A New England comfort-food casserole of elbow macaroni, browned ground beef, onion, and green pepper bound in a seasoned tomato sauce. It is cooked on the stovetop or finished in the oven into a soft, saucy, one-pot dish. Despite the name it has only a distant relation to the chop suey of American-Chinese restaurants; outside New England the same dish is often called American goulash or Johnny Marzetti.
Despite being strongly associated with New England, American chop suey was not invented there: printed recipes for the dish — ground beef, tomatoes, and pasta — appear in the American Midwest first, with a 1908 Chicago Daily News recipe using spaghetti and a 1910 Alton Evening Telegraph (Illinois) recipe the earliest to call for macaroni. The dish drew on Italian-American cooking and on older thrifty New England one-pot meals, and over the 20th century it became far more common in New England than elsewhere, which is why it is now read as a regional dish. The 'chop suey' name reflects that it is a tossed-together hodgepodge, and that early versions sometimes used rice; it is not a Chinese dish.
Soft, saucy, and homey — tender macaroni and crumbled beef coated in a tomato sauce that sits between a thin pasta sauce and a thick stew. The flavor is mild and savory, sweet from the tomato and onion, with the green pepper giving a faint vegetal note. It eats with a spoon as much as a fork, the noodles slick and the sauce clinging. Comforting rather than complex, it is the kind of dish that tastes better reheated the next day once the macaroni has drunk up more of the sauce.
Three simple steps carry it. The ground beef is browned first so the Maillard reaction builds a savory, meaty depth the dish would otherwise lack; the onion and pepper are softened in the rendered fat. The macaroni is usually boiled to just under done, then finished in the sauce so it absorbs flavor and releases starch that thickens and binds the dish without flour. Letting the assembled casserole simmer or bake a short while marries the components and lets the pasta swell into the tomato sauce.
Variations
Across the country the same beef-tomato-macaroni dish travels under other names — American goulash in much of the country, Johnny Marzetti in the Midwest (after a Columbus, Ohio restaurant), and 'slumgullion' in some older usage. New England cooks debate stovetop versus baked, elbow macaroni versus other small shapes, and whether to top it with cheese. It is a cousin of Italian-American baked pasta and of the thrifty older New England one-pot meals like 'necessity mess.' It bears no real relation to the stir-fried chop suey of American-Chinese cuisine, which shares only the name.
On the Palate
Where American Chop Suey sits in the American flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 6
How it's made
7 steps · 15 min
- 110 min
Boil 3 cups elbow macaroni in salted water until just under done, then drain.
Watch outBoil the macaroni to just under done, then drain — it finishes in the sauce and keeps softening, so fully cooked now means bloated pasta at the end.
- 26 min
Brown 1 pound ground beef in a large pot, breaking it up, until deeply colored.
Watch outBrown the ground beef deeply, breaking it up, until it's got real color — the Maillard sear builds the savory depth the whole dish leans on.
- 35 min
Add 1 chopped onion and 1 chopped green pepper and cook until softened.
- 43 min
Stir in 2 cloves minced garlic, then a 28-ounce can of crushed tomatoes and 1 cup tomato sauce.
- 513 min
Season with salt, pepper, and a pinch of dried oregano and simmer 10-15 minutes.
- 65 min
Fold in the drained macaroni and simmer another 5 minutes until the pasta absorbs the sauce.
Watch outFold the macaroni in and simmer 5 minutes so it drinks up the sauce — the pasta's released starch is what thickens and binds it without any flour.
- 73 min
Rest a few minutes and serve hot, with grated cheese if desired.
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