Tag: Panda Express

Panda Express calls its new Hot Ones Blazing Bourbon Chicken the spiciest dish the chain has ever offered, thanks to its sauce being made with the Hot Ones’ infamous Last Dap Apollo Hot Sauce.

While it does have a good tongue-poking amount of heat, I can’t say I’m 100 percent sure it’s the spiciest ever because there might’ve been a Panda Express entree that was so devastatingly hot that my mind and mouth wiped any memory about it. While I’m not sure it burns the most, it does make up for the mild Hot Orange Chicken from a few months ago.

The limited time entree features crispy boneless chicken bites, onions, bell peppers, and chili peppers in an extra spicy and sweet bourbon sauce that’s sprinkled with sesame seeds. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Panda Express knows how to make a great sweet and savory sauce, and that’s the case with Blazing Bourbon Chicken.

But let’s start with the heat. If you’re expecting a reaction that’s similar to the ones on the Hot Ones talk show, where celebrities have their sweat, tear, or salivary glands, or any combination of the three get forced into bodily fluid production overdrive, your glands need not worry, if you likey the spicy. After finishing off a small a la carte container of the chicken, the top of my head and the back of my neck were sweating a bit. But it’s not as blazing as I expected it to be with a sauce made from the Apollo Hot Sauce, and, despite the sweating, I didn’t feel compelled to extinguish the burn in my mouth. But that’s not a bad thing because the heat doesn’t overwhelm the great tasting bourbon-flavored coating.

As for that wonderful sauce, I get a hint of bourbon flavor, but for the most part, I notice a level of umami that reminds me of soy sauce and a sweetness that could be from honey or brown sugar. I’ve never had the Last Dab before, so I can’t say if I taste it here, but my brave taste buds don’t notice anything that could be considered the flavor of a hot pepper, just the spiciness from one. Speaking of peppers, the vegetables in the entree bring a different crisp texture than the chicken’s coating, and they help temper the sauce’s heat. The chili peppers, surprisingly, didn’t seem to elevate the dish’s burn.

Panda Express’ Hot Ones Blazing Bourbon Chicken has the right amounts of savoriness, sweetness, and spiciness. It’s so good that I could see myself swapping it with my beloved Orange Chicken a few times while it’s on the menu.

Purchased Price: $5.40
Size: Small container
Rating: 9 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (5.5 oz serving) 400 calories, 5 grams of saturated fat, 40 grams of carbohydrates, and 14 grams of protein.

Click here for our most recent fast food reviews

Did you know Panda Express’ Orange Chicken is spicy?

Take a look at the restaurant’s website; you’ll find a graphic with one pepper next to the Orange Chicken. I’ve always known the pepper image was there, but much like every slip of paper I’ve pulled out from a Panda Express fortune cookie, it’s meaningless. Besides the warmth of them being heated in a giant wok on a gas burner with a hypnotizing flame that calls out my name, I’ve never considered the popular entree as “spicy.” If you’re like me and roll your eyes about its “spiciness,” the fast food chain now offers Hot Orange Chicken and it has a graphic with TWO PEPPERS!!

Panda describes the spicy dish as “Crispy chicken bites wok-tossed in our signature orange sauce with more HEAT.” According to the chain, the original Orange Chicken recipe has one teaspoon of crushed chilies, but what brings the HEAT in this new dish is six scoops of those crushed chilies and a ladle full of dried chilies. Those dried ones are also in Panda’s Kung Pao Chicken, which also has a one-pepper graphic but is significantly spicier than regular Orange Chicken.

The small a la carte order I purchased had only two dried chili pepper pieces. I guess the luck of the ladle wasn’t with me. When I tried it without the dried peppers, it had a “spiciness” that was the same as the original Orange Chicken. So maybe mine was made with less than six teaspoons of crushed chilies? However, when I ate one of the dried chilies with the meat, the heat got kicked up a notch or two, so I guess the two pepper graphic accurately represented the dish’s spiciness. Also, the dried peppers changed the entree’s flavor a little, making it slightly less sweet than the original recipe.

Panda Express’ Hot Orange Chicken is not an improvement or as great as the original, and it’s not as hot as that alluring flame that heats the woks and calls for me to touch it. It can get spicy, but it depends on the luck of the ladle. If it pulls a lot of dried chilies, expect a burn with most bites. But if it ends up being like my order, expect some disappointment if you’re a heathead.

Purchased Price: $5.40
Size: Small container
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (6.92 oz) 590 calories, 7 grams of saturated fat, 53 grams of carbohydrates, and 26 grams of protein.

Panda Express’ fortune cookie is the fast food chain’s default dessert. It comes with every order, but it’s not the best way to end your meal, especially if you happen to get a stale one (which has happened to me on more than one occasion) or you get a fortune that reads, “Keep your expectations reasonable,” after expecting to get a crunchy fortune cookie.

If you’re a regular Panda Express eater, I imagine you’ve had dozens of these fortune cookies and, at some point, wished there was something better to consume post-meal. Well, my Orange Chicken or Eggplant Tofu-loving friend, there’s something much better now — Panda Express’ Apple Pie Rolls.

The dessert features apples and fall spices in a crispy rolled pastry that’s finished with cinnamon sugar. An order is just one roll for two dollars. The warm treat is about six inches long and three-fourths of an inch wide, and it looks like it rolled through the Sahara Desert if the Sahara Desert was cinnamon sugar instead of sand.

The fried exterior has a nice crispiness, but underneath that are unfried pastry layers that give some resistance when trying to bite through the roll. But once you get past that minor opposition, the combination of the cinnamon sugar, slightly snappy apple pieces, and gelatinous goo the fruit is floating in is a delightful treat. This is as great as McDonald’s Fried Apple Pie (which we still have on these rocks in the middle of the Pacific Ocean). It has all the flavors of an apple pie, but without the need of a fork to eat it.

