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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I used whole wheat spaghetti noodles and it still came out really good. It does change the overall texture (thicker noodles), but the flavor is all there!
This dish was absolutely delicious and so easy! Before his second bite, my husband asked if there was enough for leftovers. The only change I made was adding chicken for protein.
I used whole wheat spaghetti pasta because I do not have access to Soba and it came out yummy. Thank you.
Thank you so much! I made this for dinner for my family. It was my first time cooking, so I was nervous about how my family would like it (some are picky). All of my family gave a 5 out of 5!
i want to 5 stores today looking for yaki-soba I found just soba, and will be using it for dinner tonight but for next time I would like to know if there is a difference??
Soba is a completely different kind of noodle made from buckwheat flour.
My hubby said this was good as panda. I thought about adding some water chestnuts for some crunch?
Yes, that sounds great!
Love your recipes!
Just tried Panda Express for the very first time today in Canada. I’m hooked BUT it’s an hour away.
I know for a fact I will not be able to find the refrigerated noodles in my area so dried it is. Would you recommend cooking them earlier in the day and refrigerating or cooking fresh and adding to the dish hot?
I recommend cooking fresh and adding while it’s still hot.
Is it ok to use vegetable oil?
Yes, vegetable oil should be just fine.
we only have yakisoba but it’s not refrigerated. They are next to the top ramen. I will just use the microwaveable one and just boil it?
This was great! I wanted it to be our main dish, so I sauteed chicken in a mix of sesame and canola oils before adding in the veggies and made it “chicken chow mein.” Like others, I couldn’t find the refrigerated noodles, so I used dry and just cooked them according to package directions. I added in the cooked noodles after my veggies and before the sauce. My husband says this dish is better than restaurant food. Thanks so much!
I have to eat gluten free…do you think vermicelli noodles would work in this dish? (rice noodle, gluten free)
You can certainly substitute vermicelli noodles but I cannot speak for how much this will change the overall taste/texture of the dish as further recipe testing is needed. Please use your best judgment for this substitution.
Amazon has gluten free ramen noodles!! They are good!
I found Yakisoba refrigerated noodles in my supermarket but they were 7.7oz. packages, not 5.6oz. like you have listed in the recipe. I’m just wondering if I got the wrong ones? Mine say teriyaki but I assume that’s just the seasoning packet that comes with it.
Unfortunately without seeing the package, I cannot tell if you purchased the wrong noodles, but I suspect that it can come in different sizes.
These are the ones I bought, and the only ones I could find at any supermarket:
http://doclibrary.com/MFR3007/PRD/sku_pri_image_RT-1021_iuee.jpg
These should work just fine.
Re Noodles, Safeway and Fred’s (plus many others) carry them in the cold section in the VEGGIE area by the dressings and packaged salads, not with the dairy/egg area.
OMG this is really good. I will be making it again for sure
thanks for sharing it
so Carley, you didn’t cook the noodles, you just soaked them. I have the yaki soba dry noodles and was going to prepare them minus the seasoning packet as per the package. Do I cook them or not. Thanks for your input, I really want to make these
Have made this recipe a few times now. I love it and so does my family! So easy and delicious. I used Ramen noodles and soaked them in water, instead of using yaki soba noodles because my grocery didn’t have any. And it turned out great!! Thanks for the amazing recipie
For those unable to find the noodles in the refrigerated section, try Walmart. I got a 2-pack of yakisoba noodles in the nonrefrigerated Asian foods section. I think the brand was Hokkaido. Very good. They weren’t dried noodles, either.
This recipe was OUTSTANDING! I found you last week while looking for dairy free recipes and more healthy foods. My kids and I love Panda Noodles but I hate the greasy heavy feeling they leave. I added some mung bean sprouts to mine and my kids said they are better than the ones at the restaurant. I will be making this meal over and over!
I00% in agreement on your dislike of the amount of oil in fast food Chinese. It’s supposed to make you feel full, despite diminishing portion size.
Very grateful that now I can make my own version, reducing the fat, and increasing the number of vegetables. I might even add leftover chopped chicken.
So I looked at all my local grocery store and none of them carried the noodles. I called around to my local Asian markets and one store carried them but they were frozen. I made this before and didn’t taste quite right due to the extra water from the noodles that weren’t completely thawed. I am gonna try and make this again and completely thaw the noodles first!
In a pinch one day but craving this, I made it using a package of top ramen noodles that I had at home. (minus the seasoning) It was pretty tasty and we all enjoyed it.