Chicken Herbal Soup
By admin on 2015-01-29

Chinese Name: 清鸡汤

Introduction:

One of the most basic Chinese chicken soups available.  It is usually recommended by your Chinese herbalist, with minimalistic herbs and a whole chicken, it’s a wonderfully delicious soup for children and adults.  It is actually designed to be the base for confinement soups, but with more herbs and can be double-boiled for extra strength.  This soup is ideal for the cool autumn and winter months.

What Ingredients are required?

1 fresh whole chicken
1-2 fresh large abalones (or dried)
5-6 dried scallops (conpoys)
10 dried longans
1 handful of wolfberries
5 sticks of dried Chinese yam
2 litres of water

How do I prepare it?

Prepare chicken (in quarters) by rinsing and blanching in a pot of hot water
Wash and clean abalone
Boil your soup water
Wash and soak for 10 minutes all the dried herbs
When your soup water is boiling, add all the ingredients together
Boil on high heat for 30 minutes and reduce to low boil for another 2 hours.
Serve and enjoy!

Any benefits?

Excellent warming soup for cold days
Good to increase blood circulation and blood flow
It is considered to be of the “healing” categories of soup
If used for confinement, you can make the soup more concentrated (less water or more ingredients)

Any precautions?

As the whole chicken can be oily, be sure to remove all oil before serving
Minimize herbs when used for children (above sampling suggested)