American Chop Suey

American Chop Suey has been an old standby in New England since the Great Depression, dishes like it, have been family favorites, and my mother made it regularly for dinner. She passed before I had a family of my own never got her recipe and ended up trying one recipe after another. Despite it being such a popular dish in my neck of the woods, I found that not everyone followed the same formula my mother, school cafeteria’s, diners had for decades. It was the proverbial needle in the haystack. Several years ago, I found Elise Bauer’s mom’s recipe Hamburger Macaroni on Simply Recipes and was happy to find that it was the definitive American Chop Suey. It’s a very adaptable recipe, I usually add 1 chopped green pepper as that is what I grew up with, or a few stalks of celery, chopped. You can stretch the recipe to serve 6 by using 3 cups of macaroni. 

4 servings

2 cups uncooked macaroni

1 tbsp olive oil

1 pound ground beef

1 yellow onion, chopped

1/2 tsp seasoned salt

Pinch chili powder

1/2 tsp celery seed

1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes

2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Get a large pot of salted hot water (1 tbsp of salt for 2 quarts of water) boiling and begin cooking the macaroni as per the directions on the macaroni package. While the water is heating and macaroni cooking, prepare the sauce. In a skillet, brown the ground beef in a tbsp of olive oil on high heat. Stir only infrequently so that the ground beef has an opportunity to brown. When the beef has mostly browned, add the onions to the pan and toss to combine. Cook until the onions are soft, about 4 to 6 minutes. Add the celery seed, a dash of crushed red pepper and seasoned salt. Pour in canned tomatoes, add the Worcestershire sauce and stir to combine. Simmer for 5 minutes. Drain the pasta, reserving a half cup of the pasta cooking water. Mix in the drained and cooked macaroni and the parsley. Cook for another 5 minutes. Add in some of the pasta water if the dish is too dry. Add freshly ground black pepper and salt to taste.