Tango Vagabond

Passport & Plate - Mom's Recipe for Chinese Chicken Soup

China | Thursday, February 19, 2015 | 2 photos

Ingredients
Whole Chicken - 2-3 lb Raw
1/2 cup - rice wine or dry sherry
2 Cloves Minced Garlic
1 cup - Chopped Onions
3 tbsp - Minced Ginger
1 cup - Chopped Carrots
1 cup - Chopped White Japanese Radish, aka Daikon
1 cup - shitaake or crimini / other fragrant brown mushrooms

 

How to prepare this recipe
Marinade chicken with
Season with fresh ground pepper and salt
(*did you know that pink Himalayan salt has more nutrients?)
Brown in hot oil
Add onions, garlic, ginger
Once onions softened, add water to cover
Bring to boil
Then add carrots and daikon before stirring in mushrooms
Simmer until daikon is fork tender

Ladle into bowl with garnish

Garnesh:
1 bunch - Watercress or Loose Spinach (or Other Light Greens)
Chopped Green Onions

 

The story behind this recipe
Growing up, this was the proverbial "get well" soup that my mom would make. She learned it from her mom, and well.. the most interesting thing I found was the parallels with a Mexican "caldo" recipe I saw on YouTube. We got into a discussion about how they may be different in the exact ingredients but worked the same in terms of the essentials like using aromatic herbs to add even more rich flavor to the chicken goodness.