Chinese Chicken Herbal Soup

Chinese Herbs Chicken Soup (炖鸡汤)

Drinking Chinese herbal soups in rainy December gives a feeling of warmth and well-being. This soup is nourishing and especially great when you are feeling fatigue; it boosts your general well being. This is the conventional way of stewing/simmering the soup over slow fire on the stove top, for the steaming method of making chicken herbal soup, check out my steamed herbal chicken soup recipe.

I started out with buying prepacked Chinese herbal mixes and I measured the quantities in the package so that I know the right amount to use and won’t overdose. After some time, I learnt to buy my own herbs individually as it is more economical than buying the premixes. If you are not cooking this too often and for convenience, you can use any brand of prepacked Chinese herbs for stewing chicken soup, they will do the job nicely too…

Ingredients
(serves 3)

– 1/2 chicken, skin removed and cut to small pieces
– Běi Qí (北芪) 6g*
– Dǎng shēn (当参) 15g*
– Huái Shān (淮山) 11g*
– Wolfberries (枸杞子) 23g
– Yù Zhú (玉竹) 23g
– 1.5 litres water
– salt, to taste

* approx. 3 pieces based on the sizes seen in above picture

Directions
1. Blanch chicken in boiling water for a few minutes. Drain, rinse with cold water & set aside.
2. Place blanched chicken and the rest of the ingredients in water. After coming to a boil, simmer on low heat for at 45 minutes, and longer if you can.
3. Season to taste with salt. Serve with steamed white rice.

Cooking Notes
1. Time saving tip – I pre-pack the Chinese herbs in a ziplock bag (use a separate small plastic bag/cling wrap for the wolfberries) and store it in the freezer.
2. You can also double boil, slow cook, or use a thermal pot.