Panda Express Chow Mein Copycat
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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!).
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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?
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Delicious! Your sauce made this chow mein. I added 2 chopped carrots and green onions, I like more veggies. I also browned the veggies including cabbage, most chow mein a have a bit if browning on the veggies .
Thank you
I have made these numerous times using coleslaw mix and add chicken!
Cole slaw mix is a good idea!
Hello:) I do not have have white pepper, is regular black ok?
Yes!
Hi! This recipe looks awesome, just one question though, can I use black pepper? Or does it have to be white?:)
Yes, black pepper can be used.
I love Panda’s chow mein and while this recipe is good, I wouldn’t call it a “copy cat.” That implies they taste almost the same and I don’t think these do. Over all a good recipe!
I sadly did not like it at all. I felt it was bland and even added hot oil to my plate and still thought it lacked… I am so disappointed as it looks exactly the same but maybe I had built it up more in my mind
I was excited to try this recipe, as my children & I love Panda Express Chow Mein, and I was making Orange Chicken to go with it. However, we were very disappointed. It did not taste anything like Panda Express Chow Mein at all, and my kids would not eat it. I ended up finishing it over the next couple of days, because it did taste okay, just not like Panda’s. I don’t think Panda Express uses ginger in their recipe. I followed the recipe exactly as written. 🙁
I didn’t think this tasted like Panda Express either! It’s a good recipe, but not what you’re expecting based off the name and photos. I even made it a second time with less ginger and still no. The flavor profiles aren’t similar at all.
The pictures also don’t really depict much sauce or ingredients in it, not sure how it would taste better than Panda.
Hi,made this recipe last week,and it was really good.But thought that the yakisoba noodles were too soft.And I didn’t cook the yakisoba,either.Just put them in the boiling water long enough for them to separate,and then into the collender.I made it to do 1 1/2 times the recipe.In ounces,how much dry angel hair pasta would I use to make a pound of cooked angel hair?
Here is a great guide to estimating pasta yield. Hope that helps!
http://www.thekitchn.com/ounces-to-cups-a-guide-to-estimating-pasta-yield-179180
Super yummy!!! Thanks for posting.
I really want to try this recipe,but have looked all over for these noodles,and cannot find them anywhere! Would DeCecco dry angel hair pasta #9 be a good replacement for the Yakisoba fresh in here? It looks like the exact same size.
Yes, absolutely.
If you’re sensitive to ginger, I would def recommend adding 1 tsp. I would also recommend adding in the garlic a minute/two after the onion instead of adding it to the sauce. Chung-ah has good base recipes but I always feel like something is lacking when following her recipes exactly. I usually tweak the recipes to suit my taste buds.
I enjoyed the recipe, for the most part, however, I feel like the taste of ginger is a little overpowering. I think next time I do this recipe I will add much less of the ginger! Thank you for the recipe!
This was really really good. I could not find fresh Yakisoba noodles at my grocer so used the dried Manchurian brand. The noodles were just okay but I bet the fresh noodles are the best complement to this dish. Flavor wise, though, it was fantastic!! I added shrimp (for the hubby) and am definitely going to make this again and often. Will go to the local Asian market for the noodles next time though. As others have said, your blog is amazing! Love your thoughtful recipes and mouthwatering pictures.
Is this recipe dry like panda express I hate wet noodles,that’s why I like pandas so much
Yes, this is a Panda Express copycat! 🙂
Can I use traditional rice noodles for this recipe?
Yes, absolutely.
Just made this for dinner and LOVED it! I’ve never been to Panda Express, but I’m assuming it’s similar to Manchu Wok (Canada). I’m a starving student (and it’s finals) so my dinners need to fit 3 pieces of criteria: quick, easy, and inexpensive; this dinner hit all 3 marks. 10/10 would make again! I added chicken, chopped carrots and snow peas to make it more substantial.
Great recipe!! Tried it tonight but substituted Ramen Noodles and it worked fine. My 9 year old was not too keen on it but my husband and I loved it. Thank you for an excellent recipe.
I was wondering the difference between chow mien and low mien, and do you have any recipes for low mien? The few I have found have so many ingredients, that I can’t afford to go out and buy all of that. Is there an easier way?
The difference between the two lies in the way that they are prepared. You can read more about it here. I do not have a specific lo mein recipe but feel free to try out any of these quick-fix Asian noodle recipes – you can use any type of noodles you have on hand – spaghetti, linguine, fettuccine, etc.
Can you use Udon instead?
Yes, absolutely.
Wow, what an absolutely delicious recipe! I made this along with your sesame chicken potstickers, and we had a feast! I’m definitely adding this to my culinary repertoire, especially since we have so many leftover to freeze! Thanks so much! I’m a fan of this blog 🙂