fat and calories by choosing different “entrees.” My new go to became Panda Express Mushroom Chicken, beef and broccoli and steamed vegetables. I think that clocked in around 60% less calories! I did miss the taste of the orange chicken, but to be honest the mushroom chicken (which I normally would not have chosen) was DELICIOUS!
It took me a fair bit of searching and a few failed tries at making a dish that reminded me of the original but this recipe has been our go-to for a couple of years now and has been universally enjoyed. The best part is, the recipe is so incredibly easy, you can throw it together in as long as it takes to make rice to go with it! I do have to add a disclaimer though, this is not a *spot* on recreation. The balsamic is a little strong so you can taste it. But it does taste a lot like it, so until I do more research this is the best I’ve got if you are looking for a copycat for Panda Express Mushroom Chicken! Yep, I have been working on this recipe all year and it’s gotten an update!!
Keeping track of all the Panda Express copycat recipes here on the blog? You can find every single one of them on my new Panda Express Recipe Index, where every single Panda Express recipe has been recreated!
Ingredients
- 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts , cut into thin bite sized slices
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon canola oil
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 8 ounces crimini mushrooms , sliced (white mushrooms are authentic to the recipe, but I love crimini)
- 1 medium zucchini , cut in half lengthwise, then in ½ inch slices
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 3 garlic cloves , minced
- 2 teaspoons minced ginger (or ½ teaspoon ground ginger)
- sesame seeds , for garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Toss the chicken with cornstarch.
- Heat the canola and sesame oil in the pan.
- Add chicken and cook on medium-high until browned on both sides, about 2-3 minutes on each side.
- Remove chicken from the pan, and turn the heat up to high.
- Add in the mushrooms and zucchini and cook until they start to brown.
- Add the garlic and ginger and cook/stir for 30 seconds.
- Cook for another 2-3 minutes as vegetables soften a little.
- Add the chicken back in and stir to coat.
- Add in the soy sauce, sugar and rice wine vinegar and stir to coat.
- Serve with Perfect Brown Rice.
Nutrition
I love Panda Express’ chicken and mushroom. I’ve been making this at home with your recipe’s and it’s absolutely delicious. My young kids enjoy it too.
Thank you, it’s a big hit in my family as well!
Superb! I don’t eat too much fast food so this is just based on how this recipe stands by itself, not in comparison to what you get and Panda express. I cook breakfast lunch and dinner for my family almost daily so I don’t measure anything really, I just eye the amounts. I pretty much doubled the recipe and followed it closely. I only added little water to make more sauce and thickened it with cornstarch. After tasting it, I added a little honey because I wanted it just a little sweeter. It was very delicious and satisfying, balance of the flavors was spot on and my kids devoured it.
Yay! I am so happy your family enjoyed this recipe! Thank you for your support!
this turn out good for me, but i need suggestions on how to soften my frozen chicken, i always get very hard on chicken
appreciate your response.
Are you thawing and tenderizing it?
Hello, what is the best way to make this without the chicken? After having to cut meat out of my diet for medical reasons I’m missing all of my favorite dishes.
I haven’t tested it but you might be able to use tofu instead or replace the chicken with potatoes. If you decide to play around with it, I’d love to know how it turns out.
Made this tonight and it came out perfect. I did water down my sauce a little so it wasn’t so salty.
Hello there. I just made this and I really liked it. The only adjustment I made was that I watered down the soy a bit cause I don’t like things too salty. After reading some of the comments I was afraid that it wasn’t going to be saucy enough but it turned out just fine. I usually get this at Panda Express but their version is just so limp and there’s barely any vegetables, ya know? Thanks for sharing, I look forward to making more of your recipes. 🙂
I’m so glad you decided to give this recipe a try, Rose.
Awful 0/10 worst one I’ve tried
What didn’t you like about it?? What would you recommend be changed to make it more palatable??
Will double the sauce next time, but it was good
Great job cracking the code to this delicious dish. I made it today and it actually came out just like the restaurant version. Definitely looking forward to trying other recipes on the site.
That’s amazing, Shannon!
