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This Panda Express Mushroom Chicken copycat recipe tastes just like the original with tender chicken, mushrooms, and zucchini in a light ginger soy sauce. If you’ve ever ordered this at Panda Express, you’ll recognize the same ingredients and flavor, but you can make it at home in under 30 minutes.
Table of Contents
I’ve ordered this at Panda Express more times than I can count. We
Key Ingredients
- Boneless skinless chicken thighs: Boneless skinless chicken breasts or chicken cutlets can also be used.
- Corn starch: This gives the chicken its crispy fried texture.
- Mushrooms: Sliced white mushrooms work best in this recipe.
- Zucchini: Sliced and halved into bite-size pieces.
- Olive Oil: For sautéing the chicken and vegetables.
- Light Ginger Soy Sauce: Chicken broth, soy sauce, white cooking wine, rice vinegar, garlic, ginger, brown sugar, cornstarch.
- Serve over steamed white rice, brown rice or chow mein noodles.
How to Make Panda Express Mushroom Chicken
- Coat the chicken: Place the bite-sized chicken pieces in a bowl and toss with cornstarch until evenly coated. This gives the chicken a light crust when cooked.
- Cook the chicken: Heat oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Add the chicken in a single layer, don’t overcrowd the pan. Cook for 5-6 minutes, turning once, until both sides are lightly browned and cooked through. Remove chicken from pan.
- Add the vegetables: In the same pan, add remaining 2 tablespoons oil. Add the mushrooms and sauté for 1 minute. Then add zucchini and sauté until the zucchini is cooked through. Do not overcook, the zucchini should still be slightly crisp. Remove from heat.
- Make the ginger soy sauce: Whisk the chicken broth, soy sauce, white cooking wine, rice vinegar, garlic, ginger and brown sugar together in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes, stirring often.
- Stir cornstarch and water together in a small bowl.
- Slowly add the cornstarch slurry to the sauce, whisking constantly. Once sauce thickens, remove from heat.
- Combine and finish: Return the chicken to the pan. Stir in the sauce until the chicken and veggies are coated.
- Serve: Serve immediately over steamed rice or Panda Express Chow Mein Noodles.
Panda Express Mushroom Chicken Sauce
We did a side-by-side comparison of both the Mushroom Chicken and the Panda Express String Bean Chicken recipe and concluded the sauce for both of these recipes is exactly the same! Even on the Panda website, for both recipes they say the chicken is “tossed in a light ginger soy sauce.” The mushrooms may give the sauce for this recipe a deeper flavor but the base sauce recipe is the same. So whip up a double batch of sauce and enjoy two favorite copycat recipes at once.
How to Store Leftovers
Keep leftovers in an airtight container for easy storage in the fridge for up to three days. Reheat in the microwave for about a minute or so, stirring often.
Frequently asked Questions
Make sure the chicken is fully coated in cornstarch and that the pan and oil are hot before adding the chicken. Also, avoid overcrowding the pan. If the chicken is too close together, it will steam instead of brown. Cook the chicken in batches if needed.
The sauce should lightly coat the chicken and vegetables. It shouldn’t be heavy or sticky.
Too thick: Add a tablespoon of chicken broth to loosen it.
Too thin: Let it simmer a little longer. If it still doesn’t thicken, make another cornstarch slurry (1 tablespoon cornstarch and 1 tablespoon water). Slowly stir it in to the sauce until it reaches desired thickness).
Yes. You can substitute additional chicken broth to achieve a similar taste and texture.
You can, but frozen vegetables won’t have the same taste and texture as fresh. Fresh vegetables work best.
READ MORE: 35+ Easy Family Dinner Ideas
Other Panda Express Entrée Recipes (and more Asian-Inspired Entrees)
We have created delicious copycat recipes to many of your Asian restaurant favorites. Make them all for your next big bash or Friday night date night.
