Korean Ginseng Chicken Soup - 参鸡汤

Ginseng Chicken Soup(参鸡汤) or Samgyetang in Korea translation is a traditional soup served in the summer to replace nutrients lost through excessive sweating and physical exertion during the hot summers in Korea. And the main ingredients of this soup is using whole young chicken, glutinous rice, Korean ginseng, red dates, garlic, ginseng and perhaps some herbs like wolfberries and dang gui.

  But here I am sharing with you another light and simple version using only whole chicken, ginseng, glutinous rice and red dates which is good enough to produce a pot of delicious and nutritious ginseng chicken soup.

Ingredients: (serves 2 - 4)

1 Medium Size Chicken, about 1 – 1.2kg
¼ Cup of Glutinous Rice
4 – 5 Soup Ginseng Roots
4 – 6 Red Dates
1.2 Litre of Boiling Water
1 Stalk of Spring Onion, sliced
Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Method:

1. Soak 1/4 cup of sweet rice for 1 hour.

2. Wash and rinse your chicken in cold running water, trim the extra fats, emptied and cleaned the cavity, removed the head, neck and feet.

3. Bring a big pot of water to boil, blanched the whole clean chicken in boiling water for about 3 – 5 minutes. (flipped at least once)

4. Removed and rinse over cold running water for 20 seconds and set aside.

5. Next stuff the chicken with the soaked glutinous rice, 2 – 3 ginseng root and half of the red dates then place the chicken in the empty soup pot. (I used a big claypot for this)

6. Slowly add in boiling water on the side of the chicken till it cover almost ¾ or more more of the chicken and let soup comes to bring over medium heat.

7. When the soup starts boiling, skim off any foam and fat that rises to the surface. Add in the rest of the Ginseng Root and red dates, low the heat and simmer for at least 1 hour. (I simmer mine for about 1½ hours on very low heat)

8. Serve it with salt, freshly ground pepper and chopped spring onion.

Note:-

~ Depending on the size of the chicken you might even need to simmer the soup for more than an hour in order for the chicken to cooked through.

~ If you do not have any Korean Ginseng, you could always used any soup ginseng root that can be easily purchased from any Chinese Medical Shop. I bought mine from ZTP at around S$6.00 for 5 stalks of dried ginseng.

This is what we have for dinner after 1.5 hours of simmering over very hot heat on the stove. The minute you opened the cover the room would be filled with the fragrant aroma of the ginseng and each mouthful of soup is infuse with the sweet flavour that is disperse from the ingredients used. Do give this a try during cold and rainy days and it will definitely makes a great dish.