When I pulled up to the Panda Express drive-thru window, the woman manning it didn’t say “hello.” Instead, she said something even better: “This is the best chicken dish ever.”
The dish she was referring to — and promptly handed to me — was the chain’s new Buldak Dynamite Sweet & Sour Chicken. I wanted to reply, “Um, have you heard about your Orange Chicken?” But I was too chicken to say it, and besides, she might have had a point. I hadn’t tried it yet. This new entrée could be Panda Express’ best chicken dish. So is it?
Not quite. But it’s up there.
Buldak, a popular Korean hot sauce brand, has recently been ramming its way onto store shelves like a bull through a red cape. You’ve probably seen the potato chips, frozen food, and — of course — the ramen noodles. I’d never tried it with anything before. But I do know that when Panda Express creates something sweet and savory, there’s a very good chance it’ll be worth eating.
Buldak Dynamite Sweet & Sour Chicken continues Panda Express’ trend — established with its Firecracker Chicken and Firecracker Shrimp — of pairing bell peppers and onions with dishes named after things that explode. The crispy chicken breast chunks are tossed in a Buldak hot sauce blend, and I was also handed a Buldak Original Hot Sauce packet on the side, for, I dunno, masochistic purposes.
So, how was my first experience with anything Buldak? It was Buldaaaang — delicious, but holy hell it’s spicy.
Most of the heat comes from the sauce the chicken is tossed in. From what I’ve read, this is supposed to be Panda’s spiciest dish ever, and I think that claim might be correct. There’s a strong sweetness and a bit of tanginess, too, but neither does much to temper the heat. Fluids were coming out of places where fluids usually come out when I eat really spicy food, and halfway through, the back of my mouth went slightly numb. I’m fairly certain my digestive system will complain in a few hours. This is definitely a dish that demands something cold and refreshing nearby. Yet despite all the burning, its flavor still made me want to eat more.
I thought twice about adding the extra Buldak sauce packet, not wanting to start hallucinating from the heat. But I’m glad I did because it added a savory, umami-rich chicken flavor — the kind you get from a chicken bouillon cube or chicken-flavored ramen packet — that elevated the dish to a level that made it even harder to stop eating despite the punishment. Interestingly, the extra sauce didn’t noticeably increase the heat, just the flavor.
As expected, the wok-tossed vegetables still had some snap, adding a fresh element that offered brief relief from the spice. The chicken’s coating loses most of its crispiness with all that sauce, but honestly, the heat will make you forget about that pretty quickly.
Panda Express’ Buldak Dynamite Sweet & Sour Chicken is a memorable dish — both for its unique, delicious flavor and for the very real physical consequences that follow. It hurts so good that I want to hurt again.
Purchased Price: $10.30
Size: Bowl
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (5.7 ounces) 400 calories, 3 grams of saturated fat, 44 grams of carbohydrates, and 17 grams of protein. Other nutrition numbers were not available on the Panda Express website.
