Chicken & Daikon Soup (Rice Cooker Recipe)

by wiffy on October 4, 2010

in Asian,Chicken,Chinese,Chinese Soups,Meat,Recipes,Rice Cooker,Root Vegetables,Vegetables

Chicken & Daikon Soup with Mushrooms, Ginger, Wolfberries & Dried Scallops

Last week, I had the great pleasure of meeting tigerfish from teczcape when she came back to Singapore for a few days. Tigerfish recently published a cookbook, The Everything Rice Cooker Cookbook, and I was really lucky to receive a signed copy from her. Prior to tigerfish’s cookbook, the only thing I know how to cook in the rice cooker is … rice! So imagine my pleasant surprise, as I was flipping through the cookbook, to find more than 300 rice cooker recipes. And it’s not just rice you can cook in a rice cooker. Thanks to her cookbook, I learned how to make a hearty pot of chicken and daikon (white radish) soup. This is a nourishing soup with “cooling” & “qi-balancing” properties. Daikon, like luo han guo (monk’s fruit), is known to be good for soothing a sore throat. With the rice cooker method, the water boils quickly and the soup cooks itself with minimal effort (plus, no need to watch the flame like stove top cooking). The chicken was so tender from the prolonged yet gentle simmering, the meat was practically falling off the bones. The result is soup that has been deeply simmered with a rich taste – just like it has been slow cooked but in a much shorter time.

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Simmering the soup in the rice cooker

I do own a slow cooker but I have been reluctant to use it for Chinese soups because it takes a long time for the water to boil, and it will almost never boil if I do not add hot water. Now I finally found a new and good way to cook soups. Best of all, the soup keeps warm all the way till dinner time and doesn’t occupy additional space on my limited kitchen counter top.

The Everything Rice Cooker Cookbook

What I like most about this book is: despite the versatility of rice cooker cooking, you don’t even need a high-end rice cooker to cook the dishes. All the dishes, I was told, can be whipped up in a traditional and inexpensive “keep warm/cook” rice cooker. I think this book is perfect for those into one-pot cooking, and extremely useful for people who wish to expand their range of cooking with minimal appliances. The book brings out the versatility of one-pot cooking teaching you techniques such as steaming, stir-frying, stewing and braising, all in the rice cooker. Now I know that besides rice, I can also cook pasta, congee, seafood, desserts, curries, stews, vegetables and more.

I would like to congratulate tigerfish on her cookbook. I must say that despite being academically brilliant, running a successful blog and now, a cookbook author, tigerfish is one of the most humble and down-to-earth person I know. I wish her continued success & more opportunities in future to bring her passions to even greater heights :)

Ingredients
(Serves 2-3)
Recipe adapted from The Everything Rice Cooker Cookbook by Tay Hui Leng

- 500g chicken, skin removed (I use 3 large chicken drumsticks, you can also use half chicken or chicken thighs, chopped to rough pieces)
- 1 litre of water
- 5 slices of ginger
- 1 daikon (white radish/白萝卜), about 300g, peeled and cut to large chunks
- 8 shiitake mushrooms, stems removed
- 1 tbsp wolfberries, soaked in water till puffy
- 3 dried scallops
- salt

Tools Needed
A basic “keep warm/cook” electronic rice cooker

Directions
1. Add water to the rice cooker pot, set to “Cook’. When the water boils, add chicken in the rice cooker for 5-8 minutes with the rice cooker covered and discard the first change of cooking liquid. Set aside blanched chicken pieces.
2. Add 1 litre of water to the rice cooker pot, cover and set to ‘Cook’.
3. When the water boils, add chicken, daikon, mushrooms, dried scallops and ginger. Cover the rice cooker and return to a boil. I leave the soup in the ‘Cook’ mode for about 45 minutes.
4. Switch the rice cooker to ‘Warm’ and allow to simmer for at least another 1-2 hours. 15 to 30 minutes before serving the soup, add the soaked wolfberries. Add salt to taste.