Chicken Chop Suey
Velveted chicken breast stir-fried with mushrooms, carrot, celery, bok choy, bean sprouts and snow peas in a light, savory sauce of chicken stock, oyster sauce and soy sauce, thickened at the last second and served over rice.
Chop suey has more origin stories than ingredients, and Wikipedia says there is "no good evidence" for any of the famous ones. One says a chef invented it for the Chinese statesman Li Hongzhang on his 1896 visit to the United States; the scholar Renqiu Yu found no record that Li ate it, and suggests restaurants used the publicity. Another says a San Francisco cook threw leftovers into a wok for drunken miners in the 1860s. A third credits cooks on the transcontinental railroad. The anthropologist E. N. Anderson traces it instead to tsap seui, "miscellaneous leftovers," a dish of Taishan in Guangdong, home of many early Chinese immigrants; the food historian Alan Davidson calls the legends "a prime example of culinary mythology."
The print record is older than the legends. Wikipedia cites Wong Chin Foo writing in the Brooklyn Eagle in 1884 and an 1897 New York menu listing "Beef Chop Suey with Bean Sprouts, Water Chestnuts and Boiled Rice." It became a signature dish of Chinese restaurants across America; The Woks of Life points to the "Chop Suey" signs in a 1962 photo of San Francisco's Chinatown. Their recipe treats it as what the name says, an odds-and-ends stir-fry, and uses vegetables American kitchens always had: celery, carrot and button mushrooms.
Why it works the kitchen science
Chicken out at 80 percent
Searing the chicken briefly and finishing it in the simmering sauce keeps it from drying out while the vegetables cook.
Hard vegetables first, tender ones last
Celery and carrot go in before the bok choy, and sprouts and snow peas go in last, so everything finishes crisp at the same moment.
Step by step
- Step 1
Massage the water, oyster sauce and Shaoxing wine into the chicken until absorbed, then mix in the oil and cornstarch. Stir the sauce ingredients together.
- Step 2
Heat a wok over high heat until it lightly smokes. Pour 2 tbsp oil around the edge, spread the chicken in a single layer and sear a few seconds, then stir-fry about 15 seconds more, until lightly golden and opaque outside but not cooked through. Take it out.
- Step 3
Return the wok to high heat with the last 1 tbsp oil and the garlic. When it sizzles, add the mushrooms, carrot and celery and stir-fry 20 seconds, then add the bok choy and toss. Pour the Shaoxing wine around the edge of the wok.
- Step 4
Stir the sauce and pour it around the edge, stirring briefly.
- Step 5
When the sauce simmers, add the bean sprouts and snow peas and return the chicken. Keep everything at a strong simmer, tossing, 1 to 2 minutes, until the thickest slice of chicken reads 165°F.
- Step 6
Stir the slurry and drizzle it in while stirring constantly, adding more if you want it thicker, and cook about 10 seconds more, until everything is glazed. Serve right away over rice.
Chicken Chop Suey
Serves 4 · 1 platter · 37 min total
Chicken and marinade
- 12 oz boneless, skinless chicken breast, sliced 1/4 inch thick
- 3 tbsp water
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 tsp Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry)
- 1 tsp vegetable oil
- 2 tsp cornstarch
Sauce
- 1/2 cup low-sodium chicken stock
- 1/4 tsp sugar
- 1 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp dark soy sauce
- 1 1/2 tbsp oyster sauce
- 1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil
- 1/8 tsp white pepper
Vegetables
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil, divided
- 2 garlic cloves, chopped
- 4 white button mushrooms (or baby bellas), sliced
- 1/2 small carrot, thinly sliced
- 2/3 cup thinly sliced celery
- 6 oz bok choy, cut into 3/4- by 2-inch pieces
- 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine
- 3/4 cup mung bean sprouts
- 1 cup snow peas
- 1 1/2 tbsp cornstarch mixed with 2 tbsp water
Method
- Massage the water, oyster sauce and Shaoxing wine into the chicken until absorbed, then mix in the oil and cornstarch. Stir the sauce ingredients together.
- Heat a wok over high heat until it lightly smokes. Pour 2 tbsp oil around the edge, spread the chicken in a single layer and sear a few seconds, then stir-fry about 15 seconds more, until lightly golden and opaque outside but not cooked through. Take it out.
- Return the wok to high heat with the last 1 tbsp oil and the garlic. When it sizzles, add the mushrooms, carrot and celery and stir-fry 20 seconds, then add the bok choy and toss. Pour the Shaoxing wine around the edge of the wok.
- Stir the sauce and pour it around the edge, stirring briefly.
- When the sauce simmers, add the bean sprouts and snow peas and return the chicken. Keep everything at a strong simmer, tossing, 1 to 2 minutes, until the thickest slice of chicken reads 165°F.
- Stir the slurry and drizzle it in while stirring constantly, adding more if you want it thicker, and cook about 10 seconds more, until everything is glazed. Serve right away over rice.
Adapted from The Woks of Life (Bill Leung), "Chicken Chop Suey" (published March 26, 2020; updated April 16, 2025), serves 4: (recipe card:). We follow it as written: 12 oz chicken breast sliced 1/4 inch thick with water, oyster sauce, Shaoxing wine, oil and cornstarch; a sauce of 1/2 cup low-sodium stock, 1/4 tsp sugar, 1 1/2 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tsp dark soy sauce, 1 1/2 tbsp oyster sauce, sesame oil and white pepper; the chicken seared and stir-fried about 15 seconds and taken out about 80 percent cooked; 20 seconds for the mushrooms, carrot and celery before the bok choy; and a slurry of 1 1/2 tbsp cornstarch and 2 tbsp water. The 1 to 2 minutes of simmering after the chicken goes back in, and the 165°F check, are ours. The Woks of Life. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
All sources (3)
Tips
- Use what's in the fridge: The Woks of Life suggests tofu for a vegetarian version, beef for beef chop suey and leftover char siu for pork.
- Bamboo shoots and water chestnuts are classic chop suey vegetables; add a handful with the celery.
- Dry sherry stands in for Shaoxing wine.
- Serve over rice; over crispy noodles it starts turning into American chow mein.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- Chop suey was invented for Li Hongzhang in 1896. Disputed and likely false: Wikipedia says no evidence shows Li ate it; Renqiu Yu suggests restaurants borrowed his fame.
- It was invented for miners in San Francisco. Folklore: Wikipedia lists it among stories with "no good evidence."
- It comes from Taishan. Disputed: E. N. Anderson traces it to Taishan's tsap seui, and The Woks of Life repeats it; the historian Charles Hayford argues Chinese-American restaurants collectively adopted it rather than any one place inventing it (both in Wikipedia).
- Chop suey means "odds and ends." Documented as The Woks of Life's and Wikipedia's translation (miscellaneous leftovers).
- Chinese people in America did not eat it. Documented as one 1903 opinion: Wikipedia quotes the reformer Liang Qichao saying local Chinese did not eat the chop suey restaurants served.
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