4 stalks celery, chopped OR 2-cups sliced cabbage.If you don’t have access to these, see the note following the recipe for pantry-friendly alternatives.Īs for cost, as of Fall 2015, this recipe (with fresh onion and celery) costs me about $1.25 per serving, including long grain white rice–not including the canned fruit, which would add about 40¢, making a complete gluten-free, dairy-free meal for well under $2 per serving. The recipe below does use fresh celery or cabbage and fresh onion, all of which are economical. After chicken, SPAM Chop Suey is my family’s favorite. Also, if you dont’ want to use chicken, you can use canned salmon, SPAM or canned tuna instead. It’s American food that has put on a pretty chinese dress and shown up at the church potluck with chop sticks in its hair, smiling brightly and claiming all the compliments for such novel and delicious “foreign food.”īy the way, to turn Chop Suey into Chow Mein, simply serve it over crunchy chow mein noodles, instead of rice. It has some Asian elements but it’s not Chinese food. I’ve been making it since the late 1980’s so you know it’s well-tested.Ĭhop Suey, prepared according to this method, is very much an American dish. This is my family’s favorite recipe for Pantry Friendly Chop Suey. I’ve adapted La Choy’s original recipe to use canned chicken and I’ve spiced it up a bit to make it more appealing to modern appetites. Chop Suey is still a tasty and budget-friendly family dish, easily prepared from panty staples. Back then though, it was the height of haute cuisine. Nowadays, it seems plebian and perhaps, uninspired. It was many Americans only exposure to Chinese food in the early 20th Century. La Choy continued to share this recipe with consumers until at least the 1970’s. The following recipe is based upon the one created by La Choy foods back in the 1920’s.

It translates to odds and ends or bits and pieces. According to Wikipedia, Chop Suey has been around in America since at least the 1890’s.

La choy chop suey recipe