Chicken Chop Suey Recipe

One of the misconceptions about chop suey is its origins.  Many believe that it originated in China, when in reality it was created by Chinese immigrants in America, most likely in San Francisco.  One story of its origins goes that it was created by a Chinese cook who basically was low on ingredients but had to serve several American patrons of the restaurant who were hungry and wanted to be fed.  So he looked around and basically created a dish using kitchen scraps.  Below is my recipe for a delicious chicken chop suey using chicken, celery, onions, bell peppers, carrots, mushrooms, bean sprouts, cabbage, pea pods and water chestnuts, flavored in a light but tasteful sauce.

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons of peanut oil
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces
4 stalks of celery, diagonally sliced
1 yellow onion, roughly  sliced
1 green bell pepper, sliced
2 carrots, julienne cut (this means cut into long thin strips that are match stick shaped)
8 button mushrooms, sliced
1 cup of fresh bean sprouts, rinsed
1 cup of Napa cabbage sliced
1/2 cup of Chinese pea pods
4 water chestnuts, sliced
1 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
2 tablespoons of corn starch
1/4 teaspoon of sugar
2 green onions, diagonally sliced, for garnish

Instructions:

You will want to begin by adding 2 tablespoons of your peanut oil into your wok or skillet if you don’t have a wok.  Then heat your wok on a medium high heat.  Once the wok is hot you should then add in your chicken and stir fry the chicken until it’s thoroughly cooked.   This should take about 3 minutes.  When the chicken is done remove it and set it aside for use later.

You now want to add in your remaining 2 tablespoons of peanut oil into your wok and add in your celery, onion and bell pepper and stir fry them for 3 minutes.   Now add in your carrots and mushrooms and continue to stir fry for another 3 minutes.  Next, add in your bean sprouts, cabbage, pea pods, water chestnuts and the chicken that you had set aside and stir fry for another 2 minutes maximum.

You now want to clear a space at the bottom of your wok by pushing your vegetables and chicken from the center of your wok and pushing them up the sides of the wok.  Now take a small mixing bowl and quickly add in your chicken broth, soy sauce, cornstarch and sugar and give it a quick whisk to mix your ingredients together until the corn starch is part of the liquid.  Once this is done add your sauce to the bottom of the wok that you cleared a space and cook and stir your sauce until it thickens.  Once your sauce has thickened you will want to then bring all of your vegetables and chicken down into the sauce and mix them all together until the sauce has coated all of your vegetables and chicken.  You are now finished and can serve your chicken chop suey over some steamed rice.  You should garnish your dish with some sliced green onions.