This easy pork chop suey recipe guarantees tender juicy pork slices and crisp crunchy vegetables covered with a rich brown sauce that is well balanced. It is a perfect dish to use up your vegetable scraps from the fridge and make an inexpensive and delicious meal in under 30 minutes. {Gluten-Free Adaptable}
What is pork chop suey
Pork chop suey is one of those Chinese American classics that you usually find at takeout restaurants in the US, but probably not in China. It’s in that special category with other popular takeout dishes, such as General Tso’s Chicken, Orange Chicken, Sesame Beef, and Egg Foo Young. And it’s popular for a reason – because it’s super delicious!
Chop suey is usually made with a protein (such as chicken, pork, or beef) and various vegetables stir fried together with a brown sauce. It is very comforting and rich in taste, and it has fun textures.
A takeout-style pork chop suey usually consists of vegetables such as carrot, celery, pepper, bamboo shoots and bean sprouts. For me, this is where you can get really creative. Since the word “chop suey” means “mixed vegetables” or “vegetable scraps”, it is a perfect recipe for using up whatever vegetables you have on hand to make a delicious and balanced meal.
Pork chop suey ingredients
What cut of pork to use
Pork loin and tenderloin are the best for making pork chop suey. My favorite cut is tenderloin, since it is very lean and extra tender.
The sauce
My pork chop suey uses a well balanced brown sauce that is savory, lightly sweet, and full of fragrance. The key ingredients are oyster sauce and Shaoxing wine with a touch of sesame oil. By adding these ingredients, your brown sauce will be much more interesting than the ones mainly made from soy sauce.
The vegetables
My pork chop suey uses onion, carrots, baby bok choy and bean sprouts to give the dish a colorful appearance and a great texture and mouthfeel. That being said, you can also use many other types of vegetables you might have on hand to replace the ones in this recipe. Scroll down to see some vegetable alternatives.
Mise en place
When you’re ready to cook, your table should have:
- Sliced vegetables (I grouped the carrots and bok choy together because I add them at the same time)
- Mixed sauce
- Marinated pork
- Minced garlic
When you start cooking, things will move very fast. So make sure you have all the ingredients ready before turning on the heat.
How to cook pork chop suey
What pan to use
Either a large nonstick skillet (12” or larger) or a large carbon steel skillet is a great option. If you use a carbon steel skillet, you might need to use a bit more oil when cooking the pork, to avoid sticking. A cast iron skillet works great too but I usually avoid it since it’s quite heavy.
Pork chop suey cooking step-by-step
- Sear the pork by spreading it out as much as possible and not moving it during searing
- Cook the pork until just cooked through, then transfer it to a big plate
- Cook the garlic and onion
- Saute the bok choy and carrot
- Pour in the sauce and add the pork and bean sprouts
- Mix everything together until the sauce thickens
And that’s it!
Now you have a beautiful plate of pork chop suey that has a ton of vegetables in it and is super rich in flavor. You can serve it over steamed rice for a balanced meal.
What other vegetables can you use in pork chop suey?
The beauty of pork chop suey is that, once you understand the basics, you can use many different kinds of vegetables to create a delicious dish. To give the dish the best texture, I recommend using a combination of hard and crisp vegetables and greens.
For hard, crisp vegetables, you can use:
- Celery
- Bell pepper or hot pepper if you prefer a spicy dish
- Bamboo shoots
- Water chestnut
- Baby corn
Green vegetables:
- Broccoli (blanched, check out this recipe to see how I quickly blanch broccoli in a skillet)
- Cabbage
- Napa cabbage
- Choy sum
- Yu choy
- Spinach
- Snow peas
As a rule of thumb, it’s good to use about 1/2 cup of the harder vegetables and no more than 1 cup.
For the more tender vegetables, it is a bit trickier to judge, since different vegetables shrink at different rates when cooked. I think a total of 4 to 5 cups usually works well, or the amount that can just cover your skillet without too much overlap.
Other easy and delicious takeout dishes
- Mongolian Beef (Without Using a Wok)
- Cashew Chicken (腰果鸡丁)
- Yang Zhou Fried Rice (扬州炒饭)
- Black Pepper Chicken
- Chinese Beef and Broccoli (牛肉炒西兰花)
- Chinese Curry Chicken
Pork Chop Suey
Ingredients
Meat & marinade
- 1 lb (450 g) pork loin , sliced against the grain into 1/4” (5 mm) thick pieces (or tenderloin)
- 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry)
- 1 teaspoon oyster sauce
- 2 teaspoons peanut oil (or vegetable oil)
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
Sauce
- 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
- 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry)
- 1 teaspoon light soy sauce (or regular soy sauce)
- 1/2 teaspoon dark soy sauce (Optional)
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
- 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
Stir Fry
- 2 tablespoons peanut oil (or vegetable oil)
- 2 cloves garlic , minced
- 1/2 white onion , sliced
- 1 small carrot , sliced
- 4 to 6 heads (10 oz / 280 g) baby bok choy , cut to bite-size pieces
- 1 cup bean sprouts
Instructions
- Combine the pork, Shaoxing wine, oyster sauce and oil. Mix until the liquid is absorbed. Add the cornstarch and mix again to coat evenly. Marinate 15 minutes while preparing the rest of the ingredients.
- Combine the sauce ingredients except for the chicken broth and sesame oil. Mix to dissolve the sugar and cornstarch. Add the chicken broth and sesame oil and mix again. Set aside.
- Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the pork in a single layer with minimal overlap. Cook without moving until the bottom turns golden, 2 minutes or so. Flip and cook until the pork is just cooked through, 1 minute or so. Transfer the pork to a large plate.
- Add the remaining tablespoon of oil to the pan. Add the garlic and onion and stir fry until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
- Add the carrots and bok choy. Stir fry for another minute, until the vegetables start to soften.
- Stir the sauce again to dissolve the cornstarch completely. Pour it into the pan and stir a few times to mix well. Return the cooked pork to the pan and add the bean sprouts. Stir and cook until the sauce has thickened, 1 to 2 minutes. Serve hot as a main course.
Video
Nutrition
Lilja Walter was a part of the Omnivore’s Cookbook team and worked closely with Maggie to develop and test this recipe.
We loved it. Of course it took me more prep time and it took longer to cook as it is often the case when not using the perfect tools. I made it with tofu which I treated the same way in a marinade and shrimp which I pan fried after the tofu and before everything else so I could put them aside. Very versatile recipe and I now have a go-to sauce for stir fry. Thank you for sharing and I really enjoyed your tofu cooking recommendations in the Martha Stewart article.
Really liked this recipe.
The marinade and sauce were right on.
I used baby Bok chow, carrots, snow peas, mung bean sprouts and Napa cabbage.
Quite nice over jasmine rice.
Thank you.
Delicious!!
This is going into my list of go-to meals!! I was looking for a recipe to use up the carrots, green beans and bok choy in my fridge. My family devoured it! The sauce is absolutely delicious. My husband loves it so much, he asked me to make it again a few days later. This time, I made it with some pan-fried noodles and doubled the sauce. Thank you!