A delicious assortment of chopped Vegetables & Thinly Sliced Velveted Chicken covered in a Chinese Clear Sauce or Chop Suey Sauce for a Beautiful and Simple Chicken Chop Suey!

Chicken

Use about 1 lb. of Chicken Breast sliced thinly across the grain. Then use as is or velvet the meat, which will cause the meat to cook up tender with a silky smooth exterior.

With thinly sliced Chicken Breast, I often Blanch as is or Starch Velvet the Meat and then Blanch.

Rendered Chicken Fat

Remove the Skin and trim off any fat, chop into small pieces and render this out for the fat to stir fry with or save it for other dishes and use a Neutral Oil. Rendered Chicken Fat will offer up more flavor.

If using the rendered fat, then either Blanch or Flash Fry the meat first and then start rendering out the fat. Once the bits are crispy and browned, you can remove them and discard. The pan will be primed for stir frying.

What is velveting

Velveting is a technique to preprocess the meat in such a way that it cooks up tender with a silky smooth exterior to the meat. This technique is incredibly effective with tougher cuts of meats and there are quite a few ways to velvet, although it really comes down to two methods, Starch Velveting & Soda Velveting.

Starch Velveting

In Starch Velveting, Cornstarch is the important ingredient here, or other starches. This is what has the effect on proteins in creating that velveted texture. Additional ingredients can go in such as cooking wines, soy sauce, msg, hoisin sauce, oyster sauce, mirin, pepper, sesame oil. This in effect is velveting and marinating at the same time.

Dry Starch Velveting

For a Dry Starch Velvet, add about 1 Tbl of Starch to 1 lb. of Meat and mix it in. Allow to sit for 30 minutes or longer.

Wet Starch Velveting

Add an equal amount of Starch & Water or Oil to assist for better coverage. Other liquids can replace the Water & Oil or used in combination with. Most common is Soy Sauce and Cooking Wines.

Starch & Egg White

1 Egg White with Cornstarch and sometimes with other ingredients for flavor.

Soda Velveting

Soda Velveting uses baking soda, about 1/4 tsp per 1 lb. of meat. Usually with about 1 Tbl of Water or more. Some will add in more Baking Soda per lb. of meat. Set aside for about 30 minutes and not too much longer or else you could end up with mushy meat.

Baking soda is very effective at tenderizing tougher cuts of meat. This technique is best for Pork or Beef. Optionally with Chicken, although I would really limit it to about 15 minute. It is very effective.

How to cook Velveted Meats

There are a few ways to precook the Velveted meat in preparation for Stir Frying. It all depends on what you are after.

Blanched Velveted Meats

Either the meat is rinsed and then blanched or straight to parboiling for about a minute. Which rinses and cooks at the same time.

Place a bit of water into the Wok and bring to a boil. Add the Velveted meat or rinse and then add, simmer for about 1 minute. Strain out and set aside to Stir Fry.

Flash Fried Velveted meats

Either the meat is rinsed and then fried or straight to frying until about 70 % done.

Place a bit of Oil into the Wok and heat up to about 300F. Add the Velveted Meat or rinse and then add, fry until about 70% done. Strain out and set aside to Stir Fry.

Straight to the Wok

All Meats no matter how they are velveted or processed makes it way to the Wok for Stir Frying. With Starch based Velveting the meat can go straight in, Blanched or Flash Fried. For Soda velveted, the meat is usually rinsed off and blanched, Flash Fried, or straight to the Wok.

Chop Suey Vegetables

The vegetables in this Chicken Chop Suey include

1. Napa Cabbage – Chopped into 1 inch sections
2. Carrots – Sliced on an angle into thin strips, Shredded, or Julienne
3. Onions – Sliced into Wedges or Strips
4. Bean Sprouts
5. Green Onions – Chopped or Sliced

There is a whole host of other vegetables that can go in. Shredded Carrots can be added last along with the Bean Sprouts & Green Onions.

Chicken Chop Suey Sauce

Use Chinese Clear Sauce for the Chop Suey Sauce. Add one Maggi Chicken Bouillon cube for Chicken Chop Suey.

• 2 C Water
• 2 Tbl Potato Starch
• 1 Maggi Chicken Bouillon Cube
• 1 tsp Sugar 
• 1/2 tsp Sea Salt & MSG
• 1/8 tsp Cream of Tartar & White Pepper

The water in the Chop Suey Sauce is split. With 1/2 added to simmer the vegetable briefly along with the Bouillon Cube so that it can dissolve. Added last is the other cup of water with the remaining Chop Suey Sauce ingredients. This is set aside and mixed before adding to the Chop Suey to thicken the sauce.

Adjust the consistency as you see fit by adding more water to thin it out or adding a slurry of equal parts Water & Starch.