Panda Express Just Launched a Wild New Menu Item
Swicy is undoubtably one of the biggest food trends this year. Mike’s Hot Honey, founded in in Brooklyn circa 2010 by Mike Kurtz, has been been an influential force in the movement of sweet-meets-spicy with its trademark chili pepper infused hot honey, collaborating with everyone from fast food brands (Dunkin’, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Taco Bell included) to snacks like Utz and Blue Diamond Almonds. This week, a new exciting and wild collaboration was announced, adding an Asian twist: Mike’s Hot Honey is coming to a Panda Express near you.
Panda Express and Mike’s Hot Honey partnered in creating the new Chili Crisp Chicken. The dish draws inspiration from Chongqing chicken, a Chinese dish is also known as dry chili chicken, firecracker chicken, and mala chicken.
The dish starts with crispy, crunchy chicken with green bell peppers, onions, and dried chilis tossed in. Then, the meat and veggies are topped with a savory and spicy chili crisp garlic sauce, infused with Chinese spices, and then drizzed with Mike’s Hot Honey for a kick of sweet heat.
“Overall those are pretty good,” explains Reviews with the Blonde, a YouTube food critic who tried them. “They do remind me of Chick-fil-A’s chicken nuggets, the crispy ones of course,” he says, adding that the taste and crunch are similar. They do “have a slight kick to them,” though he wishes there was more sauce and drizzle. “Overall they are good. I do like them,” he says, rating them a nine out of 10.
Nicole Ludwig also reviewed them on Instagram, agreeing that they needed more sauce.
If you want even more of a kick, extra packets of Mike’s Hot Honey will be available for an upcharge of $0.95, available in-store while supplies last.
“Chili Crisp Chicken is our bold twist on playful contrasts – a blend of sweet and spicy that’s crispy, swicy and just the right kind of craveable. With our signature chili crisp garlic sauce and that final hit of Mike’s Hot Honey, we’re setting the new standard for swicy,” Chef Jimmy Wang, executive director of culinary innovation at Panda Express, told RetailWire.
The new dish is currently available in Chicago, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Houston, and the Albuquerque-Santa Fe area through July 15, or while supplies last.
This isn’t the first swicy dish Panda Express has served up. They previously launched Hot Orange Chicken and Blazing Bourbon chicken, adding some heat to some of its sweeter trademark dishes.
