Double-boiled chicken with American ginseng

Ingredients

Method

Double-boiled (隔水燉, the covered jar stands in a pot of water rather than sitting on the heat): put the ingredients in a two-person jar and pour in 800 ml of boiling water, just covering them. Seal with cling film (traditionally 紗紙, mulberry paper) and put the lid on. Fill the outer pot to a third of the way up and double-boil for 4 hours, topping up with boiling water as you go. Salt goes in last.

1. Blanch the free-range chicken and the lean pork (汆水, a quick boil to clean off blood and scum).
2. Soak the 冬菇 (dried shiitake) until soft. Pit the 紅棗 (red dates). Give the 花旗參 (American ginseng) slices and the 杞子 (goji berries) a quick rinse.
3. Put everything in the double-boil jar and pour in 800 ml of boiling water.
4. Seal it with cling film, put the lid on, fill the outer pot to a third of the way up and double-boil for 4 hours.
5. Season with salt before drinking.

Who it suits

• late nights
• dry mouth and dry throat
• qi deficiency in people who also flare up easily
• people who cannot take the warming tonic of 人參

Who should take care

• not suitable for people who are cold and deficient (虛寒), feel the cold, or get diarrhoea easily
• avoid tonic double-boils while a cold has not fully cleared (general warning across this collection)
• folk practice says not to take it together with 蘿蔔 or strong tea
• gout sufferers take care, long double-boiled meat soups are high in purines

Soup stories

The office worker’s double-boil. 花旗參 is cool in nature and is held to tonify without drying, the opposite of 高麗參, which makes it the 涼補 or cooling-tonic choice for the late-night crowd. A variation adds 石斛, as 花旗參石斛燉雞, to build up the yin-nourishing and eye-brightening side.

From the same family

Lo Fo Tong is cultural food-heritage reference, not medical advice. If you are pregnant, unwell or on medication, talk to your doctor or registered practitioner before changing what is in the pot.