Get Fresh Orange Chicken From Panda Express Every Time. You Just Need The Magic Phrase
Panda Express is well known for its famous orange chicken. After all, orange chicken is highly ranked as one of the best options on the menu. However, not every serving of orange chicken is the same. Depending on when you go, you can either get a hot and crisp portion or one that's become a bit soggy from sitting in the tray for a bit too long. The key to this trick is to politely ask the server if you can have your orange chicken from a newly made tray. Employees will often honor this request, but this also depends on the individual store.
Like most fast casual chains, Panda Express prepares food in batches to keep production going. According to an LA Times article, stores aim to have its dishes sit for 20 minutes, and they're discarded when the food has been sitting for 45 minutes. As you might guess, it minimizes the burden of asking for chicken from the next batch. If you have good timing, you can avoid asking altogether.
The sauce behind orange chicken
Panda Express' orange chicken owes a lot of its fame to the sauce that coats each crispy piece. The sauce itself is a balance of sweet, tangy, and savory flavors that are made from ingredients like brown sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, and a bit of orange peel oil. Unlike many fast-casual offerings, the sauce is wok-tossed onto freshly fried chicken just before serving, which gives it a tasty gloss finish.
The sauce was developed to expand upon the chicken's crispy exterior without making it overwhelming, which results in that sweet and tangy mix. This precise balance has helped orange chicken become one of the best selling items on Panda Express' menu, resulting in the restaurant selling over 115 million pounds of chicken in 2022, according to an NBC news article. Keep in mind, this is with Panda Express using frozen and not fresh meat. Nevertheless, the careful blending of ingredients and cooking technique is what transforms ordinary fried chicken into a dish that has become a staple in American Chinese food.