One of my friends on Facebook said that they were searching for Samoan food recipes on Google recently, and apparently my blog came up in the first few pages of results, which I thought was kinda weird since I didn’t have any Samoan recipes on my blog at the time (although it was probably because of this post). I’ve been planning to post up my sapasui recipe at some point, so I figured this was a sign to finally post it up.
Sapasui, or Samoan chop suey, is that Samoan soul food of questionable nutritional value. Borrowed from Chinese migrants and integrated into traditional Samoan cuisine, everyone’s got a their own variation of this staple food in their family.
My dad’s chop suey was always a hit at family gatherings when I was growing up. However, having it on a regular basis at home, I became too familiar with it and only appreciated it once I had left home and yearned for that familiar savoury soy sauce satisfaction.
My first attempt at making it was when I was in my first year of design school in Wellington, and I asked my dad for the recipe so I could try and cook it for my flatmates. He tried to coach me through the process over the phone, but dad’s ‘eyeball’ method of measuring ingredients, and a few key steps being lost in translation resulted in a soupy mess that was such a disaster I didn’t try making it for another 10 years!
Fast forward those 10 years, I’m now a single dad and in the beginning stages of learning how to cook for myself and my daughter (see my 1 Player Chef article). My dad was down visiting one weekend, so I decided to get back on the horse and try learning my dad’s recipe firsthand, rather than over the phone. We both made it together, side by side, one batch each, so I could learn and watch at the same time. He still didn’t use measurements, rather his own eyeballing method, so I kind of got the idea and was successful in making a decent chop suey, but was a bit uneasy with trying it again without him.
Some time after this successful attempt, I came across the book “Me’a Kai – The Food and Flavours of the South Pacific” which had a recipe for ‘Fancy Sapasui’. It had some unnecessary ingredients (in my opinion) like lobster(!) and vegetables(!!). But it also had measurements for ingredients, which was the last piece of the puzzle I needed. So after stripping out all the ‘Fancy’ extraneous ingredients, I refined it down to the core fundamentals that I felt made it what it needed to be. No veges, no extra bits, just the goodness. And this is what I present to you below:
Recipe: Sapasui (Samoan Chop Suey)
- 250 grams vermicelli
- 3 tablespoons peanut oil
- 2 tablespoons ginger, minced
- 2 tablespoons garlic, minced
- 400 grams chicken thigh, diced
- 2/3 cup soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- Pepper to taste
1. Soak vermicelli for 15 minutes in boiling water, then drain the noodles and reserve a bit of the liquid (you can prep the next steps while it’s soaking). Cut smaller with scissors.
2. Heat oil in pot, add ginger and garlic, when lightly browned add chicken and cook for four minutes.
3. Add noodles, and stir fry quickly.
4. Add soy sauce, sugar and pepper, and stir to combine. Add some of the liquid drained from the vermicelli if theΒ sapasui is a bit dry.
5. Serve immediately! Goes great with rice and fa’alifu talo (taro cooked in coconut cream)
Tips:
- If you want to make it healthier, you can add mixed veges, or in the case of the ‘fancy sapasui’ recipe, yellow beans. I’m all for getting in your 5 plus a day, but that can be on the side. I keep my chop suey OG!
Malo uso! Thank you very much for a seki recipe for chop suey bro. I’ve been wanting a proper recipe for years since I was a faifeaukala’i in NZ 2009-2011.
Malo Dominic, no worries! Glad you enjoyed it π
Keen to try this tonight, I’ve tried a few recipes, but haven’t been a good turnout.. this one seems more like my style, nice and simple, quick and easy.. will let ya know how I go hahaha
Thanx brother, yay will try this recipe, tried a different one, came out soupy and bland. Hopefully I do better with this one π
Thanks for the choice recipe turned out the best cheers
No worries Troy, glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks for the recipe, I’m looking forward to trying it. What kind or brand Soy Sauce do you find the best?
Hey Celia, I use a thick dark soy sauce, ‘Sungold’ which is an octagonal bottle with a red label. Hope it works for you!
I know taro is a for of potato but where u am you cant get ut unless i go to the city so i was wondering if sweet potato could be used in its place ?? Cheers. Jemima.
Hey Jemima, i’ve never used sweet potato as a substitute, but you could possibly do so – taro is usually pretty bland so the sweet potato would add an extra bit of flavour to the dish π
thanks for the sapasui recipe, it helps so much when I was asked all of a sudden to cook one today. I haven’t cooked it since the last two years and totally forgotten the step by step way of doing it. just cooked it now and it’s smell and tasted yummy
Tryed this tonight first time ive made it turned out yum az definitely be making it again thanx for recipe
You’re welcome Jennifer! π
First time I hate samoan chop sue 17yrs ago in seattle… omg it’s delicious but the thing is I had know idea how do make this every time I went to Asian food court I chose the their jabjae their good but not like the samoan sapasui or chop ssΓuii so thanks for sharing now I can start making this for mae kids Γ nd mae huppy….thanks again
No worries! I think part of the secret of the Samoan version is more soy sauce hahaha…
This recipe is our new family favourite. Thanks so much its perfect
Victoria
Glad to hear you enjoyed it Victoria! π
Very nice bro…we have it all the time
Thank you helped introduce supasui to my English Samoan children. Great simple recipe.
Okay great, this was the simplest recipe i found. My father in law makes it for our sunday lunches but he also doesnt measure. I need to show cast it for my sons class so thanks for that. Yea veges dont suit. Best to have a salad on side. I usually eat mine with bread.