Keto Panda Express: Low Carb Dishes to Order

Panda Express classifies itself as an American Chinese casual dining establishment. Eating keto at Panda Express may seem challenging considering the rice, noodles, and sauces accompanying most dishes.

The good news is, if you’re on a low-carb or ketogenic diet, you can dine at Panda Express without throwing off your diet! Our favorite options are super greens, grilled chicken, and steamed fish.

We always recommend preparing your own meals at home so you can control exactly which ingredients go in your dish. But, for the odd day when you just need an easy way out, Panda Express can help with a low carb meal. You just have to know how to order it.

This guide outlines everything you need to know to eat low carb at Panda Express so you can stay in ketosis.

Tips For Ordering Low Carb At Panda Express

We should point out that despite some healthy additions to the Panda Express menu, it’s always best to eat at home whenever possible. This is especially true if you’re on a strict ketogenic diet.

Eating at home allows you to portion out your foods correctly so you don’t eat too much while also focusing on high-quality keto-friendly foods that you can buy yourself at the grocery store.

The next time you forget your lunch at home or need food fast and Panda Express is your only option, use these tips to keep it low-carb.

#1. Create your own meal

Panda Express offers a favorites section that you can order directly off the menu, or you can build your own meal. We recommend building your own as it gives you a chance to customize your dish.

They even have a how-to-order section on their website that you can check out if you’re unsure.

To make your own meal, you’ll first need to choose what kind of meal you want. You can get one of the following:

Bowl: this includes one entree and one side
Plate: this includes two entrees and one side
Bigger plate: this includes three entrees and one side
Kid’s meal: this includes a junior entree, a junior side, a 12-ounce beverage, and a cookie
Family feast: this includes three large entrees and two sides

The next thing you’ll need to do is choose your sides. You can choose one full side or half and half of any combination to make one full side.

The side dishes at Panda Express include chow mein, fried rice, mixed vegetables, white steamed rice, and brown steamed rice. If you’re on a low-carb diet, then the only side dish that you can eat is the mixed vegetables.

The mixed vegetables contain a blend of cabbage, zucchini, broccoli, and carrots. These are perfectly fine if you’re on a low-carb diet, but you might want to ask them to hold the carrots if you’re on a ketogenic diet as this tends to be higher in carbs. Stick with the broccoli and cabbage only if you need to count your carbs.

Or better yet, hold the side dish all together and stick with a beef and broccoli entree only (minus the sauce). This will take care of your fat, protein, and low-carb needs.

To complete your meal, pick your entrees. Depending on what sized meal you ordered, you can choose one, two or three entrees. We recommend sticking with just one entree to keep your portion sizes down.

Here are your options:

Orange chicken
Eight treasure chicken breast
String bean chicken breast
Sweetfire chicken breast
Kung Pao chicken
Mushroom chicken
Black pepper chicken
Grilled teriyaki chicken
Broccoli beef
Shanghai angus steak
Beijing beef
Honey walnut shrimp
Eggplant tofu

As you can see, there are lots of options on the menu, but not all of them are allowed on the low-carb diet. You can also add extras on to your order, such as an egg roll, potstickers, or fried shrimp. However, there are no options that are safe for low-carb eating. This brings us to our next tip.

#2. Stay away from sauces

We noticed that almost every entree at Panda Express is topped with sauce. This is a problem because most sauces are nothing but empty calories and contain a ton of sugar. Some even contain flour to thicken them up, make them taste better, and help them stick to your food.

When ordering any entree at Panda Express, ask to hold the sauce and flavor your dish with sea salt and pepper instead. They might even have some oil and vinegar you can ask to have drizzled over your entree, which is a much better option than any sauce made at a chain restaurant!

#3. Go with a wok tossed meal

Panda Express has a wok smart menu that contains dishes that are 300 calories or fewer, contain eight grams of protein or more, and use fresh, hand cut veggies. These include the following:

String bean chicken breast
Black pepper angus steak
Kung Pao chicken
Black pepper chicken
Mushroom chicken
Grilled chicken teriyaki
Broccoli beef

You’ll still need to ask for these without the sauce, but they are a much better option than some of their heavier entrees.

#4. Consult the nutrition menu

If you have concerns about the carbs you’re taking in, then you can always check the nutritional information on the Panda Express website.

This information won’t tell you what your calories will be if you have your dish custom ordered, but you can always subtract the calories and carbs from the sauce when tallying up your total.

