Easy Chicken Chop Suey is a delicious 100% pork-free and dairy-free version of the classic Chinese-American dish.

This Chinese dinner of tender strips of chicken breast, fresh bean sprouts, and a wodnerful savory sauce is quick and easy to make in one pan!

It’s also a terrific budget-friendly takeout-at-home (“takeout fakeout”) dish and you can even customize it by adding your favorite stir-fry vegetables!

And since there is no dairy and no pork, this recipe is kosher too!

Easy Pork-free and dairy-free Chicken Chop Suey over rice on a white plate with sliced mushrooms, sliced carrots, long green beans, broccoli, and baby corn on a wooden table mat.

Chinese food is an American favorite

Everyone knows that Chinese food is an American favorite, whether one sits down in a restaurant, calls for takeout, or has it delivered.

And it’s always delicious, whether one east with chopsticks or a fork and a knife.

Most of what you order is not authentic Chinese, but rather Chinese-American that was developed by Chinese immigrants.

Making Chinese at home takes longer than placing a call for takeout, but it’s quicker than waiting in line or waiting for delivery!

And, if you keep kosher, making it at home is A LOT less expensive than eating out at a kosher restaurant!

Still, authentic or Americanized, many recipes for homemade Chinese include a lot of ingredients.

Me? I like to keep it simple and budget-friendly.

And this recipe is adaptable, so if you want to add your own stir-fry…just do it!

And what’s really great is that you can even use veggies that have started to wilt for your stir-fry and save them!

Also, chicken has health benefits!

So, give it a go, because making this dish is SO EASY!

First, fry the onions and celery in a little bit of cooking oil.

Then add the chicken pieces.

And cook them with the celery and onion.

Then add the soy sauce and water and cook all together.

Then add the bean sprouts and cook them in the sauce for a little while as well. If you want your bean sprouts to be a little crunchy, then make sure not to overcook. We don’t like crunchy, so we cook thoroughly.

Tip: if you find that the sauce is too watery, make a slurry by mixing a little of the liquid with a tablespoon or two of corn (or potato) starch and mixing it back into the hot liquid in the pan.

kosher chicken chop suey on a bed of white rice on a white plate with chopsticks on a dark brown wooden mat

This chicken chop suey recipe is basic, so you can add any kind of stir fry you like!

What is needed to make this chicken chop suey recipe?

In order to be able to make Chinese-American dishes whenever I want to, I always keep related staples in my kitchen.

These include duck sauce, soy sauce, brown sugar, and corn starch.

But for this recipe, all you need is:
chicken breast
bean sprouts
celery
medium onion
soy sauce
Veggie for stir-fry, optional

A little about Chinese-American Food

Chinese-American cuisine is a style of Chinese cuisine that was developed by Chinese immigrants. These dishes significantly differ from traditional Chinese dishes because Chinese-American dishes were adapted to suit American tastes.

Chinese immigrants arrived in the United States in large numbers in the mid-19th century in order to escape the economic difficulties in China, hoping to find work during the California Gold Rush and on the Central Pacific Railroad.

They mostly settled together in ghettos, individually known as Chinatown, and—since there were laws preventing them from owning their own land—they opened their own businesses, such as laundry services and restaurants.

Initially, the family-owned businesses catered to miners and railroad workers, and restaurants were set up in places where Chinese food was unknown. Food was based on the requests of the customers, and recipes were created to suit American tastes using whatever ingredients were available.

One major difference between traditional Chinese cuisine and Chinese-American cuisine is in the use of vegetables. Chinese-American recipes will use raw or uncooked ingredients and those not native to China. Traditional Chinese cuisine, on the other hand, rarely contains raw or uncooked ingredients and often uses Asian leaf vegetables.

While the new dishes were not traditional Chinese, these restaurants were responsible for the development of the ever-popular Chinese-American cuisine.

The little history of kosher Chinese-American Food

It is well known that Jews (especially those with ties to New York) love Chinese food. You can find at least one and, more often than not, several kosher Chinese restaurants in predominantly Jewish neighborhoods. In the town of Cedarhurst, New York, for example, there are two within a couple of blocks – both excellent…and don’t even get me started on Brooklyn.

There is a popular joke, which has been passed around for many years, that describes the Jewish dependency on Chinese food: “According to the Jewish calendar, the year is 5749. According to the Chinese calendar, the year is 4687. That means for 1,062 years, the Jews went without Chinese food.” That was back in 1989, and who knows when the joke even started?

Jews as a group were probably first introduced to Chinese food in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where immigrants of various cultures settled in their own neighborhoods in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

By the early 1900s, approximately one million Jews from Eastern Europe and half a million Italians from Southern Italy shared the Lower East Side of Manhattan with only approximately 7,000 Cantonese Chinese, most of whom had moved from California.

Due to anti-Chinese laws and acts, which prevented them from competing with whites, many Chinese opened restaurants.

Jews who didn’t keep kosher (at least out of the house) gravitated toward Chinese restaurants because they were open on Sundays. But what about Jews who did keep kosher?

It took decades, but finally Sol Bernstein, a Jewish, kosher deli owner found a solution and was the originator of kosher Chinese food.

Using Cantonese Chinese recipes and substituting kosher veal, beef, and chicken livers for pork, he began selling the first kosher Chinese food (or kosher deli-Chinese).

Some cooking terms

What does “savory” mean?

“Savory” refers to foods that are not sweet, such as foods that taste salty, spicy, or herbal.

What does it mean to sauté?

To sauté means to cook quickly in a small amount of oil or fat in a frying pan on a relatively high heat that causes a slight browning of the food on the outside.

What is a “slurry”?

A slurry is a mixture of liquid and dry starch, such as cornstarch or potato starch, into a paste that is used to thicken sauces and soups. One can use flour to make a slurry as well.

Easy Chinese-American style homemade takeout!

If you love Chinese-American dishes and want them pork-free (or kosher), you definitely should try these too!

Yield: 2 servings

Easy Chicken Chop Suey (Pork-free, Dairy Free)

Easy, savory, and delicious chicken chop suey, made without pork or dairy.

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds chicken breast, cut into bite-size pieces (approximately 1"x1")
1 pound bean sprouts (or more, if desired)
1/2 cup celery, sliced thin horizontally (approximately 1 medium stalk or use more if desired)
1 medium onion diced small
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup soy sauce

Optional stir-fry suggestions:

cooked carrot sliced into small strips
baby corn cut into pieces
mushroom slices or pieces
cooked (or par-cooked) green beans
chopped broccoli

Instructions

Sauté the onions and celery in a large frying pan on medium heat, mixing occasionally.
Add the pieces of chicken and sauté them as well until cooked.
Add the water and soy sauce.
Add the bean sprout and cook the entire things until the bean spouts are just soft (if you are adding any of the other vegetables add them at the same time as the bean sprouts).
Serve over rice.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 330Total Fat: 6gSaturated Fat: 2gUnsaturated Fat: 5gCholesterol: 146mgSodium: 1011mgCarbohydrates: 9gFiber: 2gSugar: 5gProtein: 57g