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Chicken Chop Suey

A stir‑fry of shredded chicken, vegetables, and a savory sauce.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and rice wine work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and 187 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: egg, wheat, soy, sesame (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Mix the chicken shreds with a pinch of the salt, the egg white and about 1 teaspoon cornflour/cornstarch paste.

  2. Blanch them in warm oil, stir to separate, then remove and drain them.

Stir-fry and thicken

  1. Pour off the excess oil, leaving about 2 tablespoons in the wok.

  2. Stir-fry all the vegetables for about 1 minute.

  3. Add the remaining salt and sugar, blend well.

  4. Add the chicken with the soy sauce and wine, stir-fry for another minute.

  5. Add the stock and MSG, if using.

  6. Finally thicken the gravy with the remaining cornflour paste.

  7. Garnish with the sesame oil and serve hot.

Make the seasoned oil

  1. Pour about 1 pint (600 ml) vegetable oil into a pre-heated wok or saucepan over a high heat, add 2-3 small pieces of ginger root.

  2. In a few minutes, the ginger pieces should rise to the surface.

  3. Watch the color of the ginger; when it turns from pale yellow to dark brown, turn off the heat and let the oil cool down a little before removing the ginger pieces.

  4. Store the seasoned oil in a container.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Chicken + rice winetop 10% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together29,030 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Chicken + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together10,839 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).

  4. Chicken + oniontop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,808 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Garlic + gingertop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together6,402 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Chicken meat
Provides the main protein; brief blanching in oil keeps the shreds tender and moist.
Egg white
Coats the chicken shreds, helping them stay tender and moist during cooking.
Cornflour
Thickens the gravy to a glossy coating when stirred in at the end.
Bean sprouts
Adds a crisp, watery texture that stays crunchy with quick stir-frying.
Light soy sauce
Adds salty savoury flavour and light colour to the gravy.

The step that matters

Thickening the gravy with the cornflour paste. Cornflour only thickens when the liquid is hot enough, and it must be stirred in evenly. Added to a cool or unstirred gravy, it forms lumps or stays thin, so the paste should be stirred in while the gravy is bubbling.

Flavor stand-ins for the garlic

The recipe marks garlic as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, meat, egg, ginger, onion, pepper, sugar):

  1. Garlicthe original
  2. Turmericabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Cardamomabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, meat, egg, ginger, onion, pepper, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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