Healing Chinese Chicken Herbal Soup with Fish Maw

Healing Chinese Chicken Herbal Soup with Fish Maw

Healing Chinese Chicken Herbal Soup with Fish Maw

Soup Name:

Healing Chinese Chicken Herbal Soup with Fish Maw

Traditional Chinese Name:

花膠雞湯 (huā jiāo jī tāng)

Nature:  Warming

Taste: Sweet and savory

For more videos, you can follow us on YouTube.

 

The star of this soup is FISH MAW.  This takes collagen to the next level! 

This soup is packed with natural collagens that help retain moisture, firmness, and bounce in the skin.

To make this soup, you’ll need to plan it a few days in advance because of the fish maw preparation.  I would suggest allowing 2-4 days to fully hydrate your dried fish maw.  This depends on the size and quality of the fish maw.

A few tips for preparing your fish maw:

  • I like soaking them in a glass bowl.  That way, I can see it in the fridge when I open and close the fridge door as it soaks.  You can check for murky water, spots on the fish maw, and generally that it’s soaking cleanly as it should.
  • I use tap water (in Canada), although some people recommend using cold boiled water as it’s cleaner
  • After they’ve soaked, I will also flash blanch them in boiling hot water (after the water boils with my blanching chicken since I’m blanching anyways)
  • Cut the fish maw after soaking them.  They’ll be sufficiently soft.

 

What makes this soup amazing?

  • For starters, it’s collagen packed!  Interesting fact though is that fish skin has more collagen than fish maw (according to this one study [source 1])!!!  I guess I’m going back to fish skin as an ingredient as it’s also way cheaper!
  • You don’t need salt or any other flavoring for this soup.  Don’t even think about adding chicken broth (I usually don’t for Chinese soups)!
  • This is a great soup base for other vegetables or additives should you choose to embark on this mission.
  • It’s a hearty soup which can double as a meal (just add rice!)
  • It’s PERFECT for postpartum, as it’s a warm soup with healing ingredients.

For videos, visit us on YouTube. 

What’s involved?

Pre-work: 2-4 days to soak & hydrate the fish maw

Prep time: 30 mins

Cook time: 120 minutes 

Total time: 150 mins

Serves: 8 bowls

Ingredients

Cooking Instructions

  1. With the pre-soaked and re-hydrated fish maw, I will remove them from the fridge, strain out the water, and slice into 1-inch thick pieces (or however you’d like to eat them basically)
  2. At this time, you can prepare your chicken however you’d like.  I usually save the 2 breasts for a meal, keeping only the bones and thighs and feet.  
  3. In a separate blanching pot with cold water, add in as much water to fully cover the chicken and 2 slices of fresh ginger and add in your fresh chicken (there is much debate about whether to blanch in cold or hot water, but I have found it!  Incoming post!).  Use high heat to bring to a full boil.  You’ll begin to see the foam, debris, blood, and bones surface.  Just be careful it doesn’t overboil!
  4. As your blanching water comes to a boil, flash boil your sliced fish maw by dropping them in and fishing them out right away(just to be sure all the impurities are boiled out)
  5. At this point you can set your blanching pot aside and strain
  6. In your soup pot, add a teaspoon of oil and panfry a few slices of ginger with your fresh (or defrosted) abalone on med heat until they are golden brown.
  7. I will also throw in largely cut potatoes at this time and brown them a bit as well.
  8. Add your soup water and turn this on high heat
  9. Then add in the rest of the ingredients:  dried red dates, dried longans, dried sugar dates, dried Chinese Yam (or fresh), and dried scallops.  Cover and continue to boil on high heat for 30 minutes.  Once this is bubbling along nicely, I’ll reduce to a med high boil, still covered. 
  10. Boil for another 1.5 hours.
  11. At this point, you can drop in your prepared fish maw and let that boil for another 30 minutes on med high heat.
  12. Serve and enjoy!
  1. Cruz-López, Honorio et al. “Comparison of collagen characteristic from the skin and swim bladder of Gulf corvina (Cynoscion othonopterus).” Tissue & cell vol. 72 (2021): 101593. doi:10.1016/j.tice.2021.101593

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Healing Chinese Herbal Soup

Healing Chinese Herbal Soup

Healing Chinese Herbal Soup

Soup Name:

Healing Chinese Herbal Soup

Traditional Chinese Name:

北芪黨參消腫養陰湯 (běi qí dǎngshēn xiāo zhǒng yǎng yīn tāng)

For more videos, you can follow us on YouTube.

