Easy Chicken Chop Suey Recipe
Quick and easy Chicken Chop Suey recipe is a simple chicken stir fry that comes together in under 30 minutes. Made with tender, juicy chicken breast, veggies and a savory sauce, you can skip the take out and have dinner on the table faster than delivery.
American Chop Suey
When life gets busy, it’s so easy, and tempting, to reach for the phone to order from our favorite Chinese food restaurant. The lure of no dirty dishes to wash or hovering over a stove making something the family may or may not eat is always appealing.
But having a few recipes that are even better than take out and I can have dinner on the table in 30 minutes makes it less of a chore to pull it together. This Chicken Chop Suey recipe is one of our favorite dinners and you can, literally, use any vegetables you have on hand to cook it up making it perfect for a low calorie diet.
It’s a great recipe for using leftover fresh vegetables at the end of the week and chicken is always a hit with the kids. Plus, it’s super simple to whip up with just one pot to clean if you don’t count the one you use to make rice as a side dish. What could be better than a quick stir-fry with tender pieces of chicken and tons of veggies in a light, savory sauce.
Ingredients You Will Need
All you need is a meat, in this case chicken, vegetables and ingredients for the brown sauce. It’s fairly simple to make and I usually mix it up with whatever vegetables I have on hand.
- Chicken – I like to use boneless chicken breast cut into bite sized pieces but you can also use chicken thighs with great results.
- Vegetables – The standard here is carrots, snow peas, onions, bell peppers, mushrooms, celery and bean sprouts. Again, you can use what you have….broccoli works well and we use that often, as do water chestnuts and sugar snap peas.
- Sauce – The sauce is simple and made with chicken stock or chicken broth, sugar, soy sauce, oyster sauce, Chinese Cooking Wine (Mirin), rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, brown sugar, black pepper and corn starch to help thicken the sauce.
What is Chop Suey?
Chop Suey, or Chop Sooy, is Chinese-American cuisine consisting consisting of bite size pieces of meat like chicken, pork or shrimp. It’s cooked quickly with vegetables such as bean sprouts, cabbage, or celery and drenched in a thick and savory sauce.
As with many Chinese recipes in the United States, there are really no hard and fast rules to this stir fry. You can, basically, throw in just about anything you want. This dish is common in many Chinese restaurants in this country probably for the same reason we love it, to use up leftover vegetables in the refrigerator.
The difference between Chop Suey and Chow Mien is the latter is made with noodles. American Chop Suey is cooked without them and then served over rice.
How To Make Chop Suey
This recipe takes just about 5 minutes to cook once you have everything prepped. Be sure to have all your vegetables and chicken cut up before cooking because the process goes quickly.
- Whisk together the ingredients for the sauce and set aside.
- Heat the oil in a wok.
- Add the garlic stirring constantly and cook for 1 minute.
- Add the onion cooking until slightly softened.
- Stir in the chicken and cook until no longer pink.
- Add the remaining vegetables and cook until slightly softened.
- Stir in the sauce and cook for 2 minutes or until thickened.
- Serve the stir fry over rice, if desired.
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We prefer a stir fry pan over a wok because the handle makes it easy to manage and the flat bottom is suitable for both gas cooktops and electric cooktops. Made of carbon steel, this budget friendly cookware is a work horse in the kitchen.
Variations
Because this recipe is very flexible to begin with you can really change the flavor profile with a few additions.
- Fresh veggies – We use the basics but love adding green bell pepper, shiitake mushrooms and green beans.
- Sauce additions – Our sauce is mild so to amp up the flavor you can add Shaoxing wine, sesame oil and tomato paste.
- Beef up the protein – Add cubes of Crispy Baked Tofu or cooked ground beef.
- Pork – Swap the chicken for pork tenderloin or pork chops cut into bite spice pieces for a tasty pork chop suey.
- Make it vegetarian – Turn this into a Vegetable Chop Suey by skipping the meat and adding your favorite mushroom medley. You can use any type of vegetable for this recipe.
How to Store Leftovers
Leftovers make a great weeknight dinner or take to work lunch the next day so we store them in an airtight container refrigerated for up to 3 days.
What To Serve With Chop Suey
While the standard is white rice or jasmine rice you can also serve it over this cauliflower rice. It’s just as good and you won’t even miss the carbs!
You can also add baby corn to the stir fry mix and then top with bamboo shoots.
More Easy Stir Fry Recipes
- Mongolian Beef Stir Fry
- Spicy Singapore Noodles (Singapore Chow Mei Fun)
- Szechuan Chicken
- Kung Pao Chicken
- Hunan Chicken
- Sesame Chicken
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Get the Recipe: Chicken Chop Suey Recipe
Ingredients
For the sauce
- 1/2 cup chicken stock, or chicken broth
- 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
- 1 teaspoon Rice Wine Vinegar
- 1 teaspoon Mirin, Chinese Cooking Wine or Sherry
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon Soy Sauce
- 1 teaspoon brown sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
For the stir fry
- 2 tablespoons peanut oil, or canola oil
- 1 cup sliced onion
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces
- 1 stalk celery, sliced
- 1 cup thinly sliced carrot
- 1 cup snow peas, sliced
- 1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
- 1/3 cup baby corn, sliced (one 5-oz can)
- 1/3 cup bamboo shoots, sliced (one 5-oz can)
Equipment
- wok
Instructions
- In a bowl, whisk together the chicken stock, oyster sauce, vinegar, wine, sesame oil, soy sauce, sugar, pepper and cornstarch until smooth. Set aside.
- Heat the oil in a large wok over high heat. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute.
- Stir in the onion and cook for another minute.
- Add the chicken and stir to combine. Cook the chicken, stirring occasionally, until no longer pink on the outside.
- Add the celery, carrots, snow peas, mushrooms and corn to the pan tossing to combine. Cook for an additional minute.
- Stir in the bamboo shoots and sauce. Toss to coat. Cook for an additional 1-2 minutes or until sauce is slightly thickened.
- Serve immediately over rice.
7 Comments on “Easy Chicken Chop Suey Recipe”
Love this recipe. I give 5 star
Thank you so much!
Easy from beginning to end and very tasty as well. I was missing a few ingredients (baby corn and bamboo shoots) but it was delicious anyway. Most of my time was spent on prepping and cooking literally takes minutes. Will definitely be making it again.
So glad you liked it! Prepping before cooking is key because it cooks so quickly. Thank you for your comment!
I made this tonight. The sauce was delicious! We are watching our sugar and carb intake because we have put on a few pounds during quarantine. The sauce does not have a lot of sugar, and it is very flavorful. I am sharing this recipe with my best friends. We will definitely be making this again!
I’m so glad you loved it! We also gained a few quarantine lbs. 🙂
Thanks for the awesome weeknight dinner inspiration, love this so much!