The Mystery Behind Panda Express' Black Pepper Angus Steak

Panda Express restaurants seem to pop up everywhere, from shopping centers and airports to theme parks and even the Pentagon (among other fast food restaurants inside the Pentagon). The American-Chinese-inspired chain is well-known for its quick service bowls, plates, and meals among a variety of a la carte sides, desserts, and (of course) fortune cookies. Though many customers favor the beloved orange chicken as their protein of choice (we ranked it as the absolute best dish at Panda Express), the Black Pepper Angus Steak is another popular option. Customers desperately want to know what exactly the sauce is made from.

Panda Express shared a TikTok breaking down how the chain makes its black pepper angus steak dish by chopping up bell peppers, mushrooms, onions, and broccoli alongside the steak itself, before searing everything in a wok. Noticeably missing from the breakdown was an explanation of how the chain makes the dark sauce ladled onto the hot pan. The chef simply scoops a portion of the mystery sauce onto the other ingredients and moves on. This left many fans confused, speculating about whether or not the sauce is even made in the restaurant, especially since there's no official recipe from Panda Express available on the internet. The Black Pepper Angus Steak was introduced way back in 2020, so the chain has had five years to release the recipe but has chosen to remain oddly silent.

Panda Express has kept the Black Pepper Angus Steak sauce recipe under tight wraps

Although we might advise that you think twice about ordering the Black Pepper Angus Steak from Panda Express, plenty of customers love it and are interested in recreating the recipe at home for themselves. One fan on Reddit begged the internet for answers and was surprised by another Redditor who claimed to watch a "training video" demonstrating that the black pepper angus steak sauce is made from "a tomato sauce base" mixed with other ingredients, potentially garlic, Szechuan sauce, teriyaki sauce, and soy sauce. This would add up, given that other more negative reviews from Reddit have customers comparing the black pepper angus steak flavor to "spaghetti sauce" or "canned Ragu."

Another potential copycat recipe for Panda Express' mystery black pepper angus steak sauce includes a combination of ground black pepper, both light and dark soy sauces, oyster sauce, chicken stock, and tapioca starch. These umami ingredients would give the sauce that thick, punchy, peppery taste that customers are accustomed to. The official Black Pepper Angus Steak is listed on Panda Express' website as "spicy," although there are plenty of reviewers on Reddit who said it needs "a little more spice." For now, the proprietary black pepper sauce recipe remains an enigma, but that's never stopped the internet from sleuthing before.

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