This soup is perfect for anyone who wants to replenish and strengthen blood and qi, has poor circulation, relieve fatigue, or reduce pain and inflammation.

I call this my Healing Chinese Herbal soup and want give a shout out to Tash from SouperWell for this partnership!  Hi Tash!

What’s involved?
Prep time: 20 mins

Cook time: 3 hours

Total time: 3 hours and 20 mins

Serves: 4 bowls

Ingredients

     

    Cooking Instructions
    1. You can pre-soak your tangerine peel (to soften) and dried Chinese yam (to wash off any sulphur usually used in the drying process)
    2. Prepare the protein by quartering your chicken
    3. Prepare 2 pots, one is the soup pot (add your 2 L of water) and one pot is for blanching the chicken
    4. Once your blanching pot boils, drop in your chicken and boil on high for 5-7 minutes, allowing the foam, fat, and bones come to the surface
    5. You can turn off your blanching heat and once your soup water boils, transfer the blanched chicken over and let that boil on high
    6. Add in your sliced lotus root and dried ingredients
    7. Cover and boil on high for 30 minutes
    8. Reduce to a low boil for another 3 hours
    9. Salt as needed

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    Traditional Chinese Herbal Soup (as a Hot Pot Base)

    Traditional Chinese Herbal Soup (as a Hot Pot Base)

    Traditional Chinese Herbal Soup (as a Hot Pot Base)

    Soup Name:

    Traditional Chinese Herbal Soup

    Traditional Chinese Name:

    藥膳雞煲 (yàoshàn jī bāo)

    This soup is warming in nature and sweet to taste.

     

    For videos, visit us on YouTube.

    This soup has a very distinctive smell and taste of a Chinese medicinal shop.  It’s definitely a love or hate initially, but can be acquired.  The key ingredient is the “dong quai” or “angelica root” that creates that fragrant (debatable?) scent.  I’ve learned to love it after so many years of being in Hong Kong and once you taste the soup, wow!

    This soup is the ultimate warming winter hot pot delight.  You literally feel yourself getting hot and sweaty after one bowl.  It’s literally a powerful tonic that replenishes blood and Qi, improves circulation, and detoxifies the body.

     

    What’s involved?
    Prep time: 30 mins

    Cook time: 2 hours 40 mins

    Total time: 3 hours 10 mins

    Serves: 6 bowls

    Ingredients
    Soup base:

    Hot pot ingredients:

     

    • fresh napa cabbage
    • assorted mushrooms
    • fresh hard tofu
    This powerhouse healing ingredient is the key ingredient to your Chinese herbal soup!  The dong quai is warm, slightly sweet and slightly bitter, and a common herb used to promote warmth, replenish blood, and replenish yang.  This is why it’s such a common ingredient used in post partum and confinement recipes.  It’s also commonly used in healing tonics.

    I will only use this ingredient for this type of herbal soup as it’s got a very distinct pungent scent and taste.  When combined with sweeter ingredients such as red dates and goji berries, it’s really quite delicious!

     

    Cooking Instructions
    1. Add your dried herbal base directly into a pot and add in 3L of cold water
    2. Cover and boil on high heat for 30 minutes.
    3. Cut your chicken thighs into bite-sized pieces
    4. In a shallow pan, put them skin side down to render the fat out of the chicken and crisp up the skin (no oil needed!)
    5. Add salt and garlic to flavour as needed
    6. Once the soup is boiled for 30 minutes, you can move your crispy chicken to the soup.  I will usually rinse in warm water first to get rid of the extra oil, bone bits, and debris
    7. Cover and boil on medium for 2 hours (checking that it doesn’t boil over)
    8. At this point your soup is done!  You can drink as is or prepare to add your hot pot ingredients
    9. Prepare your hot pot ingredients an add to your soup
    10. Boil on high for 10 minutes
    11. Serve and enjoy!
    12. Drink your soup first with some of the ingredients added.  I won’t even begin the hot pot yet and just enjoy a soup as is!
    Chef tips!
    • For your protein, use chicken (or pork).  This compliments the herbal base very well versus pork or red meats.
    • For your hotpot ingredients, use less intense flavor ingredients and ones that will absorb more the flavours of the soup such as leafy light coloured vegetables like napa cabbage or regular cabbage versus choy sum or gailan.  Tofu is a great additive as well and fresh mushrooms work well.
    • You can add udon or vermicelli as part of your meal
    • If you’re going to cook other meats or seafood, save that for the end as it will change the flavour of the herbal soup

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    Basic Chicken Soup (Base)

    Basic Chicken Soup (Base)

    Basic Chicken Soup (Base)

    Soup Name

    Basic Chinese Chicken Soup Stock (Soup Base)

    Traditional Chinese Name:  

    清雞湯 (qīng jī tāng)

     

    Here is another version of the basic chicken soup.  I’ll make this so that it can serve as a base for noodles, macaroni, with rice, or for double-boiling soups.  You can mix and match the types of vegetables to bring out the types of flavours you like, but I will usually always use some chicken bones, legs, or carcass along with dried scallops (these are almost a must for the stock soup!).   

