Ingredients
Please use organic ingredients as much as possible
- Whole Organic Chicken
- 4-5 medium carrots (sliced into 1/2 inch pieces
- 3-4 celery stalks (sliced)
- 8oz mushroom your favorite type) (sliced into 1/4 inch pieces)
- 1 medium sweet potato/yam (diced into 1/2 inch pieces)
- 1 large onion (chopped)
- 4-5 med/large garlic cloves (chopped
- fresh ginger (approximately 1 inch piece thinly sliced )
- 1/2 bunch fresh cilantro (washed, chopped: stem and leaf)
- 1-2 teas Pink salt (to taste) & 1 teas. fresh black pepper
- Sesame seeds
- 1 teas. crushed chili flakes
Make separately
thin rice noodles, buckwheat soba or sweet potato flour noodles
Herbs
This blend will significantly increase the immune function of this soup. You may leave them out or only add the dates and wolf berries (easy to find in Asian section of most grocers). I do encourage you to try the whole complement of herbs as these are very powerful immune boosting and anti-aging substances.
- 5-6 Da Zao / Chinese dates (see tips)
- 2 Tablespoons Gou Qi Zi / wolfberries (see tips)
- 1/2 ounce (14g) Huang qi / Astragulus (see tips)
- 1/2 ounce (14g) Dang Gui / Angelica (see tips)
- 5-6 pieces of long yan rou / longan fruit (see tips)
Instructions
Stovetop: place chicken and herbal ingredients (if using herbal blend) in a large pot or slow cooker and cover with enough water to cover 2-3 inches above contents. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer, partly covered for 1 hour. Add all other ingredients except ginger and 1/2 cilantro. Simmer an additional 2 hours partly covered. Remove chicken with a large straining ladle and let cool @ 20-30 minutes. Meanwhile, turn off heat and allow broth to stand, covered Remove meat from bones and cut into desired sized pieces or simply shred. Add chicken and ginger to pot and bring to simmer for only 15 minutes longer. Ladle over cooked noodles and top with fresh cilantro and sesame seeds.
Slow cooker: simply add everything (including herbal blend) except ginger and 1/2 cilantro (save for garnish) and cook on high for 4 hours/ low for 8-10 hours. Add ginger during last 15 minutes of cook time.
Cook noodles separately. See tips for serving suggestions.
Cooking Tips
- You can cook herbal chicken soup on a stovetop or in a slow cooker. The cooking times are – 1.5 to 3 hours on stovetop, 4 to 8 hours in slow cooker
- The medicinal herbs can be bought in any Asian grocer. Store herbs in a sealed jar or bag in a dry space and they will keep for a year
- You can purchase a high quality pre-packaged herbal blend of these ingredients through Root and Spring and shipped directly to your home: use 1/2 the ingredients in the bag for each pot of soup
- If you’ve never tried Chinese herbal soup before, start with less amounts of each herb and work your way up to suggested amount.
- Cook noodles separately so they do not get mushy. Simply place what you like in your bowl and pour soup over the noodles. Top with fresh cilantro and sesame seeds. Sweet potato Noodles, Soba and Rice noodles or brown rice spaghetti can be purchased online, in Asian grocers and most Asian sections of standard supermarkets. According to my research, they all seem to be a bit more expensive when purchased online.