My Bad! I just found the ginger in the ingredients. Not sure how I missed it. Maybe I should save the sake for dinner 🙂
No worries, haha! Enjoy!
Maybe I did something wrong or am just being picky, but this didn’t taste like the original to me. It needed way more sauce, and I’m not sure what else. Maybe more mushrooms?
That said, it is still delicious and I will make it again!
This recipe is the first recipe of yours I’ve done. It was a huge hit. Husband was hooked and my youngest of three teens asked me if I had gone and bought Panda Express for dinner that night! The whole family loves it so much, we now make this once a week for dinner. Sabrina, you are amazing! Thank you.
Thank you for the kind words. I’m so glad you all enjoyed it.
I am not sure what I did wrong but it didnt turn out anywhere close to panda exp mushroom chicken. Very bland and as one commenter said, the corn starch stuck to the pan.
If the cornstarch stuck to the pan, it just means that your pan or wok wasn’t hot enough. Hope this helps for next time.
Just finished making it. Easy and simple. This recipe and on point. Just needed two more tablespoons of soy sauce to finish at the end. More flavor!
Thanks for the 5 stars, John.
I made this recipe as written and it was delicious! We loved it and make it again.
This was delicious and highly recommend. I didn’t have rice vinegar so I used seasoned rice vinegar and didn’t add the sugar. Absolutely will make again.
I cooked this recipe because I’ve been craving PE mushroom chicken for a while now. This is sooo good! I created double the recipe so I can have some all week. Honestly it’s been some months since I’ve been to Panda Express so I can’t talk about how authentic it is to flavor, but after having a mouthful of the one I cooked, I knew it completely satisfied what I was hoping for. Thanks so much for posting this.
I’ve never had Panda Express because there are none in our area but this was extremely delicious, can’t imagine the restaurant version being better
Sabrina,
this recipe looks wonderful, and I will certainly try this when the next gift zucchini comes my way! I saw your comment about the balsamic vinegar and I wonder if you might have been tasting Chinese black vinegar in the original. Balsamic can be used as a sub, but try finding the black vinegar and using that. I find it at the local Asian market, it’s inexpensive and just might be the very thing you’ve been looking for.
I like this dish except I would put corn starch at the very end because when I cook it on le creset the starch stuck at the bottom and burnt. I didn’t have many choice for pots.
Hi! Excited to try this recipe. Can you use boneless skinless chicken thighs instead of breasts? Or would that not be recommended?
Thank you!!
Yes, you can use that. Enjoy!
keep up the great work forgot to rate it
I was reading you blog and saw you also liked the green bean & potato I loved this myself and when it became distinct i was beside myself LOL I sure hope you are able to come up with the recipe please post it you are the greatest I LOVE PANDA
That one is still on my research and test list. Hopefully I can crack that one. So glad you’re enjoying the site.
You are a hero! Made this today and I think I can now officially kick my Panda Express habit— I like this better than their version, too! Thank you!
You just made my day, Hannah!
Made this for dinner tonight, quick and easy ! Everyone loved it including picky boyfriend and finicky 3 yr old. Thanks
Made this for my family they loved it, will definitely make again. Thanks
Hey Sabrina, his sounds like a dish my family will truly enjoy, since it contains several of our favorite ingredients. I will however use chicken tenders, sliced into bite sized pieces, ’cause that’s what I normally use in casseroles which call for diced or sliced chicken breasts. Everyone here loves zucchini, & I agree with you about Crimini mushrooms, as well. I use low sodium Soy Sauce, ’cause that’s all I buy. Also, the benefits of Ginger are VERY many, so I’m glad to see Ginger in this recipe. Thanks.
It’s sooooo good. Seriously, this is my replacement for Chinese takeout. Now…I’m gonna search this site for a Panang Curry (If I find it, I may never order out again!!)
So glad you love it so much. I’ll add Panang Curry to my to do list. Thanks for the suggestion.
Wow! This tastes so similar to the Panda Express version!
First time to cook this and it was delicious and very easy to follow. Thank you.
Has anyone subbed out the chicken for tofu? Any recommendations? This sounds AMAZING, just want to put it in for the rotation on “Meatless Mondays” tho! 🙂
I love chicken mushroom and zucchini served with steamed white rice.
