Walmart's Orange Chicken Vs Panda Express: Which Is Better?

Welcome to Dupe Detective, a new column where I'll be reviewing a name brand food product's competitor product to find out how well it compares to, or even beats, the original.

In Pasadena, California, a Chinese restaurant called Panda Inn launched a fast food empire upon the debut of its quick-service spinoff, Panda Express. Enjoyers of Chinese-American cuisine have Panda Express to thank for the invention of orange chicken, purportedly originating at a Hawaiian location in 1987. Even decades after its inception, it's safe to say Panda Express' orange chicken still ranks among the best of junky Chinese-American takeout.

While Panda Express is synonymous with the dish, competing restaurants and brands with their own takes on orange chicken are too numerous to count. Walmart has more than one proprietary version of the Chinese-American staple, between its bag of frozen Great Value orange chicken, and a refrigerated Marketside orange chicken bowl. Since my local Walmart, in the suburbs of Las Vegas, only had the latter in stock, I grabbed the Marketside product and compared it to an orange chicken bowl from a nearby Panda Express. Ahead are my thoughts on both items, in addition to my take on whether or not Walmart's dupe beats Panda Express' original-recipe orange chicken.

I prepared my Marketside Orange Chicken With Rice bowl per the microwave instructions on its packaging. Typically, store-bought orange chicken tastes better made in the air fryer or oven — Crazy Cuizine Mandarin Orange Chicken, for example, ranks among a number of Costco foods that turn out perfectly in the air fryer. But since the Marketside orange chicken bowl is sold among a number of pre-apportioned dishes, clearly designed for lunch in an office breakroom or during a quick stop at home, the microwave is the intended preparation method.

Right out of the microwave, I thought my Marketside orange chicken bowl looked pretty unappetizing. Rather than a dark, gooey glaze, its sauce effectively melted and became light and watery. The rice even looked a little strange, puffier than typical white rice. As soon as I tried my Walmart orange chicken, however, I found that it hit all the notes a good orange chicken should. Most importantly, its firm, dark meat chicken meat had a satisfying umami flavor with a blend of orange and ginger. The rice was fine too, balancing density and softness, and holding the flavor of the thinned-out sauce nicely. My Marketside orange chicken's biggest fault was its breading's excessive softness, but that's pretty much inevitable coming out of the microwave. Overall, soft breading and a lackluster appearance were minor detriments to an otherwise classic interpretation of orange chicken.

In a ranking of every Panda Express entree for The Takeout, Orange Chicken landed second, behind only the chain's Kung Pao Chicken. In other words, it's safe to say that the Orange Chicken represents Panda Express at its best, even if its one of the 11 unhealthiest items on the Panda Express menu.

While I'm not a Panda regular, I've enjoyed its orange chicken a fair number of times in the past. Before trying my Panda Express Orange Chicken, I thought there was no way a microwavable grocery store dupe would hold a candle to the original. But as soon as I bit into my first bite of the Panda dish, I felt confused. Its flavor was so lackluster. Rather than bright orange and zesty ginger, I tasted generic citrus compounded by excessive salt. 

For what it's worth, the breading on my Panda Express orange chicken was pretty much perfect, housing each piece of chicken in a thick and crispy outer shell. The sauce, however, straight-up failed me. Making matters worse was the fact the sauce adhered closely to each piece of chicken, adding no flavor to the rice below it. Before this experience I would have described Panda Express as the very best in the orange chicken game, but as it turned out, trying Walmart's dupe beforehand revealed some flaws with the dish I probably wouldn't have been able to identify otherwise.

After trying both chicken bowls, I went through what I can only describe as a brief period of fast food denial — Walmart doesn't really make a plainly better orange chicken bowl than Panda Express, right? But the longer I sat with my thoughts and observations, the more confident I felt that Walmart's dupe was indeed the superior product.

Panda Express obviously doesn't make a bad orange chicken, especially taking into account its perfectly dense and crispy breading. Its flavor, however, ended up seeming simple and overly reliant on excessive salt, after tasting the Marketside orange chicken's citrusy, tangy sauce first. Plus, even if Panda Express serves quite a bit more chicken in its orange chicken bowl, Walmart's dupe is about $3 cheaper, and that could be spent on, say, a small bag of chips and a drink for a more complete lunch under $10. 

Regardless of price, I'd rather have the Walmart orange chicken for its nuanced flavor and the way its sauce coats the rice below it. Those qualities are both missing at Panda Express. Orange chicken landed on the upper half of The Takeout's list of the 250 all-time best American foods ranked, and in a strange way, it tracks that a quintessentially American chain like Walmart would make a solid version of the dish.

One of the Walmart Supercenters in my neighborhood, just outside of Las Vegas, sells its Marketside Orange Chicken With Rice bowls amidst a selection of Marketside lunch dishes for $6.54. A bowl with white rice and Orange Chicken at the closest Panda Express is $9.21 after tax.

Nutritionally, the entire Walmart bowl totals 420 calories, 6 grams of fat, 1.5 grams of which is saturated fat, 95 milligrams of cholesterol, 330 milligrams of sodium, 68 grams of carbs, 33 grams of sugar, and 21 grams of protein. One standard serving of orange chicken at Panda Express, meanwhile, equals 510 calories, 24 grams of fat, 5 grams of which is saturated fat, 86 grams of cholesterol, 850 milligrams of sodium, 53 grams of carbs, 2 grams of fiber, 20 grams of sugar, and 16 grams of protein. The additional white rice in a Orange Chicken rice bowl order, of course, adds some additional carbohydrate content.

I picked up my Marketside Orange Chicken With Rice bowl at a Walmart Supercenter near my home in the suburbs of Las Vegas. Immediately afterword, I visited the closest Panda Express and ordered an Orange Chicken bowl with white rice. At home, I prepared the Walmart product per its microwave instructions, subtracting a little bit from the recommended time, since it was sitting in my car while I was inside Panda Express.

Once both items were ready to eat, I tried the Walmart orange chicken and rice first, before tasting both elements of my Panda Express item. After recording my initial impressions, I went back and alternated bites of both items to solidify my thoughts. I ended up finishing the entire Walmart bowl and all but about half the rice from my Panda Express order. My assessments are based entirely on this experience and not any past thoughts I may have had about the featured products or brands.