Great Oriental flavored dish!
Brown beef in shortening. Mix next 8 ingredients, rinsing soup cans with warm water. Place in casserole dish. Bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour. Top with Chinese noodles and bake an additional 15 minutes.
By Robin from Washington, IA
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
Growing up, my mother used to make this meal using Chun King bean sprouts. It contained hamburger, celery, and bean sprouts. I can't remember anything else, but I remember the celery took on the flavor of the meat and I loved it.
I've tried to find the recipe on the web with no luck. It used be on the can of bean sprouts. I haven't looked lately, but last time I did, it wasn't there. Does anyone know about this recipe and if so, would you share it? Thanks.
By Vicki Thomas from Charlotte, NC
It was kind of a chop suey sort of dish. My impression is cooked and drain hamburger, slice celery and onion, add to hamburger with 1 bouillon cube, bit of water for sauce, in which is 1 tablespoon cornstarch, some soy sauce. Heat until thickened, which cooks the veggies just enough.
It could have had sliced mushrooms. Served with steamed rice. I use bouillon-KNORR- from Walmart, about 75 cents per box. The bouillon (I use both beef for beef and chicken for poultry) is excellent and often a half cube is enough.
I might be wrong, because I think it goes back to the 60's. You can buy fresh sprouts now too at the grocers. Just the heat of the sauce, and maybe put a lid on for 5 minutes after bring to a boil to thicken would cook the veggies.
If anyone is interested, here's the recipe:
HAMBURGER CHOP SUEY
La Choy Brown Gravy Sauce
1/2 cup light or dark corn syrup
1 teaspoon La Choy Soy Sauce
Combine the two ingredients.
Chop Suey
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
1 pound hamburger
1 medium onion, chopped
Dash ground black pepper
2 teaspoons salt
For the sauce:
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon Brown Gravy Sauce (recipe above)
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
Melt the butter in a frying pan and fry the beef until light brown. Add the onion, pepper, salt, celery and boiling water. Bring to a boil; cover the pan and simmer for 20 minutes, or until the meat is tender. Add the bean sprouts and mushrooms.
Combine the sauce ingredients, add to the hot mixture and stir until thickened. Serve over rice or chow mein noodles.
If it is still too bland for your taste, you might add teryaki sauce to it. I also use 2 bouillon cubes in the 1 1/2 cups water. We love water chestnuts so I put a can of those and didn't add the mushrooms because I don't really know what a good mushroom looks like and I didn't have any.
It's sad but I realize that as I get older, my taste buds are getting old too! LOL! Vicki
