Chicken Herbal Soup 药材鸡汤

Let’s have a bowl of nourishing tonic soup

Chinese herbal soup is good for replenishing certain nutrients needed by our bodies; stimulating appetite and especially good for women either during pregnancy or post delivery. For post delivery, one of the key herbs to be added in is Dang Gui (当归), a common ingredient used during confinement period to speed up after birth recovery.

However, this nourishing tonic soup is not restricted to women only but it is also good as a supplement source of nutrients and energy in addition to boosting the immune system.  The following simple chicken herbal soup Auntie Lan used to prepare for us does not include Dang Gui. The herbs she used were general purposed Chinese chicken herbal soup combination for daily consumption. Apologies again for not giving the exact measurement of the ingredients used, however the portion I estimated she used for following was about: 1:0.5:0.5:0.25:0.25:0.125:0.125

Nowadays you can easily find this pre-packaged dry herbal soup ingredients at any Asian Grocery shop. All you need to do is just to add in water to cook and salt to taste. For working moms, even this may still be too much a hassle. Here’s a way to further make life easier. Read on.

The secret is to have a 24 hour 24 hour timer timer switch device  and a slow cooker (Crock-Pot).  Instead of cooking over stove and watching over the heat, all you need to do is to plug the slow cooker to the timer, add in boiling water to slow cooker, dump in the packaged herbals and chicken (you can wash chicken a night before) and set the timer on to cook it at high heat for 1.5 hours before you leave your house in the morning. With the timer, you can also set to warm the soup again by setting the timer to automatically switch on half an hour before you come back from work.

I bet when you come back from work, as soon as you open the door you will be overwhelmed by the nice strong tonic aroma coming from your kitchen! What you need to do next is to have another 30 minutes for you to cook the rice and you and your family will get to enjoy a healthy chicken herbal soup dinner. Now who said working moms do not have time to prepare healthy and nutritious meals for her family?  J

Chicken Herbal Soup 药材鸡汤

I extracted explanation of the herbs and medical effects from this site Complementary and Alternative Healing University:

Item	Herbs Name/药材名	Medical Functions/功效
1	red dates (Chinese dates or red jujube) 红枣	Treats weakness, shortness of breath, lassitude, lack of appetite, loose stools due to spleen deficient. 强筋壮骨，补血行气，滋颐润颜。
2	qi zi (Wolfberries or goji berries) 枸杞子	Nourishes and tonifies the liver and kidney, helps eyesight, improves blurred vision, alleviates sore back, strengthens the leg and stomach, improves circulation, boosts immune function, promotes longevity. 养肝，补肾，滋阴，明目，益气。
3	dang shen (Codonopsis Root) 党参	Corrects blood deficiency, invigorates Qi (lack of appetite, fatigue, thirst, diarrhea, vomiting, polapse of uterus, stomach, rectum due to spleen deficient), improves digestive system. 补中益气，养血补肺。
4	yu zhu (Rhizoma Polygonati Odorati) 玉竹	Nourishes Yin, promotes the production of body fluids and relieves dryness syndrome. 养阴，润燥，除烦，止渴。治热病阴伤，咳嗽烦渴，虚劳发热，消谷易饥，小便频数。
5	huai shan (Dioscoreae Oppositae) 淮山	Invigorates Qi, nourishes Yin, controls spermatorrhea and reduces urination. 补脾养胃，生津益肺，补肾涩精。
6	bǎi hé (Lily Bulb)百合	sweet and cooling in properties. The herb is also associated to the lung and heart meridians and help to relieve coughs, dry throats, clear heat, and moisten the lung. Dried lily bulb is also used as an herb to calm the spirit, promote restful sleep, and lessen irritability. 养阴润肺；清心安神。主阴虚久嗽；痰中带血；热病后期；余热未清，或情志不遂所致的虚烦惊悸、失眠多梦、精神恍惚；痈肿；湿疮
7	xing ren(Semen pruni armeniacae) 杏仁	for arresting coughing and asthma, expelling phlegm, help bowel movements. 降氣止咳平喘，潤腸通便。用於咳嗽氣喘，胸滿痰多，血虛津枯，腸燥便秘。

CHICKEN DRUMSTICK HERBAL SOUP Ingredients: Drumsticks (one per person) Dried red dates (pitted) qi zi/Gojiberry/ wolfberry xing ren Semen pruni armeniacae yu zhu Rhizoma dang shen Codonopsis Root huai shan Dioscoreae Oppositae bǎi hé Lily Bulb Water (2 bowls per person) salt to taste Method: 1.      Wash all herbs and drumsticks, remove the skin. 2.      Bring a small pot of water to boil, place in drumsticks and simmer for 5 minutes to get rid of the blood and set aside. 3.      Prepare another large pot of water and bring to boil at high heat. 4.      While boiling, add in all the herbal, cover with lid and continue to heat. 5.      When water is boiling again, add in drumsticks reduce heat to low medium and simmer for one and half hours or until the liquid is reduced to half pot. 6.      Add in salt to your taste. 7.      Serve warm with rice. Tips: 1.      To have sweeter soup, add in drumsticks and simmer along with the herbals, else if you prefer to eat juicy drumsticks, you are advised only to add in the drumsticks an hour later so the meat won’t be overcooked. 2.      It is also much easier instead of cooking over stove to use slow cooker (Crock-Pot). Just add in boiling water (less water if use slow cooker) to slow cooker and add in herbals and meat and let it cook at high heat for 1.5 hours and you get to have a nice nourishing tonic soup. 药材鸡汤 鸡腿（每人一只） 红枣（去核） 杞子/枸杞/枸杞（洗） 杏仁 玉竹 党参 淮山山药 百合 水（每人2碗） 适量盐 方法： 1。所有药材洗净, 鸡腿去皮洗净。 2。烧开水小壶，将鸡腿煮5分钟，清除血液。 3。准备另一个大锅加入清水适量，高温煮滚。 4。沸腾时，把全部药材一起放入锅内， 盖盖子继续熬。 5。当水再次煮滚，加入鸡腿，减温，文火煮1～2小时，直到液体减少一半锅。 6。添加食盐调味即可。 提示： 要有更甜的汤，鸡腿和药材一起加入，否则，如果你喜欢吃多汁的鸡腿，建议你只在一个小时后才加鸡腿使鸡肉不会煮过头。 假如你有一个慢炖锅，那非常方便，只需添加开水在慢炖锅，加入药材和肉类，煮1.5小时就有滋补汤喝了， 不用看火。