Shrimp Chop Suey is a restaurant-quality dish made with juicy pink shrimp, sauteed vegetables, and a thickened sauce, including flavor-rich Chinese cooking wine!
Enjoy this easy, healthy, and comforting one-pan meal over freshly steamed rice or noodles as a great alternative to takeout!
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❤️ Why I love this recipe
- Chinese shrimp chop suey is a great way to use leftover vegetables in your pantry while saving you the expense of ordering out!
- The rich sauce made with Chinese cooking wine makes this homemade chop suey different to tell apart from that served at your favorite Chinese restaurant.
- Healthy vegetables are easily accepted by the pickiest of eaters thanks to the umami sauce and juicy shrimp.
This Shrimp Chop Suey recipe is a restaurant-quality dish made effortlessly in one pan for a delicious midweek family meal instead of takeout!
🛒 Ingredients
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Note: The full list of this chop suey recipe ingredients with their amounts and options are in the recipe card below.
- Shrimp -- 21-25 count per pound
- Cornstarch
- Light soy sauce -- may also use regular
- Oyster sauce
- Chinese cooking wine
- Toasted sesame oil
- White or black pepper
- Water
- Vegetable oil -- or other cooking oil
- garlic cloves
- onion
- bok choy
- carrot
- celery
- red bell pepper
- snow peas
- crimini mushrooms (brown variety)
- bean sprouts
🗒 Instructions
Note: This is an overview of the instructions. The full instructions are in the recipe card below.
- Start making the sauce by adding cornstarch and soy sauce in a mixing bowl.
- Stir until lump free. Add the oyster sauce and sesame oil and stir.
- Add water, mirin, and pepper.
- Stir to combine well. Set aside.
- Cut the ends of the bok choy and cut them into 3” pieces. Separate the stems from the leaves.
- Heat oil in a wok or skillet over high heat with garlic.
- Add sliced onion and cook for a minute, until the onion starts to wilt.
- Add bok choy stems, sliced celery, and sliced bell pepper.
- Add snow peas and sliced mushrooms. Cook for 4 minutes.
- Add the shrimp.
- Cook for 1 minute until the shrimp turn pink.
- Add the bok choy leaves, bean sprouts, and sauce. Continue to cook for 1-2 minutes until the sauce thickens to a thick syrup consistency.
- Serve immediately with rice.
🔪 Equipment
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You’ll need the following items to make this recipe successfully.
- Sharp knife
- Cutting board
- Deep skillet or Wok
- Measuring spoons
- Dry measuring cups
- Liquid Measuring cup
- Wooden stirring Spoon
🤔 FAQs
These are the questions we are most frequently asked about making Shrimp Chop Suey.
Shrimp chop suey recipe consists of shrimp, stir fry vegetables, and a rich sauce. This dish is typically served with rice or noodles.
With shrimp chow mein, the starchy element, such as noodles, is added to the wok with the rest of the ingredients during the cooking time. With shrimp chop suey, the noodles or rice are cooked separately and served at the end, topped with the stir fry mixture and sauce.
Shrimp chop suey is in a cornstarch-thickened sauce. The sauce not only adds a rich flavor but adds enough moisture to the dish to make it ideal to serve over rice or noodles.
Shrimp only have one pair of legs, whereas prawns have three pairs of longer legs. Shrimp are also smaller in general compared to prawns and are located in fresh and saltwater regions in North America while prawns are generally found in freshwater in Africa and Asia.
👩🏻🍳 Tips
- Store leftover Chinese shrimp chop suey separately from rice or noodles, as these additional ingredients will absorb much of the sauce.
- You could par-boil some of the harder vegetables before pan-frying them if you prefer softer vegetables in your stir fry.
- Be careful not to overcook the shrimp. They should turn to light pink in the pan but not become rubbery.
- Enjoy this dish with your favorite choice of noodles. Serving the shrimp chop suey with rice makes this dish gluten-free.
- I highly recommend using Chinese cooking wine for this recipe. It’s an ingredient every Chinese restaurant uses and will give this homemade dish that restaurant quality!
📚 Variations
- I’ve used light soy sauce in this shrimp chop suey recipe which gives the sauce a clearer color. Ordinary soy sauce is a great substitute without changing the color of the sauce. You can also use dark soy sauce, but the sauce will be darker in color with a stronger flavor. Reduce the dark soy sauce to 1 tablespoon.
- Use vegetarian oyster sauce instead of regular oyster sauce for a vegetarian or oyster-free option. This is available at most grocery stores. Omit the shrimp and increase the vegetables for a truly vegetarian version.
- If you can’t source Chinese cooking wine, use dry sherry, Mirin, or Japanese cooking sake.
- For a non-alcoholic sauce, use chicken broth or water instead of wine.
- Serve this Chinese shrimp chop suey with cauliflower rice for a low-carb meal.
- Use other meat, such as beef, chicken, or pork, instead of shrimp.
- Toasted nuts sprinkled through the stir fry just before serving is a great way to add extra crunch.
- Add a small amount of red chili oil or sriracha sauce to this dish for a slight kick of heat.
🥫 Storage
Store shrimp chop suey in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. While you can freeze this chop suey, the texture of the vegetables may become affected.
Reheat your stored chop suey in the microwave or a pan over medium heat for a few minutes.
📗 Related Recipes
- Classic Chinese Chop Suey - This classic chop suey consists of bean sprouts, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, onions, and celery, with the option to add your choice of meat - pork, chicken, or beef.
