Stewing · FFET10223
Ji tang (Chinese chicken soup)
A soup made by simmering a whole or cut-up chicken gently in water with ginger, sometimes with red dates, goji or mushrooms, and a base broth for many soups.
A deep white porcelain bowl holds pale chicken drumsticks and bone-in pieces in clear golden broth amid ginger slices, dried shiitake mushrooms, red dates and goji berries, with wooden chopsticks resting beside the bowl.
Slow cooking in plenty of water or stock over low heat, with the broth kept.
Chicken soup is made by simmering a whole or cut-up chicken gently in water with ginger, and some versions add red dates, goji berries or mushrooms. The East Asian version is lighter. Chicken soup is the basic chicken broth behind most Chinese soups and a nourishing soup for cold weather or illness.
What
Chicken soup is made by simmering a whole or cut-up chicken gently in water with ginger, and some versions add red dates, goji berries or mushrooms. The East Asian version is lighter.1,3,4,5
Where
Chicken soup is a home-cooked soup in East Asia; the available material does not assign plain clear chicken soup to a particular province or city.1,3,4,5,6
How
The chicken is blanched and skimmed, then simmered gently with ginger and wine for varying lengths of time: a recipe uses 2 30-minute stages, another about 55 minutes, and a clear-stewed whole chicken recipe a full 2 hours. Some recipes add the red dates and goji late, and salt goes in at the end.3,4,5
Why
Chicken soup is served as a nourishing soup for cold weather, illness and recovery. Traditional Chinese food-as-medicine ideas explain the use of goji, red dates, ginger and shiitake, and a recipe's removal of red date seeds to avoid heatiness.3,4,5
Impact and influence
Chicken soup is the basic chicken broth used as the base of most Chinese soups. It is also a nourishing soup made at home.2,6
No tale about this food has been found.
Grandma Li
This is a simplified home version, not the traditional restaurant method.
This is my simplified home version of chicken soup. The amounts and method follow the second recipe (a cooking writer's), converted to grams and milliliters: a whole chicken with water, ginger and cooking wine, simmered gently for about an hour, with shiitake, seeded red dates and goji added along the way. The first recipe (a food blogger's) also simmers in two 30-minute stages, so the total times are close. This is a lightly herbal home soup, not a restaurant slow-simmered soup; the salt also follows the second recipe, while when I add the goji and how long I blanch the chicken are my own choices.
Ingredients
- Whole chicken 1 chicken, about 1,800 g
- Water about 1,900 ml
- Ginger slices 6 slices
- Cooking wine 2 tablespoons (about 30 ml)
- Dried shiitake mushrooms 12, soaked for 2 hours beforehand
- Red dates 12, seeded
- Goji berries 1 tablespoon
- Salt about 1/2 teaspoon, added at the end and adjusted to taste
Steps
- Soak the dried shiitake in warm water for 2 hours, then lift them out and squeeze them dry. Rinse the red dates, split them and remove the seeds.
- Bring a pot of water to a boil, blanch the whole chicken for a few minutes and skim off the foam. Lift it out and rinse it with warm water.
- Put the chicken, 1,900 ml water, ginger and cooking wine in the pot. Bring to a boil over high heat and skim, then turn to low, cover, and keep the water barely bubbling for about 30 minutes.
- Add the shiitake and red dates and simmer about 25 minutes more, saving the goji for the last 10 minutes so it does not turn mushy.
- Check the chicken is cooked through: push a chopstick into the thickest part of the thigh. The juices should run clear and the meat should pull from the bone. If you have a kitchen thermometer, the second recipe goes by 74 degrees Celsius. If it is not done, keep simmering gently.
- Add the salt just before turning off the heat, taste and adjust, then ladle soup and everything in it into bowls.
Tips
- I take the seeds out of the red dates as the second recipe does; that recipe says this keeps the soup from causing heatiness.
- I keep the heat low so the broth stays clear, and after simmering I skim some of the fat off the top so the soup is not greasy. That is my own habit.
Allergens: wheat