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 delicious 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!
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.
This chicken chop suey recipe is basic, so you can add any kind of stir fry you like!
Chinese-American food is the BEST!
A little about Chinese-American Food
Chinese-American cuisine is a style of Chinese cuisine that was developed by Chinese Americans. 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.
The majority of Jewish immigrants at that time were observant in their religion and ate only kosher food when they arrived in New York. But, over time, many assimilated, and their children, who were less interested in keeping “the old ways” and more interested in other cultural experiences, even more so.
Some continued keeping kosher at home while allowing themselves to stray while out. Sunday was a favorite time for eating out, and Chinese food was not only reasonably priced, but their restaurants were open on Sundays.
Not only that, but Chinese food didn’t use milk, and while excuses may be made for eating non-kosher meat outside of the home, there was still the forbidden mixing of meat and milk to consider.
Having been raised with what is forbidden, these Jews seemed to feel that if they couldn’t tell it was non-kosher, it wasn’t that bad (or wasn’t repulsive), even if it contained pork or non-kosher seafood. The attitude seemed to be, if I can’t see it, it won’t kill me.
But what about Jews who did keep kosher? It took decades, but finally one enlightened Jewish, kosher deli owner found a solution. Using Cantonese Chinese recipes and substituting kosher veal, beef, and chicken livers for pork, he began selling the first kosher Chinese food. This was Sol Bernstein, the eldest son of Schmulka Bernstein.
Schmulka Bernstein ran a kosher butcher store and smokehouse on the Lower East Side of Manhattan near Essex St. for approximately 30 years, from the 1930s until the mid-1960s.
In 1959, Sol opened a delicatessen on Essex Street and called it Bernstein-on-Essex. His slogan was “Where kashrut is king and quality reigns” (kashrut = kosher).
Although the deli was separate from Schmulka’s butcher shop and belonged to Sol, everyone still called it Schmulka Bernstein’s, and anyone who is still around and remembers still does so to this day. In fact, I doubt that many people even know that the deli belonged to Sol or that it was Sol who was the originator of kosher Chinese food in the US.
Sol continued to sell deli while he incorporated Chinese foods into the menu and did very well. The restaurant continued to prosper until he died in 1992, when it was sold.
What does it mean when a recipe says that an ingredient is “optional”?
If an ingredient is “optional,” it means that you can add it in or not based on your own preference. An optional ingredient can be flavor related (i.e., salty, sweet, spicy, etc.), appearance related (garnish), or even something like nuts or chocolate chips in baking.
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.
While there are Chinese-American restaurants and takeout places all over, they are harder to find and often quite expensive if you keep kosher.
However, the solution to that is to make them at home! So, try these!
- Kosher Pepper Steak
- Kosher Chicken and Broccoli
- Kosher Mongolian Chicken
- Kosher Mongolian Beef
- Kosher Corned Beef & Cabbage Egg Rolls
- Kosher Chicken Lo Mein
- Kosher General Tso’s Chicken
- Kosher Chicken Fried Rice
- Vegetarian Fried Rice
- Kosher Chicken Chow Mein
- Kosher Beef Chow Mein
- Kosher Egg Drop Soup
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:
4Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 330Total Fat: 6gSaturated Fat: 2gUnsaturated Fat: 5gCholesterol: 146mgSodium: 1011mgCarbohydrates: 9gFiber: 2gSugar: 5gProtein: 57g