Kung Pao Chicken (Panda Express version)

In my previous life as an employed member of society, I had to do quite a bit of traveling for my job.  In a given year I spent about six weeks away from home, which isn't a tremendous amount compared to a corporate CEO or a long haul trucker, but for a homebody like myself it could get pretty rough.

The only real advantage of being on the road so much was the ability to eat fast food and not feel quite as guilty about it.  LJ and I have a standing rule that we don't eat fast food unless we are traveling in attempt to eat more healthy and cheaply at home.  (This rule often leads us to stopping for Egg McMuffins on the way out of town on early morning trips.)  Since I was spending so much time traveling for work, and since I didn't want to gain ten pounds a week by only eating Quarter Pounders, I searched out slightly healthier options.

Now I'm not saying Panda Express is the healthiest option (the amount of sodium is off the charts), but it does seem like the lesser of most evils.  I developed a minor addition to the restaurant from traveling so much that now every time we drive by one I look at LJ and ask "Panda?" in a whimpering voice that could be compared to a five year old begging.

After doing a little internet sleuthing, I realized that I could make many of the dishes on the Panda menu at home.  Since I only order Orange Chicken and Kung Pao Chicken on my visits to Panda I figured these would be good places to start.  The recipe is quite simple, though I omitted the chili peppers because LJ isn't a fan of food that is too spicy.  Also the recipes online did not indicate the amount or type of vegetable to add with the chicken.  I knew zucchini was involved so I used one small zucchini for this first attempt.  In the future I would either use two zucchinis or one zucchini and one bell pepper to improve the chicken to vegetable ratio.

The results were a nearly spot on re-creation of the Panda Express dish.  LJ found the dish to be too salty (which I would agree with but is probably also why I find it so good) so in future attempts I will either use low sodium soy sauce, substitute some of the soy sauce with tamari or water, or just reduce the amount of soy sauce added.  Other than that I would say this recipe is a definite keeper for anyone with a mild Panda addiction.