Let’s be honest, I just went to Panda Express at the shopping mall and I just bought chicken mushroom and zucchini with steamed white rice, egg roll, chocolate chip cookie and Sobe life water during at my lunch time. It’s really good but thanks for telling me about that. Thank you, Sabrina.
do you have any recommendations for using any non-alcoholic ingredient aside form rice wine vinegar?
The best non-alcoholic substitution is apple cider vinegar. Hope this helps!
Is rice wine vinegar the same as Aji-Mirin?
They are not, Aji-Mirin is rice wine but it is not vinegar. Hope this helps!
I love this recipe. I did substitute the sugar for stevia and the cornstarch for almond flour. It still came out delicious.
So happy to hear that and that you were able to adjust for your diet – thanks for sharing so if anyone else wanted to swap they know it can be done. 🙂
Like! Thank you for posting this! I was trying to find something whole 30 and this was AMAZING!
You are so awesome!!! This is my favorite panda express menu. Thank you so much for recreating and sharing it with us. I have made it and it really does taste like Panda express!!
I often eat frozen mixed veggies boiled in bouillon but today I made this sauce (no chicken) and cooked my veggies in it and it was amazing! You nailed the flavor on this one. And it’s such a versatile flavor it would go great on chicken, shrimp, noodles etc. love it!
Fantastic! So glad you decided to give it a try.
Great idea!!! Veggies with this sauce=my new happy place!
So good. I’ve made this several times and just substituted shrimp. (Cooked veggies first, then took them out and cooked shrimp, then put it all together.)
Delicious, me and my husband had this for dinner and we loved it! very similar to Panda Express, thank you so much for sharing this recipe! One of my fav from Panda Express!
This. Was. Amazing! I am very, very rarely satisfied with copycat recipes but this was perfect! I used just one tbsp less corn starch and I added some steamed green beans in when I added back the chicken! Can’t wait to try the string bean chicken recipe!
Thanks for dropping by to let me know! I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Can you do this is an instant pot?
I haven’t tested it so I’m not comfortable giving a recommendation.
I’m on low sodium diet do I used low sodium soy sauce.to cut less sodium in recipes..
What brand/type of soy sauce did you use?
I use Kikkoman. I find they have the best flavor overall and have a reduced sodium option too. Enjoy!
This is even better than Panda Express ! And it comes out to only 3 Weight Watchers Freestyle points ! YUM!
I’ve never eaten at a Panda Express but I made this for dinner tonight and it was astounding! My wife kept comparing it to our favorite Chinese restaurant (complete with a menu in Chinese).
This will be a regular in the rotation now.
Thanks!
Yay!! Thanks for the 5 stars, Tom.
I’ve never purchased this dish at Panda Expeess, but this recipe on its own is outstanding! Minimal ingredients and simple to make. So yummy!!
Thanks so much, Melissa! I appreciate the 5 stars.
This was perfect! The chicken melted in your mouth. I am not much of a cook so you know if I can cook this then anyone can cook this, it was so easy. Thank you for sharing this. I feel like a proud chef boyardee. Ha ha
Haha, so glad you decided to give it a try! Thanks for the 5 stars.
Sabrina, you nailed this one! This is literally my favorite thing from panda express and I’m so thrilled I can make an exact copy of it at home! Thank you for perfecting this recipe! 🙂
Thanks, Dina! So glad you enjoyed it!
What can I use to replace rice wine vinegar. I don’t have it on hand
Hello, you can use Apple Cider Vinegar, Lemon or Lime juice, or Champagne Vinger. Hope this helps.
Going to do a trial run in very near future, because if this tastes as good as it looks my son will be doing this as part of his exam along with your baked rice.. will update.
Never had it at Panda Express to compare, but this recipe is excellent—good flavor, lots of veggies. Highly recommended!
I have prepared this dish several times….absolutely delicious and easy! Thanks for posting these wonderful Asian dishes. We live in an area with very limited dining out options and much prefer to cook at home with fresh garden ingredients!
Just made this for dinner, finger lickingly good….!