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Chop Suey

A stir‑fry of chicken, onions, celery, mushrooms, and rice, seasoned with flour, Chinese liquor, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,172 recipes. Both carry 1-butyl acetate, which smells fruity, banana. The science ↓

Chop Suey

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rice

  1. Steam the rice until tender.

Cook the chicken and vegetables

  1. In a skillet, heat natural fat and fry the chicken pieces until cooked.

  2. Add the sliced onions to the chicken and cook until they are done.

  3. Stir in the chopped celery and drained mushrooms.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. In a bowl, mix the flour, Chinese liquor, and sugar.

  2. Pour the mushroom juice into the mixture and stir well.

  3. Add the mixture to the skillet and combine everything before serving.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

  2. Chicken + ricetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,769 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  3. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Celery + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the main protein and savory meat flavor as it browns in the fat.
Flour
Thickens the liquid into a sauce as its starch swells with heat.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma as they soften and caramelize during cooking.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavor and moisture, and their juice enriches the sauce.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and a mild vegetable flavor that holds up during cooking.
Sugar
Balances savory flavors with a subtle sweetness.

The step that matters

Combining the flour mixture with the skillet. Flour should be fully mixed into the liquid before adding it to the hot pan, otherwise it can clump and leave lumps in the sauce. Stirring well lets the starch hydrate evenly so the sauce thickens smoothly.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, onion, mushroom, rice, flour, sugar):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Gingerfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, onion, mushroom, rice, flour, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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