Chinese Chop Suey

I love the flavor of ethnic foods, but our family budget doesn’t always allow for splurging. Here is one of my favorite inexpensive homemade Chinese food dishes. Chinese chop suey is the quintessential comfort dish – chicken or pork and vegetables cooked in a flavorful sauce.

Take out isn’t exactly quick or easy in our area, we have to drive a minimum of an hour to get to a place offering Chinese take-out… so I scoured various cookbooks and recipes and tried several, always slightly disappointed in the resulting dish, until this one.

It had to be quick and easy, because with the kids in sports every night, wrestling matches on the weekends, etc WHO has time to spend an hour in the kitchen playing Betty Crocker?? Not I!

You’ll need:

• 1 large onion, peeled, sliced, separated
• 2-3 stalks of celery, washed, sliced thin
• 1 lb pork or chicken, sliced thin across the grain
• 2-3 T. Olive Oil
• 2-3 T. Soy Sauce
• 1-2 tsp Corn Starch
• 1 Lg can Bean Sprouts, drained and rinse
• 1/2 tsp Chinese 5 Spice Seasoning
• 1 c. cold chicken or pork stock

Heat oil in large skillet or wok until hot, add sliced vegetables.

Saute Vegetables for 5 minutes, uncovered. Make a well in the center, add raw pork or chicken, stirring occasionally until browned and cooked through.

Add Soy Sauce, bean sprouts, stock and 1 tsp of Chinese 5 spice powder (optional). Reduce heat, simmer 5-7 minutes until flavors have mingled. If you’d prefer a thicker sauce, dissolve 2 teaspoons of cornstarch in 1 Tablespoon of COLD soy sauce, pour into mix, simmer.

Serve over a bed of steamed rice, if desired. Generally we prefer to serve this over steamed jasmine rice.

This recipe is also great to use up leftover chicken or grilled pork, but reduce cooking time to prevent toughness in the meat.