Indulge in the ultimate savory delight! Our Mushroom Chicken recipe, with its tantalizing blend of mushrooms, veggies, and tender chicken, will transport you to the flavors of Panda Express. Savor the magic of garlic, soy sauce, ginger, rice wine vinegar, and hoisin sauce as they dance together, creating an irresistible skillet dinner. Get ready for a quick and delightful feast!
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🐼 Panda Express Mushroom Chicken
This recipe is inspired by the famous Mushroom Chicken entree at Panda Express. The original dish is made with “dark meat chicken, mushrooms, zucchini, water, soybean oil, contains less than 2% of: dehydrated garlic, phosphoric acid, guar gum, corn starch, sugar, soy sauce, rice, modified food starch, sesame oil, sodium phosphate, sea salt, salt, brown sugar, caramel flavor, natural flavor, yeast extract.” It is also made with a proprietary sauce that is made with: water, sugar, soy sauce, salt, spices.
Each serving of the original has 220 calories, 13 grams of protein, 14 grams of fat, and 10 grams of carbs. A serving size is 5.7 ounces.
💖 Why You’ll Love This Version of Mushroom Chicken
- Instead of using dark meat, this version uses boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Yes, dark meat is more flavorful, but white meat is easier to find and work with, in my opinion. Tamari is used in place of soy sauce, which helps to lower the sodium content of the dish.
- It can be made gluten-free.
- You don’t have to live or be near a Panda Express to enjoy it.
- It’s made with a lot of heart-healthy vegetables and mushrooms.
- It’s a chicken dish low in calories and carbohydrates.
🥘 Ingredients
Let’s take a look at what you need to make this copycat recipe:
Garlic Ginger Sauce
- tamari
- rice wine vinegar
- garlic cloves
- ginger
- hoisin sauce
Chicken and Veggies
- zucchini
- squash
- white mushrooms
- boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- cornstarch
- sesame oil
Before you get to cooking, gather all of your ingredients and wash and prep the vegetables.
For the zucchini and squash, slice them lengthwise and then cut each half into ⅓-inch slices, like a half moon. You should have about 3 cups of each zucchini and squash.
Remove the stems from the mushrooms. To make quick work of slicing mushrooms, place them, one-at-a-time, in an egg slicer and let it work its magic. If you don’t, then slice each mushroom from top to bottom in ⅛th inch increments, more or less.
Four cups of sliced mushrooms were used in this batch of mushroom chicken. I could have (and should have!) used another 2 cups of mushrooms.
Tip: If you have a Costco membership, look for organic zucchini and squash as well as organic mushrooms. The prices are good and you’ll get more than enough to make this recipe plus have leftovers for another side dish or even possibly zucchini bread.
Pat the chicken dry with paper towels. While some recipes call for cutting the chicken into bite-sized pieces, I recommend that you slice the chicken into thin pieces on the bias. This means that you will be cutting at an angle of about 45 degrees.
👩🏻🍳 Instructions
Now that all of your basic ingredients are ready, it’s time to get to wok! (Bad joke, delicious recipe.)
1. For the ginger garlic sauce, whisk together tamari, rice vinegar, garlic, ginger, and hoisin sauce. Set the sauce aside.
2. Toss the chicken pieces in cornstarch to coat. Set them aside.
3. Heat sesame oil in a large skillet (or wok) over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook until the chicken is cooked all the way, approximately 5-6 minutes. Be sure to stir the chicken continuously.
4. Remove the chicken from the pan. In the now-empty pan, add the zucchini, squash, and mushrooms.
Pour half the sauce over the vegetables and cook for 8-10 minutes, stirring often.
If you have a lid, you can cover the skillet to help the vegetables cook faster.
5. Return chicken to the skillet. Pour the remaining sauce over the chicken and vegetable mixture and stir. Cook for 2-3 minutes.
6. Remove the skillet from the heat.
🤷🏻♀️ Frequently Asked Questions
I like to use whatever mushrooms look best at the store. Button, cremini, and portabello mushrooms are all the same. They are just different “ages.”
Yes. I recommend that you use boneless, skinless chicken thighs and make sure to cut it thin and cook it thoroughly.
This dish is great with white rice, fried rice, or noodles.
The original recipe does contain gluten. You can make the homemade version using gluten-free tamari and then the dish would be gluten-free.
📖 Recipe
Panda Express Mushroom Chicken Copycat
Equipment
- Large Skillet
- Cutting board, sharp knife
Ingredients
Garlic Ginger Sauce
- ¼ cup tamari
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 2 teaspoons ginger minced
- 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
Chicken and Veggies
- 2 medium zucchini
- 2 medium squash
- 1 ½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts sliced on a diagonal into thin pieces
- ¼ cup cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons sesame oil
- 8 ounces white mushrooms sliced
Instructions
For the Sauce
- Whisk together tamari, rice vinegar, garlic, ginger, and hoisin sauce. Set aside.
Chicken and Veggies
- Slice zucchini and squash in half length-wise and then each half into ½-inch slices. Set aside.
- Toss chicken in cornstarch to coat. Set aside.
- Heat sesame oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook until chicken is cooked all the way, approximately 5-6 minutes.
- Remove the chicken from the pan and add zucchini, squash, and mushrooms to the now-empty pan. Pour half of the sauce over the vegetables. Cook for 8-10 minutes stirring often.
- Return the chicken to the skillet. Pour the remaining garlic ginger sauce over chicken and vegetable mixture and stir. Cook for 2 minutes.
- Remove from heat.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
🛡️ Safe Chicken Handling
Following are tips from the Centers For Disease Control for safe chicken handling:
- Wash your hands with warm soapy water for 20 seconds before and after handling raw chicken.
- Do not wash raw chicken.
- Use a separate cutting board for raw chicken.
- Never place cooked food or fresh produce on a plate, cutting board, or other surface that previously held raw chicken.
- Chicken should be cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Wash cutting boards, utensils, dishes, and countertops with hot soapy water after preparing chicken and before you prepare the next item.
- Refrigerate or freeze leftover chicken within 2 hours of being prepared (1 hour if the temperature is 90 degrees or higher).
Don’t Forget To Come Back And Let Me Know How Your Mushroom Chicken Turned Out!
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