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The Chinese Herbal Chicken Soup

, By Dunkle

Boil and Boil Again

The Chinese love their soups. Especially the Cantonese. It is a way of life, something to look forward to when you have had a long day and you are going home to mum’s or grandma’s homemade soup.

It is not just any other soup. A lot of herbs are used in these soups. This has been a tradition, bordering on superstition, that spammed generations. The belief is that the herbs help one’s constitution.

Herbs usually consist of ‘weird’ ingredients, mostly oriental in nature. Their names are too scientific in English: Wolfberry, Angelica, Cordyceps, Ginseng, Panax Notoginseng (Tian Qi) to name just a mere few. These all give the soup a very earthy, almost medicinal taste. And they actually do give a kind of placebo effect, or a mythical effect, to curing our hangovers.

Method

1. First boil the soup, and skim the scum from the top of the boil.

First boil Chinese Herbal Chicken Soup
Stage 1: First boil and skim the scum off the top of the boil

Usually the method or recipe calls for soft bone pork or chicken pieces. I prefer to use a whole chicken. I soak the herbs first, and boil them in plain water. When the contents are boiling, I introduce the whole chicken in.

The first boil removes the impurities from the chicken, and the herbal mixture seeps into the raw chicken creating that intense flavour. There will be a layer of scum formed when the impurities are bring boiled away. They are then removed.

2. Boil the Chinese chicken with the herbs until the chicken breaks down.

Stage 2 boiling Chinese Herbal Chicken Soup
Stage 2: Boiling Chinese Herbal Chicken Soup, cool it down, chicken breaks apart

The most important technique that I learnt is to let the soup cool off first, before boiling it again. Temperature reduction lets the ingredients set into the liquid, thus they will break further apart when I boil them again. Furthermore, the chicken flavour intensifies when this is done.

3. Allow the chicken soup to cool off, before bringing back to the boil again for the final time.

Stage 3 setting of the Chicken Soup
Stage 3: Final cooling-off and reboiling of the Herbal Chicken Soup

When restaurants offer their ‘Triple Boiled Soups’, this is what I think they are serving. The soup should look opaque white, and taste like a heavy chicken consommé. It almost tastes like a dish by itself and the meat can be served with soy-sauce on the side. White rice is served as a staple together with this dish.

Recipe

Preparation time: 2-3 hours

Ingredients: (for 8 pax)

  1. A packet of Pasar Herbs for Chicken soup (there are various kinds for different ailments/ enhancing effects)
  2. 300-500 kg whole chicken or pork (optional)
  3. Salt and sugar to taste
Pasar Brand of herbs, refer to our Herb Library for specific herbs

Method is as per stage 1, 2 and 3 above.

There you have the Chinese Herbal Chicken Soup! Enjoy!

Dunkle

Dunkle

Local Singaporean Shifu at The Fake Peranakans
The Dunkle's passion for authentic Asian cooking is derived from a fusion between his years spent in Adelaide, where he was unable to find the South East Asian food of his youth & his Grandma's Rempah recipes growing up in Singapore.
Dunkle
Dunkle

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