I liked it so much that when one of the halves above rolled off my cutting board and onto the floor, I growled at my dog as she charged towards it to keep her from snatching it, picked up the piece, ignored the five-second rule, and ate it. Then, I had to clean up a mess of cinnamon sugar off the floor.

Its price is the only issue I have about it, and I feel this way because I have something to compare it with. McDonald’s Fried Apple Pie goes for $1.69, and although it lacks a cinnamon sugar coating, the McDonald’s one is about the same length and noticeably wider. It’s a minor issue, and you can get Apple Pie Rolls cheaper if you purchase a large order of six pieces for $11.40.

So if the Panda Express cashier attempts to upsell you an Apple Pie Roll, I’d suggest you plunk down the extra two dollars and get one.

Purchased Price: $2.00
Rating: 9 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1 roll) 150 calories, 3 grams of fat, 1 gram of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 90 milligrams of sodium, 30 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, 13 grams of sugar, and 2 grams of protein.

I have not eaten my weight in Panda Express’ Orange Chicken, and moments of my life were used to calculating whether I did. But I’ve eaten so much of it that I can instantly tell Panda Express’ faux fowl Beyond Orange Chicken doesn’t taste EXACTLY like the real deal.

But I felt that was going to be the case before trying the new entree because I’ve eaten enough plant-based chick’n/chik’n/chic’n/ch’ken/ch’k’n products to know what to expect, which is something that doesn’t taste exactly like chicken.

It’s hard for me to explain the flavor of the plant-based meat in this entree. It’s not poultry-like, but I don’t find it unappealing. The Orange Chicken sauce is the same sweet stuff with a slight kick that made Panda Express what it is today. I’ve always thought that it’s so tasty that it would go great with any fried animal or plant-based protein, and that’s the case with Beyond Orange Chicken.

However, while I like this and would eat it again, its overall flavor doesn’t convince me it’s as craveable as the original, which is what the Panda Express website claims. But if you’re into plant-based meats, it’s definitely worth a try.

While I don’t find the entree’s flavor odd, its appearance is a little weird. Unlike the various piece sizes of the O.G.O.C., Beyond Orange Chicken are uniform and look like Beyond Meat’s attempt to recreate BTS’ finger hearts in faux-meat form.

The interior looks tofu adjacent, and the off-white spots in the “meat” look peculiar. Although my issues with the spots might be the result of looking at way too much sci-fi anime and manga. The protein’s texture reminds me of slightly dried up tofu (UPDATE: I’m eating leftovers and they now remind me more of a chicken nugget), and while the exterior has some crispiness, it’s more like a Chicken McNugget than the original Orange Chicken’s breading.

Much like Panda Express’ steak and shrimp entrees, Beyond Orange Chicken has a premium upcharge. Because of that higher price, not being as delicious as the original, and being a limited time offering, I don’t think I’ll ever come close to eating my weight in it.

Purchased Price: $15.90
Size: Large a la carte container
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (4.75 oz) 440 calories, 22 grams of fat, 5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 810 milligrams of sodium, 47 grams of carbohydrates, 5 grams of fiber, 15 grams of sugar, and 13 grams of protein.

What is Panda Express Crispy Almond Chicken Breast?

According to Panda Express, the entree “features large, juicy all-white meat chicken breaded with our crunchy, signature puffed-rice breading that is wok-tossed with toasted almonds & freshly chopped green onions in a savory garlic soy sauce.”

How is it?

It tastes like it was inspired by Korean fried chicken, and if for some reason oranges go extinct and Panda Express can no longer offer its signature dish, this could easily replace it for me. Yes, it’s Orange Chicken-level delicious.

If you’ve never had Korean fried chicken, well then, stop reading this and go try some because it’s super good. But, if that’s not possible, go read all the recipes Google spits out and make your own. If that’s not possible, add it to your food bucket list with a note that says, “Bring moist towelettes.”

The thick dark colored garlic soy sauce that fills every nook and cranny in the breading is not as sweet as previous Panda Express sauces, but nevertheless, it delights my savory side. The soy sauce stands out a little bit more than the garlic, and if not for a slight sweetness, the sauce might’ve been a bit too salty.

The coating has a satisfying crunch to it, and for the most part, doesn’t get soggy from the sauce. The white meat chicken was tender, although some pieces I received seemed to be mostly batter.

Oh, some Korean fried chicken recipes are spicy, but these definitely aren’t.

So what about the almonds? They provide some added texture and allow Panda Express to put the word “almond” in its name, but they don’t add any flavor. I think they’re mostly there to prevent this from looking like other crispy Panda Express chicken dishes.

Anything else you need to know?

When I first heard about this product, I thought, “Wow. Panda Express created a crunchy coating using almonds.” But as you read in the description above, it’s a puffed-rice breading.

Also, do you know what would’ve been cool to offer with this, Panda Express? If someone orders the Crispy Almond Chicken Breast, they should be given a Chinese almond cookie instead of the usual fortune cookie. SYNERGY, Panda Express!!! SYNERGY!!! Am I using that correctly, businesspeople?

Conclusion:

Like Amazon shipping box sizes, the number of sauced and boneless crispy chicken dishes that Panda Express has offered over the years is vast. The folks in its test kitchens know how to make them delicious, and this new Crispy Almond Chicken Breast proves that once again.

Purchased Price: $10.90
Size: Large à la carte container
Rating: 9 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (5.5 oz) 470 calories, 24 grams of fat, 5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 40 milligrams of cholesterol, 960 milligrams of sodium, 39 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber, 8 grams of sugar, and 23 grams of protein.