Ginseng Chicken Soup
人参鸡汤
English: Ginseng Chicken Soup
Chinese: 人参鸡汤
Pinyin: ren shen ji tang
This is part medicine, part soup. Many dishes in China were originally developed, and later refined, to be delicious as well as jammed-packed with health benefits. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) doctors will ask you to eat more, or less, of something depending on your symptoms. For thousands of years China puts faith in diet to cure many diseases, and ginseng is one of the more potent ingredients in TCM. It is believed that “it brings every sort of hurt and injury under control”. Ginseng chicken soup is a common home remedy for lowering blood pressure, boosting energy and lowering stress levels. A nice hot chicken soup might seem like something to eat in the winter months, but in China it’s eaten in the summer months to replenish the nutrients lost through sweating. (You can learn more about ginseng in my explainer here.
There are a number of specific herbs that are easy to come by in China, but without a trip a good Chinese supermarket in the West you might be struggling. I’ve found you can drop the angelica root and Mongolian milk vetch without too much loss of flavour, and if you can’t find golden thread mushrooms, another thin strong-tasting mushroom will do.
In the Korean area of Beijing (Wangjing), there are restaurants that only serve Ginseng Chicken Soup. Each person is served a whole little chicken in a small cauldron of soup, so you could always copy them and use two pots and two small chickens.
Serves 2
Ingredients
1 whole Chicken (about 1.2kg - 1.5kg)
130g - 150g glutinous white rice
9 cloves of garlic
1 small dried ginseng root
1 piece of angelica root (白芷)
5 slices of Ginger (unpeeled)
6 Chinese red dates
2 pieces of Astragalus (huang zhi) (黄芪)
Handful of golden thread mushrooms (Cordyceps)
1 leek - white part only
2 spring onions
1 tablespoon of goji berries
Method
The night before measure out the rice into a bowl and cover with water and leave for 8-12 hours.
The next day, peel the garlic cloves then slice lengthways so you have about 18 pieces. Drain the water from the rice, then add the chopped garlic and dried ginseng root to the rice, mix it together and then stuff the mix into the chicken. When it’s almost full, place the piece of angelica root at the end, and then seal the cavity with a few toothpicks so the rice doesn’t fall out.
Prepare the rest of the ingredients. Usually the dried ingredients are prepped into slices already. Cut the green away from the leek and then leave the white part whole, and cut the spring onions into about 3 inch pieces.
Place the chicken into a deep saucepan or casserole dish, fill the pot with enough water to almost completely submerge the chicken (you want at least three quarters submerged, any less and the meat will dry out).
Bring the water to the boil. After 2-3 minutes, scoop off any scum that is floating on the surface.
Add all the remaining ingredients: ginger, dates, milk vetch, mushrooms, leek, spring onions, goji berries, and then reduce to a simmer, cover and cook for about two hours.
After two hours, remove the lid, taste and add the tiniest touch of salt if you prefer, but this really should be a clean and purifying soup.
Remove the chicken and divide up the meat between two bowls. Spoon out the rice from the chicken and divide, then pour over the soup into the two bowls and serve. Nothing else is needed.
Note:
The ginseng, angelica root and milk vetch can be eaten, but they are mostly there to release their health benefits into the soup.
Astragalus is also known as Mongolian milk vetch in English.
