Panda Express Chow Mein Copycat
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Tastes just like Panda Express except it takes just minutes to whip up and tastes a million times better!
I love recreating take-out recipes at home. You know exactly what’s going into your dish, and the homemade version is ALWAYS better without a doubt. And this Panda Express copycat is no exception. Best of all, you can make this in less than 20 minutes! How easy is that?
I kid you not. This is one of the easiest recipes I have ever made. It requires such few ingredients and this recipe is practically foolproof. And there really is no comparison to Panda Express because it’s just that much better. We didn’t even have a main dish to pair this with but we still devoured this on its own like there was no tomorrow!
TOOLS FOR THIS RECIPE
WHAT IS YAKI-SOBA?
Yaki-Soba is ramen-style noodles and can be found in the refrigerated aisle of your local grocery store.
Panda Express Chow Mein Copycat
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; 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.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
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This was a good tasting replica of Panda Express’s Chowmein. The 1st time I made it, I didn’t have fresh ginger so used ground ginger. It was very tasty! The 2nd time, I made it with the fresh ginger; the ginger overwhelmed the other flavors, and my husband and I did not care for it. Will be making it again tonight, but will go back to using ground ginger. Overall, it’s a very good recipe!
How much ground ginger did you use?
Hi, Can I ask how much ground Ginger you use in the recipe as listed for 4 servings? Thanks, Greg
Can I leave out celery or substitute it with something? Otherwise seems like a great easy recipe, would love to try this!
I haven’t made this recipe yet, but, I’ve always substituted celery with green peppers. My son hates cooked celery!
This recipe is delicious! I doubled it so there would be left overs but the three of us ate all of it!! I added a little Sesame oil and no ginger. Delicious! Can’t wait to make it again! Thank you for sharing!
Omg so good. I’ve been craving Panda’s chow mein for a very long time but with COVID, I didn’t wanna go there. This was so easy, vegan, and tastes a million times better. It’s not near as salty or greasy & has more flavor thanks to the fresh garlic & ginger. It was even better the next day. This is going to be a staple for me as I transition to a vegan diet next year.
This is my favorite copycat version of Panda’s chow mein. Sometimes I add chicken to make it an easy dinner meal. I never can find the noodles called for, so I just use thin spaghetti and it’s still very good and not mushy at all. Thank you!
Put some baking soda in with your noodles and they’ll become more stretchy and chewy
I made this recipe a few days ago and then ended up eating chow mein at the mentioned place of business tonight for dinner. I use the term “eat” loosely because the fast food noodles were inedible after making yours! We’ll never go back to that place! This is way better!
Just made this tonight. With Panda Express inspired Bejing beef. They complimented each other so well. Everyone loved it!!! Thank you for the delicious recipe! 🙂
Excellent..thank you
You can find the yaki soba noodles next to the spring / egg roll skins.
One of my favorite chow mein recipes…I’ve made this many times before and it’s always delicious!
I just made this for my family and it was delicious! Thank you so much. I’m always trying to find good vegan meals that my non vegan family will eat. So good!
The real recipe at Panda Express is 1 bag of chow mein, 1/4 cup basic cooking sauce (soy sauce), 3 tablespoon vegetable oil, 3 table spoon cooking oil, lettuce
Lettuce?
Good taste
This is almost an exact copycat but I add about 1 1/2 tbsp of oyster sauce to give it that salty savoury kick and dark color that Panda Express noodles have (; I also don’t use brown sugar
This was ok, but just kind of tasted like soy sauce on noodles. Was fine for supper and my kids ate it, so that’s a win. I do appreciate it’s simplicity.
Damn delicious lives up to its name with this recipe. I feel it tastes very similar to Panda Express’ chow mein, and it cooks up in no time.
It’s a great easy recipe that we all love! We live in the middle of nowhere and when I get a hankering for take out- this does the job. Hits all the notes- salty sweet savory crunchy yummy. Thanks!!
Oh wow! Thank you! 🙂
Tried your copycat recipe for Panda Express for the first time. I will try it again. Tonight’s results were good but I didn’t achieve a true “copycat” version. The 2 teaspoons of ginger were too much and the result was a definite ginger taste that Panda Express doesn’t have. My noodles didn’t turn out as dark a color as Panda’s. So My version was quite tasty and I wouldn’t be ashamed to serve it to guest, minus too much ginger.
I will try again. Thanks for posting your recipe.
Very yummy!! I replaced the soy sauce for coconut aminos and liquid aminos. And instead of the noodles I spiralized zuchinni. Super yummy!
This is the BEST chow mein noodle recipe. I started making it about a year ago and my family loves it. The sauce is perfect…not too sweet or salty. And I make sure the noodles get to the nice, crispy brown stage.
Easy and SO delicious! One of the rare times my whole family gave a thumbs up. I added some shredded chicken.