It is seasoned not only with soy sauce (which may or may not be a part of the gravy in Salem), but also with Bead Molasses. Mom’s version uses a mixture of pork and beef chunks, and embellishes with sliced mushrooms, stir-fried with the same onions, celery, and mass of bean sprouts that appear to form the base of the Salem dish, along with a corn starch-thickened gravy. When my mom heard I’d be tackling this sandwich this month, she spontaneously cooked up a batch for me. Now I grew up eating chop suey as well and it doesn’t look spectacularly different than what Ben Collins tweeted. By the time the Chinese restaurateurs of Salem had developed this particular version of chop suey, the kind served with a hamburger bun in a styrofoam clamshell at the chop suey stand in Salem, the gravy might have changed color from its travels through the central states. By the time the Chinese diaspora had made it here to Salem, Massachusetts, all the way across the country from their starting point of San Francisco, perhaps their chop suey had left behind the water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, or bell peppers it might have featured in parts of the Western US.

But in essence it seems to have been a compromise dish, an application of Chinese techniques to mostly-familiar items and flavors.īased on Ben Collins’ photo, the chop suey of Salem appears to be a mass of bean sprouts and possibly a chunk or two of chicken, suspended in a viscous, mostly transparent gravy of some kind. There are a number of stories, mostly apocryphal, about the name “chop suey,” what it means, and how the dish originated.

So what is chop suey? Is it truly a Chinese dish, or an invention of Chinese-American restaurants? The second act of the documentary film The Search for General Tso traces how the Chinese who’d immigrated to America spread east after the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which severely limited not only further Chinese immigration but even the types of work they could do, essentially giving birth to the ubiquitous Chinese laundries and Chop Suey restaurants across the United States. wUBjRZAuOX- Ben Collins JSo what is Chop Suey? They’re called chop suey sandwiches and they only exist in Salem, Massachusetts. I guess we are all fond of Chinese cuisine.Every year on the 4th of July, everyone in my family eats one of these monstrosities. As I have said on top, you can serve it with almost anything, bread,on white fluffy rice or on fried rice. Your super easy Chicken chop suey is ready to be served. Remove and serve with some sesame seeds sprinkled on top. Lower your fire and leave it to sizzle some 5 mins more in the wok. You will notice an amazing smell coming from your wok. Cover and let it cook for some good 30 mins more. You can now drop in all your vegetables and mushrooms to the mix. After 15 mins or so the chicken will be half cooked.

Then add 1/2 a cup of water and cover to simmer. Add your chicken to the wok when medium hot. In a wok heat the sesame or the vegetable oil. In the mean time prep all your vegetables as shown in the picture below and set aside for later use. First marinate your chicken cube with the ginger and sauces accordingly and leave to rest in the fridge for about 1 hour or so. 2 tsp Sesame oil or Vegetable oil for cooking

Chicken chop suey recipes