Panda Express is Starting the Year of the Dog With a Treasure

The Chinese New Year is this Friday, and fast-food chain Panda Express will celebrate the start of the Year of the Dog with a spicy freebie.

On Friday, Feb. 16, every Panda Express in the U.S. will hand out red envelopes. Each envelope will contain a coupon good for a free 8 Treasure Chicken Breast entree on a future visit.

The red envelopes will be available all day, and you don’t have to buy anything to get one, according to a Panda Express representative.

8 Treasure Chicken Breast is a new menu item created to celebrate the start of the Chinese New Year and is only available for a limited time. It features all-white-meat chicken breast, diced Chinese sausage, bell peppers, celery, fermented black beans and whole dry chili peppers all tossed in a wok with a rich, spicy sauce.

Red envelopes are traditionally given out during the Chinese New Year as a symbol of good luck and prosperity. Panda Express has certainly enjoyed some prosperity, having expanded to more than 2,000 locations worldwide.

Mike Brassfield ([email protected]) is a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder. For personal reasons, he’s partial to the Year of the Pig.

Jessica Gray, an editorial assistant at The Penny Hoarder, contributed to this post.