With our simple recipes, you can have an entire Chinese feast in no time. Pair this Mushroom Chicken recipe with a few more of our favorites:
How to Make Panda Express Mushroom Chicken
Panda Express Mushroom Chicken (Copycat Recipe)
Video
Ingredients
- 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs or breasts
- ⅓ cup cornstarch
- 5 tablespoons olive oil,, divided
- 1 cup white mushrooms,, sliced
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- ½ pound zucchini,, cut into ½-inch pieces
Ginger Soy Sauce
- 1 cup chicken broth
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons white cooking wine
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 2 teaspoons crushed garlic
- 2 teaspoons grated or finely chopped fresh ginger
- 1 teaspoon brown sugar
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- ¼ cup water
Instructions
- Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces and toss in cornstarch until each piece is well coated. Set aside.
- Heat 3 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat in large skillet or wok.
- Add chicken pieces to skillet one at a time, spacing them apart far enough that they aren’t touching. Cook for about 5-6 minutes per side or until the outside of the chicken is golden brown and is cooked through all the way.
- Remove cooked chicken from skillet, cover, and set aside. Wipe skillet clean. Place skillet back on stovetop over medium-high heat and add remaining 2 tablespoons oil.
- Add mushrooms and soy sauce. Saute for about 1 minute. Add zucchini and saute until the zucchini is just cooked through. Do not overcook; the zucchini should still have some bite to it.
- Add chicken back to the skillet and stir in the ginger soy sauce until chicken and veggies are all covered in sauce.
- Serve immediately with rice or chow mein.
Ginger Soy Sauce
- Combine chicken broth, soy sauce, white wine, rice vinegar, garlic, ginger, and brown sugar in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring often.
- In a small bowl, stir cornstarch and water together. Slowly add the mixture to the sauce, whisking constantly until the sauce thickens. You may not need all of the cornstarch mixture. Remove from heat and set aside until ready to use.
Notes
- Broccoli
- Green bell pepper
- Carrots
- Diced onions or a sprinkle of onion powder
- Green beans
- Fresh parsley, fresh thyme, or other fresh herbs
- Sesame seeds
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Husband and I LOVED this. Will make again! Only question is nutrition, what is a serving size amount/ quantity?
I’m not sure on the quantity of each serving, I just know this is listed as 4 servings so I would just divide what it makes by 4.
Made it last night. OMG the best recipe. It’s a keeper. Thank you for sharing
So glad you liked it!
I substituted the chicken (did not have boneless thighs) for chuck steak which I cut up into bite size pieces. I substituted the white cooking wine with 1 tbs of ACV and I did not have any rice vinegar, so I used just 1tbs of balsamic vinegar. I cooked the beef with the sauce in a slow cooker on high for 2 hours first, I then added the mushrooms, onions, and zucchini for the last hour. It is delicious because the sauce has permeated all ingredients perfectly. It taste just like Panda Express! Will definitely make it again.
OMG!!! This is an amazing hidden jewel. My Hubby, who rarely comments on food items, was complimentary!! The picky Granddaughter repeatedly said “So Good!”. Thanks for sharing and I hope more find their way.
Where do you buy “white cooking wine”? Are we talking just regular wine I would drink? I don’t drink so I’m clueless, what could I substitute?
Thanks!!
Any white wine at the grocery store will work! A substitute would be some chicken broth and a squeeze of lemon juice!
Use a white wine you would drink. I have some mirin that I’m going to use.
Added onions with mushrooms. Doubled the sauce. Needed to add more brown sugar to sweeten the sauce. It was something I will make again.
I love this. Just hoping I can make as good as they do
I thought that this was a great recipe. But I too felt it was too salty. I think that next time I am going to have to use less sauce. Also less starch mix. Not quite Panda, but far better for the frugal household. This recipe makes a great amount too.
This was soo good! It did take me a lot longer than 15 minutes, though. I wonder if I could freeze this or make it into a freezer meal of some kind to save time?
Yes, you can freeze the chicken. I would recommend preparing without the vegetables though and cooking them separate after freezing. Mushrooms don’t freeze well. Hope this helps!
Everything looked great until we tasted it and it was way too salty. If I made it again I’d use low sodium soy sauce and half the sauce. Even my hubby who loves salt said yikes.
Oh no LeAnne! I am so sorry to hear this! You can also use low-sodium broth as well. I double-checked the chicken broth I used and I realized I used the lower-sodium broth from Costco so I am guessing why mine didn’t turn out as salty. I made some adjustments to the recipe so hopefully those who try it in the future won’t have the same problem. Thank you so much for coming back and letting me know so I could re-evaluate the recipe!