This Sweet Fire Chicken is a perfect Panda Express copycat with chicken, red pepper, onion and pineapple in a spicy sweet chili sauce.
Ingredients and substitutions
- Boneless chicken breasts – you can use boneless skinless chicken thighs instead.
- All-purpose flour – cornstarch will work, although you may not get as thick of a coating.
- Eggs – buttermilk can be used too (mix 1 tbsp. lemon juice with 1 cup of milk if you don't have any buttermilk).
- Cooking oil – I use canola oil, but you can substitute it with any neutral flavour of cooking oil.
- Yellow onion – feel free to use white or red onion in place of the yellow onion.
- Red bell pepper – feel free to use any type of bell pepper in this dish.
- Pineapple chunks – fresh pineapple gives the dish the best flavour, but you can use canned pineapple chunks if you want to.
- Sweet chili sauce – make your own by combing 1 tbsp. of your favourite hot sauce with 4 tbsp. honey and 1 tbsp. soy sauce.
- Green onions – leave these off if you’re not a fan of green onions.
- White rice – use any variety of white or brown rice.
- Salt & pepper – to taste.
How to make sweet fire chicken
- Bread the chicken.
- Add the chicken to a skillet.
- Cook until browned.
- Add the onion and pepper.
- Mix in the pineapple and sauce.
- Serve over rice and enjoy!
Calories in this recipe vs. the Panda Express version
Making restaurant dishes at home is a great way to save money, but you can usually save a lot of excess calories as well!
Using the ingredients shown in the recipe card below, one serving of this meal has 502 calories, including ½ cup of cooked white rice.
In comparison, one serving of sweet fire chicken from Panda Express has 380 calories without the rice. When you add a side order of white rice, the total jumps to 760 calories!
Frequently Asked Questions
Sweet fire chicken is a popular entree on the menu at Panda Express. The dish is a combination of lightly breaded tender chicken breast, red bell peppers and sweet pineapple, all covered in a mildly spicy sweet chili sauce.
Sweet fire chicken tastes a little bit sweet and a little bit spicy. You’ll get the sweetness from the pineapple, and the spice from the sweet chili sauce and red chili flakes. It’s the perfect combo!
Thanks to the sweet pineapple and sweet chili sauce, the flavour is not terribly spicy. Red chili flakes are the main source of spicy heat in this dish and because the amount of chili flakes is easy to adjust, you can make it as spicy or mild as you want to.
Storing and reheating
Store any leftovers in the fridge for up to 5 days in airtight containers or meal prep bowls. I recommend storing the rice and chicken separately so that everything stays as fresh as possible.
The best way to reheat your leftovers is in a skillet on the stovetop over medium heat. You can microwave the chicken, but I find that it makes it chewy and dry. If you plan on microwaving this dish, make sure to sprinkle a bit of water over top first!
Freezing this recipe
You can freeze sweet fire chicken for up to 3 months. Let it defrost in the fridge overnight then reheat as normal. Serve with fresh rice and dig in.
Wanna Learn How To Meal Prep?
My meal planning service, Dinner Prep Pro, removes the guesswork and helps you get dinner on the table in 15-20 minutes each night. My meal prep checklists only take 1 hour each week!
More Panda Express recipes
Meal prep tools for this recipe
- Grab some glass meal prep bowls if you plan on turning this meal into your weekly lunches.
- I get all my free-range chicken from Butcher Box, conveniently delivered to me frozen.
- You can order sweet chili sauce online.
Sweet Fire Chicken {Panda Express Copycat}
Ingredients
- 1 lb chicken breasts, diced
- 1 cup flour
- 2 eggs
- salt & pepper, to taste
- 1 tbsp canola oil
- 1 yellow onion, chopped
- 1 red pepper, chopped
- 1/2 cup pineapple chunks
- 1/2 cup sweet chili sauce
- 1 pinch chili flakes
- 4 green onions, sliced
Rice
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 1 cup white rice
- 1 tsp butter
- 1 pinch salt
Instructions
- Cook rice in a rice cooker or on the stovetop according to package directions.
- Add eggs and flour to two separate bowls. Coat chicken in egg mixture, then toss in flour.
- Heat canola oil in a large skillet over med-high heat. Add coated chicken pieces to skillet once oil is hot, then season with salt and pepper. Cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring often, until browned.
- Add onions and red pepper, sauteeing another 2-3 minutes until veggies are tender. Stir in pineapple chunks, sweet chili sauce and chili flakes, tossing mixture until well coated and cook for 1-2 minutes until sauce thickens.
- Serve chicken over rice and garnish with green onions. Enjoy!
Comments & Reviews
Miyah says
Hi Taylor! I’m so thankful that I’ve found this recipe, especially for a last-minute dinner meal idea for my family. Not only was it easy and simple to follow, but it was also delicious!! I used to try and make this at home but the recipe didn’t quite work out well until I came across this one! However, when it came to making this recipe, I had to sub the flour for cornstarch (due to not having any) and it still came out tasty. Thank you so much again for having this recipe available. My family and I enjoyed it and I will hopefully make this again either for myself or my family again 🙂 I hope you have a great day!
Taylor Stinson says
So happy you enjoyed Miyah, thank you so much for the kind words 🙂