Panda Express Chow Mein Copycat
This post may contain affiliate links. Please see our privacy policy for details.
This Panda Express chow mein copycat version can be made in just 20 minutes right at home (and it tastes so much better than the original!).
Featured Comment
Why you’ll love Panda Express Chow Mein Copycat
- Lightning fast recipe. This is a speedy 20 minute recipe start to finish. It’s so much faster than delivery or takeout using Yaki-Soba noodles, onion, celery, cabbage, and an easy stir-fry sauce.
- Uses better-quality ingredients. You can use high quality oils and avoid unwanted sodium and preservatives, loading this up with all the feel-good veggies, perfect for those picky eaters!
- So customizable. Making this at home allows you to completely customize this dish with what you have on hand, adding in leftover proteins (for example, rotisserie chicken) and lingering veggies to transform this into a hearty main dish.
What is chow mein?
This is a popular Chinese dish that translates to “stir fried noodles” in Cantonese. The noodles are stir fried or pan-fried, resulting in a crispier texture in a light sauce whereas lo mein noodles are softer and fully boiled with a richer sauce.
Key Ingredients
- Noodles: Yaki-Soba noodles, ramen noodles, or fresh Chinese egg noodles
- Vegetables: onion, celery, and cabbage
- Sauce: soy sauce, garlic, brown sugar, ginger, and white pepper
How to make Panda Express Chow Mein Copycat
- Cook the noodles. Boil the Yaki-Soba noodles until loosened, about 1-2 minutes, rinsing with cold water to halt the cooking process.
- Prep the stir fry sauce. Combine the soy sauce, garlic, brown sugar, ginger, and white pepper.
- Stir fry the vegetables. Cook the onion and celery in a large cast iron skillet over medium high heat until tender, then stir in the cabbage until softened.
- Combine and toss. Stir in the Yaki-Soba noodles and stir fry sauce until the noodles are evenly coated in the sauce.
What to serve with Panda Express Chow Mein Copycat
Tools For This Recipe
Panda Express Chow Mein Copycat: Frequently Asked Questions
Yaki-Soba are ramen-style noodles and can be found in the refrigerated aisle of your local grocery store.
Ramen noodles (without the seasoning packet) and lo mein noodles are both excellent substitutes.
Their chow mein includes a simple trio of onion, celery, and cabbage.
Absolutely! This recipe is incredibly flexible and forgiving, and it’s the perfect opportunity to use up leftover protein (chicken, steak, pork, or shrimp) and veggies (carrots, mushrooms, bell peppers, or bok choy).
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days, reheating on the stovetop over medium heat in a skillet or wok with a splash of water or broth for 3-4 minutes (to restore its original texture).
Panda Express Chow Mein Copycat
Video
Ingredients
- 2 (5.6-ounce) packages refrigerated Yaki-Soba, seasoning sauce packets discarded*
- ¼ cup reduced sodium soy sauce
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar, packed
- 2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger
- ¼ teaspoon white pepper
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 onion, diced
- 3 ribs celery, sliced diagonally
- 2 cups shredded cabbage
Instructions
- In a large pot of boiling water, add Yaki-Soba until loosened, about 1-2 minutes; rinse with cold water and drain well.
- In a small bowl, whisk together soy sauce, garlic, brown sugar, ginger and white pepper; set aside.
- Heat olive oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Add onion and celery, and cook, stirring often, until tender, about 3-4 minutes. Stir in cabbage until heated through, about 1 minute.
- Stir in Yaki-Soba and soy sauce mixture until well combined, about 2 minutes.
- Serve immediately.
Equipment
Notes
- Prep beforehand. This recipe comes together quickly. Have all the ingredients and sauce ready to go prior to cooking.
- Use reduced sodium soy sauce. Reduced sodium has less sodium and less salt without compromising flavor.
- Cook until al dente. Cook the Yaki-Soba noodles just until al dente as they will continue to cook when stir-fried.
- Rinse noodles with cold water. This will stop the cooking process to tighten the starches and keep the noodles from clumping.
- Reheat on the stovetop. Reheat the leftover noodles in a skillet or wok to prevent soggy noodles and to revive the original crisp texture.
Did you make this recipe?
Tag @damn_delicious on Instagram and hashtag it #damndelicious!
This was great! Thanks! Always looking for some quick vegan recipes.
2nd time making this week! So good! I just used a pack of Mr.Noodle (no seasoning pack), because that’s what I had on hand. My picky teenager loved it!
Glad to see everyone post the different noodle options since those listed in the recipe were not available here.
Would you be able to provide nutritional information, including calories?
Looks delicious!
Can you please suggest a substitute for yakisoba noodles? We do not have these types of noodles in our town. Would dried lo mein work? Other options? Thank you!
I’ve made this with spaghetti noodles, ramen noodles, whatever I need to use up. Sometimes I even use the yaki soba noodles, haha.
We made it for dinner. We didn’t have white pepper or fresh ginger, so we used black (we forgot to 1/2 it!!) and powdered ginger (probably should have used less too) and it came out super spicy! It was still delicious and quick (it was ready before the egg rolls!). We will definitely make it again, just with the right ingredients. Thank you!!!
I had the same problem. Looked two different times. All kinds of refrigerated noodles, but not these.
Hi! I made the Express Chow Mein from your cookbook ( just bought it), and it was SO, so good.
I added fresh broccoli and shredded chicken breast to bulk it up more for a main course, and it was just delicious. My picky 11 year old son had thirds!… That doesn’t happen too often. Thanks so much!
I cant wait to make this
Made for dinner adding about a pound of cubed chicken breast. I coated the cubes in potato starch & fried in the wok first to season it, THEN added the veggies to sauté to get up all that chicken flavor. Added the cabbage last, sautéed up to wilt some, covered the wok so the cabbage would soften. Added my pre-soaked, hot, yaki noodles & gave all a quick tossing with another shake of soy sauce, dash of sesame oil and topped with some green onions. I’ve never had Panda Express anything but this recipe turned out ‘damned delicious’!!
Soo awesome! We found this recipe in the cookbook. In the book, it looks like the sauce is doubled. We actually added a couple more cloves of garlic because we love garlic. Also added some chicken and veggies. Garnished with green onion and sesame seeds. We will definitely add this to the rotation!
My daughter always orders this at Panda…said she likes it better. This was so delicious. We will be making this many more times!!
Delicious and hubby gave it a thumbs up. I cooked the vegetables longer as hubby is not a fan of crunchy veggies. I also added chicken. I used the Ramen noodles from Costco. Great flavor. Will probably make more sauce next time.
Thank you for a delicious awesome recipe. I made it last night and ate the rest of it this evening. I will look forward to making this a couple of times a month, I think. It was easy to make and truly a healthy and elicious dinner. Again, many thanks.
Larry
Lovely, but would use sesame oil to add true Asian flavor.
Sounds tasty but to make it even healthier, I would swap out the sugar and soy sauce. I’d replace them with coconut aminos which to me tastes a lot like soy.
so good, used thin spaghetti and added fresh shrimp to it.
I used thin spaghetti noodles because that’s what I had and it turned out great!
This was very, very good. I did it as written but did a little less ginger (although I love it) as others had said it was a bit strong. Very good, I will make it again. Thanks!
Very tasty recipe to add into our dinner rotation! Husband and two year old loved it . I tripled the sauce recipe and added tofu
Super simple and yummy – yes better than Panda Express because I know exactly what’s gone into it! Was able to bring an element of Panda Express on our dining table as we are currently a 20 hour flight away to the nearest PE (Hawaii) :)!
This is my favorite Asian noodle dish. I added bbq pork and made it a complete meal.