- Chicken Chop Suey - This Chicken Chop Suey features tender strips of chicken, sauteed veggies, a rich savory sauce, and served with noodles!
- Hot and Sour Soup - A spicy and comforting Asian-inspired soup that’ll warm you up quickly!
🍽 Serve with
Enjoy this Chinese shrimp chop suey with freshly steamed white rice, noodles, or cauliflower rice as a carb-conscious alternative!
📞 Chiacchierata (chat)
The great thing about a chop suey recipe is the freedom to change the choice of meat and stir-fry vegetables. It’s exactly why I keep adding to my list of chop suey recipes on this blog - I just can’t get enough!
This quick and easy homemade shrimp chop suey allows every home cook to make a restaurant-quality dish for the family with no fuss and minimal expense.
Tutti a tavolo, è pronto!
What's new? Check out my All Our Way Store on Amazon. We'll be adding more items we love and use or wish we had to make cooking fun and easy.
📝 Recipe Card
Shrimp Chop Suey is a delicious recipe that includes juicy pink shrimp, an assortment of veggies, and a rich, thickened sauce served over freshly steamed rice for the ultimate American-Chinese comfort food!
Next time you're in the mood for a stir fry recipe, try our Italian Stir Fry With Shrimp. It strays from the usual soy based Asian flavors and captures the essence of the Italian.
If you love this recipe please give it 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.
📖 Recipe
Traditional Shrimp Chop Suey
Equipment Needed
- Deep skillet or Wok may also use a Wok
Ingredients
Shrimp:
- 16 oz. shrimp peeled and deveined - 453 ⅔ grams 21-25 count per lb.
Chop Suey Sauce:
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 ½ tablespoon light soy sauce or all purpose soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon Oyster Sauce
- 1 tablespoon Chinese Cooking Wine or Mirin
- ½ teaspoon toasted sesame oil
- Dash of white pepper or black
- ¾ cup water 185 ml.
Stir Fry:
- 1 ½ tablespoon vegetable oil or other cooking oil
- 2 garlic cloves finely chopped
- ½ onion sliced (you may use white, brown, yellow)
- 2 stems bok choy or other Asian greens
- 1 medium carrot thinly sliced
- 1 stalk celery thinly sliced
- 1 red bell pepper sliced
- 1 cup snow peas ends trimmed
- ½ cup small crimini mushrooms sliced
- 1 cup bean sprouts
- 1 tablespoon sesame seeds optional
Instructions
For the chop suey sauce:
- Place the cornstarch and soy sauce in a bowl. Mix until lump free. Then add remaining Sauce ingredients and stir. Set aside
Prepare vegetables:
- Chop bok choy: Trim end off bok choy then cut into 3-inch (7cm)pieces. Separate stems from leaves.
- Chop carrot - Peel then cut into 1.3-inch(3cm) pieces. Then slice into thin pieces.
- Slice celery - Thinly slice the celery stalk.
- Red Bell Pepper - Remove the seeds and thinly slice.
- Snow peas - Trim the ends and if the snow peas are long slice in half on a diagonal .
Stir Fry:
- Heat the vegetable oil in a wok or skillet over high heat. Add garlic and stir quickly, then add onion. Cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly, until the onion is starting to wilt.
- Add the bok choy stems, celery, red bell pepper, carrot, snow peas, and mushrooms. Stir fry for 4 minutes.
- Add the cleaned shrimp, cook for 1 minute until the surface changes from white to pink. Don’t overcook.
- Add bok choy leaves, bean sprouts and Sauce. Stir fry for 1 to 2 minutes until the Sauce thickens to a thick syrup consistency. Vegetables should still be tender/crisp, not soggy and soft.Sprinkle with a bit of sesame seeds (optional).
- Serve immediately with rice (for low carb, low cal option, try Cauliflower Rice!)
Notes
-
- Store leftover Chinese shrimp chop suey separately from rice or noodles, as these additional ingredients will absorb much of the sauce.
-
- You could par-boil some of the harder vegetables before pan-frying them if you prefer softer vegetables in your stir fry.
-
- Be careful not to overcook the shrimp. They should turn to light pink in the pan but not become rubbery.
-
- Enjoy this dish with your favorite choice of noodles. Serving the shrimp chop suey with rice makes this dish gluten-free.
-
- I highly recommend using Chinese cooking wine for this recipe. It’s an ingredient every Chinese restaurant uses and will give this homemade dish that restaurant quality!
-
- I’ve used light soy sauce in this shrimp chop suey recipe which gives the sauce a clearer color. Ordinary soy sauce is a great substitute without changing the color of the sauce. You can also use dark soy sauce, but the sauce will be darker in color with a stronger flavor. Reduce the dark soy sauce to 1 tablespoon.
-
- Use vegetarian oyster sauce instead of regular oyster sauce for a vegetarian or oyster-free option. This is available at most grocery stores. Omit the shrimp and increase the vegetables for a truly vegetarian version.
-
- If you can’t source Chinese cooking wine, use dry sherry, Mirin, or Japanese cooking sake.
-
- For a non-alcoholic sauce, use chicken broth or water instead of wine.
-
- Serve this Chinese shrimp chop suey with cauliflower rice for a low-carb meal.
-
- Use other meat, such as beef, chicken, or pork, instead of shrimp.
-
- Toasted nuts sprinkled through the stir fry just before serving is a great way to add extra crunch.
-
- Add a small amount of red chili oil or sriracha sauce to this dish for a slight kick of heat.
