Recipe: Chinese chicken soup against the cold

sickpig

With the cold weather a lot of people around me got the sniffles, including me. So what kind of food can make you better? Maybe chicken soup? It’s delicious anyway.

I was curious whether chicken soup really can cure your cold. Internet says: yeah, we think chicken soup has some stuff in it which is good for your body. Helps you fight the cold. Chicken soup has a lot of Yang, which gives you body warmth. That’s what they say in China. I think that is because of the ginger; it’s warm for the body.

A few years ago I went to Hangzhou. There I ate the most delicious chicken soup ever. It only had: chicken, bamboo shoots, maybe some spring onion and ginger…? But it was so delicious! This recipe is based on that memory.

What you need:
– 600 g chicken (legs, whole chicken, doesn’t matter)
– 3 dried bamboo shoots soaked for 3 hours
– 2/3 Garlic gloves
– 1 onion
– 1 table spoon ginger (warmth)
– 1 star anise (gives it a fresh taste)
– 1 teaspoon Sichuan pepper (goes well with any chicken dish)
– 1/2 teaspoon salt

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Step 1: bamboo prepping
Soak the dried bamboo 1 day before or about 3 hours before cooking. If you don’t have the time, you can also cook the bamboo in water for about 10 min, so it becomes plump and bigger faster. (I have never done this, but I think it will work out).

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Step 2: clean chicken
Rinse the chicken legs in cold water. Boil a pan of water and put the chicken legs in it when it’s start boiling. Cook the legs on medium heat for about 10 minutes. The blood and dirty stuff will come in the water. Also some fats and in my case some feathers came off.
After 10 minutes take out the chicken legs. Pour away the water and clean the pan. Put it new fresh water.

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Step 3: clean chicken even more
My chicken legs still had some feathers, so I gave them a manicure.

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Step 4: add taste makers
Peal 1 onion and 2 or 3 garlic gloves. Put them as a whole in the fresh water.

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Step 5: start the boiling!
Put everything together. NO SALT YET!
Boil for 3 hours on medium/low heat. Less hours is possible, but the longer you boil, the tastier the soup becomes. Put on a lid. The water should be have little bubbles all the time. For my induction stove that is 4/9.

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Step 6: let’s eat!
After 3 hours you can add the 1/2 teaspoon salt. You can add more or less according to your taste. If the water has evaporated a lot, add some water. (But then the chicken richness will be less.. so boil even longer :P)
Enjoy the soup! And get well soon!

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