Here is a breakdown of the calories and carbs found in all the sauces at Panda Express:

Teriyaki sauce (1.8 ounce serving): 70 calories and 16 grams of carbs
Sweet and sour sauce (1.8 ounce serving): 70 calories and 21 grams of carbs
One packet of chili sauce: 10 calories and 2 grams of carbs
One packet of soy sauce: 5 calories and 0 grams of carbs
One packet of potsticker sauce: 10 calories and 3 grams of carbs
One packet of hot mustard sauce: 10 calories and 0 grams of carbs
One package of plum sauce: 15 calories and 3 grams of carbs
One serving black pepper sauce: 5 grams net carbs

To get an accurate caloric reading on your entree, subtract these calories and carbs from your total intake and that should be able to give you a ballpark estimate of how many carbs you’re taking in.

#5. Check out the tea bar

Instead of a traditional soda bar that you would find in most restaurants, Panda Express has a tea bar. According to the website, Panda Express brews their tea from whole leaves daily and their juices are fresh squeezed.

Drinking tea is a great way to get more antioxidants in your diet. Just make sure that your tea is unsweetened. You will need to stay away from juice if you are on a low-carb or keto diet.

The website indicates that they can customize your tea for you, but here most teas contain hidden added sugar or cow’s milk. You can enjoy the tea bar at Panda Express as long as you opt for unsweetened herbal tea with nothing else in it!

What To Order at Panda Express

We’ve gone through all the menu options at Panda Express and here are the ones that are best for your low-carb diet.

Here is a quick look at the dishes that are lowest in carbs at Panda Express, according to the nutritional guide:

Super greens entree (2 grams net carbs)
Steamed ginger fish (3 grams carbs)
Grilled Asian chicken (5 grams carbs)
Grilled Teriyaki chicken (5 grams carbs)

Below is a list of all low-carb Panda Express dishes and how to order them.

Entrees

For all favorites, hold the rice and ask for low-carb vegetables instead; also be sure to hold any sauce that comes on the dish:

Grilled teriyaki chicken (hold the teriyaki sauce)
Firecracker chicken breast (hold the black bean sauce)
String bean chicken breast (omit the string beans if you’re strict keto; opt for a low-carb veggie like fresh broccoli instead; hold the ginger soy sauce)
Kung Pao chicken (hold the Szechuan sauce; opt for low-carb veggies instead of zucchini; make sure the chicken is grilled and not fried)
Mushroom chicken (hold the mild ginger soy sauce and opt for low-carb mixed veggies instead of zucchini)
Black pepper chicken (hold the pepper sauce)
Beef broccoli (hold the ginger soy sauce)
Shanghai angus steak (go with asparagus over the beans; hold the savory black pepper sauce)
Eight treasure chicken breast (hold any sauce that comes on the chicken and make sure it’s grilled and not fried)

Foods To Avoid at Panda Express

Some foods at Panda Express just aren’t worth trying to customize, especially when better options are available. We recommend staying away from the following dishes and ordering off the list above instead.

Favorites:

Orange chicken (this dish is usually fried; go with grilled chicken instead and hold the sauce)
Honey sesame chicken breast (this dish appears to be made with fried chicken)
Beijing beef (this appears to be made with breaded meat)
Sweetfire chicken breast (again, this dish is fried; go with grilled chicken instead and hold the sauce)
Honey walnut shrimp
Eggplant tofu
Beijing beef (this dish is fried; go with the Angus steak instead and hold the sauce)
Sichuan hot chicken

Appetizers and Sides:

Chow mein
Fried rice
Steamed rice
Chicken potstickers
Cream cheese rangoon
Chicken egg rolls (you could probably eat the insides only of an egg roll, but be careful about added sauces that might be included)
Veggie spring roll
Crispy shrimp
Fortune cookies

Conclusion

We always recommend that you eat at home following a healthy meal plan and using keto-friendly ingredients if you’re trying to stick to a low-carb diet. If you must eat at Panda Express, try to create your own meal.

Stick with the broccoli and beef entree and hold the ginger soy sauce that comes on it. You’ll also want to hold any side dishes that accompany the meal, such as rice.

Panda Express offers mixed vegetables as an option, which is good for low-carb dieters. You may want to omit the zucchini and green beans from your veggie lineup if you’re trying to stay in ketosis. Other good options include the black pepper chicken and the Shanghai Angus steak.

The biggest thing you’ll need to watch out for at Panda Express is the added sauces. Be sure to ask for your food dry or add salt and pepper only if you need something to enhance the flavor.

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