If you love classic chop suey but want something rich, tender, and bursting with flavor, this Beef Chop Suey takes it up a notch. Velveted beef, vibrant tender vegetables, and a thick glossy sauce that brings the Chop suey together and delivers that old style Chinese restaurant flavor.
Ingredients for Beef Chop Suey
Beef, Vegetables (Napa, Onions, Garlic, Celery, Carrots, Broccoli, Long Green Peppers), Chop Suey Sauce (Water, Beef Bouillon, Potato Starch, Sugar, Sea Salt, MSG, Cream of Tartar, White Pepper) also known as Chinese Clear Sauce.
Broccoli and Long Green Peppers are optional. An assortment of other vegetables can be added as you like.
Beef
Any cut of beef will work, but typically, you want 1 lb (454g) of either sirloin, tenderloin, flank or rib eye. I pick up a Beef Eye Round and use some of this for Stir Fries. Slice thinly across the grain. You can use 1/2 lb of Beef, if serving this Beef Chop Suey as a side dish.
How to Velvet Beef for Chop Suey
For a Beef Chop Suey we’re really after a smooth velvety texture to the beef and to achieve that we make use of baking soda to velvet the beef. We also want to protect the meat from drying out when stir-frying, especially when the beef is sliced thin and will hit a high heat in the wok. For this, we also add cornstarch & shaoxing wine with soy sauce to give the beef color and some salt content.
Place 1 lb of thinly sliced beef into a marinating bowl and add the following to mix and set aside for at least 30 minutes. A bit longer for tougher cuts like eye round.
- 1 Tbl Cornstarch
- 1 Tbl Shaoxing Wine
- 1 Tbl Soy Sauce
- 1 tsp Sesame Oil
- 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
Chop Suey Vegetables
Chop Suey vegetables usually include ingredients such as Napa Cabbage, Onions, Garlic, Carrots, Celery, Peppers, Bean Sprouts, Bok Choy, Snap Peas. It can include chilies or hot peppers for a spicy chop suey dish. One such pepper fantastic with beef is the long green peppers, seeds removed.
It’s not really tied to any specific vegetables. Although Napa, Onion and Carrots seem to always be present. It can, however, include a wide assortment of vegetables.
Hard Vegetables
Hard Vegetables such as Carrots, Celery, Broccoli, Cauliflower need to be simmered until just softened before they are stir-fried.
Soft Vegetables
Soft Vegetables are vegetables that can be stir-fried within minutes to soften such as Napa, Bok Choy, Peppers, Onions, Garlic, Ginger, White parts of Green Onions. Including any Hot Peppers or Chilies.
For quick cook vegetables such as Bean Sprouts, Green tops of Green Onions. These can be added very last to mix in and cook briefly before removing from heat.
Simmered Vegetables & Beef
First fill the wok halfway with water and bring to a boil. Add any hard vegetables and cook until tender. Scoop out and set aside. With the Hard vegetables softened, everything can go in to be stir-fried with a bit of fat.
Before you empty the water, add the beef to simmer for a few minutes. This will gelatinize the starch protecting the beef from drying out when it is stir-fried briefly. Add the beef last, after softening the hard vegetables.
Flash Fried Beef
You can also flash fry the beef in a bit of hot oil for about a minute and then set aside. Do this after filling the wok with water to simmer the hard vegetables. Wipe the Wok dry and place hot oil in over max heat. Wait until it hits about 300F and add the beef to fry for about a minute. Scoop out the meat, strain out the oil and return the wok to heat to start stir-frying. Flash Frying, especially with beef is almost always done in Chinese restaraunts.
Emptying Out the Hot Oil
In order to empty out the hot oil when flash frying, you need to set up a pot on the back burner, no heat, fitted with a fine sieve. This allows you to empty the hot oil from the wok through the fine seive and into the pot to hold. Then the Wok can be returned to the heat with a thin coating of oil to start stir frying.
How to Stir Fry Vegetables
Once you have the hard vegetables cooked until just tender and the meat simmered or flash fried, you’re ready to start stir-frying.
Heat the wok up over max heat and wait for it to start smoking. Add fat and immediately follow with meat to coat in the fat and cook briefly, about 30 seconds. Then add your vegetables and stir-fry for about 3 minutes. Keep everything moving, you don’t want any fond to build up in the pan. Instead, a nice clean sauce where the vegetables are still tender.
