A delicious stir-fry of tender chicken & crunchy vegetables, chicken chop suey is very easy to make. Its tasty, thick sauce works well for other stir-fries too.
Cut chicken breast crosswise into thin slices (about 5mm/0.2inch). Put into a bowl.
Add tapioca starch (or corn starch) and water. Stir well to evenly coat the chicken.
Then add a drop of oil and mix well. Set aside.
Mix the sauce
In a small bowl, mix all the ingredients for the sauce. Set aside.
Cook the chicken
Heat up a wok over high heat until it smokes (see note 3). Pour in 1 tablespoon of oil.
Slide in the chicken. Transfer it out as soon as it loses the pinkness (Do not overcook). Set aside.
Combine the dish
Pour the remaining ½ tablespoon of oil into the wok. Firstly fry onion and garlic over high heat until fragrant.
Add carrot and fry for 15 seconds or so. Then snow pea and baby corn go in. Stir fry for another 20 seconds.
Put the chicken back into the wok, along with mushroom and mung bean sprouts. Cook for 30 seconds.
Give the sauce a good stir (in case the starch sits at the bottom) then pour over. Mix well.
As soon as you see the liquid thickening, transfer everything to a serving dish. Enjoy immediately with plain rice or as a topping for noodles.
Video
Notes
1. If your diet limits you on seafood, try the vegetarian version of oyster sauce which is known as “mushroom vegetarian stir-fry sauce”.2. In most cases, tapioca starch and corn starch are interchangeable. The slight difference in a stir-fry is that the sauce using tapioca starch tends to stay thick as the dish cools. The sauce using corn starch becomes more watery when cooled. So if possible, use the former for this dish.3. If you’re using a traditional carbon steel wok, follow my instruction as suggested. If using a non-stick wok, do not heat it up empty. Instead, pour in the oil as you turn on the heat. Add the chicken when the oil starts to smoke.