Chinese Herbal Chicken Soup

Chicken soup in a claypot

Yin & Yang

I remember always having a warm bowl of soup at every dinner growing up. Whether it’s a pork bone, beef bone, chicken, or vegetable soup, we always had a pot of soup simmering in the kitchen. It is a Chinese tradition to have soups at mealtime especially at dinner.

For centuries, soups are believed to be warming and help with digestion. It also helps balance out the grease from fried foods or other side dishes. Cold beverages are believed to “weaken” digestion so you will find many Chinese elders drinking hot tea, hot soup, or warm water during meals. What type of ingredients you add to the soup can make it more “yin” — cold, or “yang” — hot.

Now, I’ve mainly been trained in Western nutrition so I am not one to recommend the traditional Chinese “hot” vs “cold” foods remedies. However, hot or warm broths generally do help soothe our digestive systems and are widely recommended across cultures when comes to easy-to-digest foods.

This Recipe

In this recipe, I only used 5 ingredients: whole chicken, red dates, carrots, goji berries and water. It only took 10 minutes to prep and 4 hours on the InstantPot to slow cook. I recommend making this overnight so you have a fresh pot of soup to enjoy the next day for lunch and dinner. It is so quick and easy to make that there wouldn’t be any excuse for not having home cooked meals.

Ingredients

Serves 6

• whole chicken 4-6 lbs

• 5 soaked red dates

• 3 Tbsp goji berries (you can also use black goji or black wolfberries or do a mix)

• 3 whole carrots, chopped to chunks

• cold or tap water (enough to cover the top of the chicken in the pot)

Instructions

1. Soak and rinse

Soak red dates for at least 15-20 minutes. This helps soften the dates to remove the inner pit. Many elders like to have the pit removed so it does not taste bitter in the soup however I don’t really find it bitter so I often rinse the dates and berries and throw them into the pot. Saves me so much time!

2. Rinse chicken

Rinse chicken under tap water. It is not required to do this but I like to clean off any remaining feathers, cut off any bruises or bloody spots on the skin if any. Place whole chicken in the pot.

3. Cut carrots

Rinse off any dirt from the carrots and cut them into chunks. I don’t peel the skin since there is so much nutrients on there AND saves me so much time!

4. Slow cook

Add dates, goji berries, cut carrots into the pot with chicken. Fill with water to cover the top surface of the chicken. Make sure to not go over the “max” line on your pot. I select the “slow cook” option on my InstantPot and it would cook over 4 hours.

5. Serve and enjoy!

Once done, serve with a bowl of mixed grain rice, some vegetable side dishes and enjoy!

Dietitian Notes

Each serving depending on size of chicken: 350-450cal | 7g carbs | 35-45g protein | 25g fat

• Red dates give off a natural sweetness without having to add any sugar or sweetener to the soup. Traditionally, red dates are used in many Asian cuisines or desserts as a sweetening agent. It is rich with vitamin C, polyphenols (antioxidant), potassium and includes a small amount of iron.

• Goji berries are packed with vitamin A, C, zeaxanthin (antioxidant), iron and polysaccharides which are a tiny bomb of boost for eye health, metabolic and immunity support.

• Pasture raised chicken was used in the video. Pasture raised means they had space to run around and fed on bugs and other natural feeds. It is the highest quality of chicken you can find in a regular grocery store. However, any other types of chicken would work. You could also get a pack of drumsticks and wings for the soup but there would be a higher fat content, and likely pricier.

Tips & Variations

You may add other types of vegetables to change up the flavor but still tasty:

• potatoes

• Asian yam

• daikon or white radish (this is a controversy within Traditional Chinese Medicine when cooked with carrots as daikon is “cooling” and carrots are “warming”. However, in modern practice, it is believed to be a more balanced combination and is used in soups more often these days.

• lotus root

• Napa cabbage

• shiitake mushrooms

• winter melon

• ginger (use just a few thin slices will do or it would overpower the flavor)

• dang gui (Angelica root)

• wood ear mushrooms

• so many more!