Chop Suey Sauce
The Chop Suey Sauce is what brings everything together and the thickness of the sauce coating the vegetable is the carrier of flavors. A thin sauce does not do well here or at least not as good. You really need that thick glossy sauce, it makes all the difference.
In Chinese restaurants, the meat and vegetables are fried right there in the wok. Hard vegetables are simmered until tender and then the water emptied. Oil goes into the wok followed by blanched or flash fried meat and then the vegetables. Water is added along with the typical Salt, Sugar, and MSG Chinese Seasonings, and this is thickened very last with a starch slurry.
Adjusting the consistency of Chop Suey
You can include the Starch in the Chop Suey Sauce or Chinese Clear Sauce. Or do the same as takeout with keeping the starch separate and combining it with equal parts of cold water. This is added very last to thicken the sauce after it has come to a boil. You can push the vegetables to the side and tilt the wok to add the slurry and mix while it thickens.
You can repeat this as needed, adding a small amount of starch slurry to thicken to the desired consistency. Alternatively adding water to thin out. No matter how you do it, the key here is to get a nice thickened sauce that coats the vegetables.
Potato Starch holds up much better than cornstarch but either one can be used.
Chop Suey Sauce additions
The addition of Soy Sauce, Shaoxing or Sake can be added to Chop Suey Sauce. I like the old style Chinese and so keep the sauce clear with no added Soy sauce. Shaoxing Wine or Sake, however, can be added for more flavor.
Ingredients
- 1 lb Beef - thinly sliced across the grain
- 2 Tbl Fat
Velveted Beef
- 1 Tbl Cornstarch, Shaoxing Wine, Soy Sauce - each
- 1 tsp Sesame Oil
- 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
Vegetables
- 8 Leaves Napa - chopped into 1 inch pieces
- 2-3 Cloves Garlic - finely chopped or julienne
- 1 Med Onion - each half quartered
- 1 Med Carrot - thinly sliced on an angle
- 1 Stalk Celery - thinly sliced on an angle
- 1-3 Whole Long Green Pepper - optional, sliced and seeds removed is for added heat
- 1 C Bean Sprouts - Optional
- 1-3 Stalks Green Onions - Optional
Chop Suey Sauce
- 1 1/2 C Water
- 2 Tbl Potato Starch - or Cornstarch
- 1 Cube Beef Bouillon - or equivalent in beef broth powder
- 1/2 Tbl Sugar - or more
- 1/2 tsp Sea Salt & MSG - each
- 1/8 tsp White Pepper & Cream of Tartar - each
Instructions
- Velveted Beef: Combine the velveted beef ingredients together in a bowl and add the thinly sliced beef to toss and mix. Set aside for at least 30 minutes. Combine into another bowl the Chop Suey Sauce and mix.
- Hard Vegetables: Fill the wok up halfway with water and bring to a boil. Add hard cooked vegetables (Carrots, Celery, Broccoli) and boil until just tender, Check the tenderness, it should just be done, about 3-5 minutes. Scoop out and set aside.
- Simmered Beef: Add the Beef to the boiling water and mix. Return to a full boil, scoop out and set aside. Empty the water out and clean the wok. Or optionally flash fry as below.Flash Fried Beef: Another option is to flash fry the Beef. After simmering the hard vegetables until tender, empty the water out and dry the wok. Add enough oil to have the beef submerged and heat over max heat until it hits 300F. Add the beef and fry for about 1 minute. Scoop the beef out and set aside and empty the oil out. Return the Wok to the burner.
- Stir Frying: Heat the wok up over max heat and wait until it starts to smoke. Add the fat and immediately follow with the beef. Stir fry about 30 seconds, Add all quick cook vegetables (Napa, Onion, Long Green Pepper, White parts of the green onions if using) and stir fry for about 3 minutes.
- Chop Suey: Turn the heat down to medium and add previously boiled vegetables and the Chop suey sauce and mix through. Include any quick cook vegetables like the tops of green onions or bean sprouts if using. Once thickened, serve right away. If using a beef bouillon cube, ensure that it is completely dissolved. Optionally you can include the starch and an equal amount of cold water to mix (Slurry), separate from the chop suey sauce, and add in very last after the bouillon cube has dissolved completely to thicken the sauce.