When Jimmy Wang, executive director of culinary innovation at Panda Express, set out to create a new limited-time menu item, he asked himself, “What is an element in Chinese cuisine that we’re really good at?”
The answer: Combining multiple proteins in one dish. The American Chinese fast casual has wok-tossed beef and shrimp together several times before, so that led Wang to a follow-up question: “How do we challenge ourselves to elevate that to the next level?” In searching for inspiration, he and his team came up with the idea to develop a dish that emphasized texture.
Borrowing from the menu
To start the R&D process, Wang tapped two proteins already featured in other wok favorites: a crispy beef strip from Panda’s Beijing Beef and shrimp in a crunchy tempura batter from its Honey Walnut Shrimp. To add another layer of texture, he combined these with crisp vegetables, including bell peppers and string beans. “Those are textures you can chew on and they provide long-lasting flavor,” said Wang, “but now we needed to find another texture, and that was through the sauce.”
For sauce inspiration, he turned to a Sichuan dish called Mouthwatering Chicken. “It has a balance of a lot of different taste profiles, such as sweet, sour, aromatic and spicy,” said Wang. Chilies, garlic, ginger, sesame oil and sesame seeds add more layers of flavor and those all-important textural elements. The heat level is balanced with vinegar and sugar to impart the popular sweet-sour flavor profile but with savory, umami notes.
“After several rounds of trial and development, we finally came to a happy place; a profile that marries everything together,” said Wang.
During the trial period there were a couple of “errors” that didn’t work quite as well. Wang and his team tried other combinations of proteins, including pork and shrimp, but in the end, beef and shrimp won out. “It’s so classic and sort of high end,” said Wang, “like a premium surf ‘n turf experience you’d get at a steakhouse.”
To fit the dish more firmly into the Sichuan niche, he also tried flavoring it with red chili oil, but that idea was discarded. “We also tried a version where there was more texture in the sauce, almost like a salsa, but that watered down the crispy coating on the beef and shrimp,” said Wang. That mixture included chunks of onions and peppers, and although the flavors were good, it didn’t accentuate the proteins. He was aiming for more of a gastrique or reduction that incorporated those aromatics but coated the proteins, and the final sauce filled the bill.
The quest for consistency
Rosemead, California-based Panda Express is the largest Asian chain in the U.S. with over 2,500 units. That means a new sauce has to be easy to execute and produce consistent results and taste all across the country, said Wang.
“We needed to make this dish as simple as possible for our restaurant teams because they’re dealing with cooking two different proteins at a time and we wanted them to focus on that,” he added.
Once the sauce recipe was finalized, he worked with a supplier to produce it in volume. The sauce comes in ready to use at each location to ensure consistency.
Crispy Sesame Shrimp and Beef launched earlier this month and will run for a limited time. The premium proteins make it a fairly high-cost dish, said Wang, so it’s priced about $1.50 higher than other entrees.
What’s next?
The wok is the backbone of the Panda Express menu and forms the identity of American Chinese cuisine, said Wang, and that will always be highlighted on the menu. But he and the team are also innovating in the snacking platform.
“We want people to come to Panda at other times of the day and imagine snacking with us or eating on the go,” Wang said. Out of the chain’s Innovation Kitchen have come items like Black Pepper Angus Steak Empanadas and Orange Chicken & Bacon Biscuits.
Panda Express is also launching LTOs targeted to certain regions of the country, aiming to reach a different a demographic or consumer. “We’re targeting about three limited-time offers a year that we consider smaller promotions or limited drops with something fun, something different,” said Wang. “We are letting people see that Panda is starting to think about different types of proteins, beverages, platforms or eating occasions.”
Beverage innovation is a hot category, and Panda Express is jumping in with flavor-forward items like peach, lychee, watermelon and mango, sometimes in combination.
Inspiration can come from many sources—a Chinese ingredient, a classic Chinese dish or a visit. The team travels to a different part of China once a year and that can leads to lots of discussion and conversation around different cuisines and ingredients. Collaborations with sauce brands and other products are also in the works, partnerships that can benefit a menu item and help get a story out there.
In the end, American Chinese culture steers the menu, but that is far from limiting. “What would it be like to bring forward some kind of American Chinese barbecue?” Wang asks. “Or how do we make a healthy dish with chicken breasts and vegetables and make it fun and flavorful instead of boring? And we’re thinking a lot about dessert. Something sweet, a snackable treat that’s easy to enjoy without tons of calories.”