    The benefits:

    • Perfect for any soup base. You can simply add your favourite vegetables or even Chinese herbs.
    • This soup is perfect for cooler days as it’s slightly warming
    • Perfect for confinement, postpartum, and post period
    • Ideal for the whole family, including children
    • These ingredients are readily available in most Chinese supermarkets around the world, all you need is just a chicken!
    • Be sure to to consult your (Chinese) doctor first if you’re unsure of consumption or suitability
    • You can store this soup base in a plastic container (or jar with a wide mouth so it’s easier to use back later) for up to 6 months in the freezer
    • I’ve used this as a soup base for both noodles soups and even hotpot!  It’s very versatile in what you can do with it!

    What’s involved?

    Prep time: 30 mins

    Cook time: 3 hours

    Total time: 3 hours 30 mins

    Serves: 8 bowls 

    Ingredients

    Cooking Instructions

    1. Begin to boil a separate pot for blanching the meat
    2. Soak the dried conpoys and dried shiitake mushrooms in warm water for 10 minutes, the mushrooms may need longer, until they are soft, but since it’s for the soup base, it’s ok if they are still a bit hard.
    3. You can also begin to boil your soup water
    4. When your blanching water boils, add in the chicken bones and boil on high heat for 5 minutes. Make sure the water is boiling and you should see residue, fat, grim, and even foam come to the surface.
    5. In the meantime, you can prepare all your vegetable ingredients for the base.  I will cut the onion in half, keeping on the stem so it stays intact and cut the carrots and corn into large pieces so I can easily remove them from the pot.
    6. Once your soup water boils, remove the meat from the blanching pot and shake off any excess and slowly lower into your soup water
    7. Add in dried conpoys, dried mushrooms, and all the vegetables into the pot
    8. Boil on medium heat for 30 minutes
    9. Reduce heat to the lowest and cover and let it simmer like that for another 2-3 hours (or use a thermal pot). The soup should now be a rich, golden color after boiling for so long. Be sure to scoop out any oil, fat bits, or skin from the top with an oil scooper.
    10. And you can also remove all the ingredients with a strainer so that you’re left with a beautiful soup base which you can use for other soups or dishes!

    For video on “7 Basic Chinese Soup Pantry Ingredients”, visit us on YouTube.

    Here are some examples of other soups using a chicken soup base:

    The chicken soup base is a great soup to start with for so many dishes and soups!  Here are a few to get you started!

    This is a great and very simple chicken soup that I use as a base.  My kids love drinking this as plain chicken soup.  

      Using this chicken soup base for shabu shabu is the perfect solution to start your hot pot adventures! 

        This soup is using the base chicken soup recipe that is perfect for double-boiling.  For example, the only additional ingredient added here is the ginseng on top of the soup base.

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          A MUST HAVE in the kitchen!  Energy saving, cost effective, and perfect for busy chefs!  Check out my article here that explains it.

          Another MUST HAVE in the kitchen for soups!  It's so fine that it will scoop off the top oil and foam layer when using meats in your soup!

          I use these types of stove top safe tea pots to make most of my herbal teas!

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          Red Dates Tea

          Red Dates Tea

          Soup Name: Red Dates Tea

          Traditional Chinese Name:  红枣茶 (Hóng zǎo chá)

          Introduction:
          My herbalist suggested I drink a simple tea made of red dates during my period. It’s super easy to make, as the dates are already sitting in the fridge and you just add hot water. Some people will boil it with a few other ingredients, such as wolfberries and fresh ginger slices. This is also an ideal confinement drink if you’ve got a bit of a sweet tooth – replace this in place of coffee or tea to avoid the caffeine, but get the benefits of the blood replenishment.

           

          Amount serves: 1 cup for 1 person (you!)

          What Ingredients are required?

          6 dried red dates, sliced

          1 cup of boiling water

          How do I prepare it?

          1. Slice your red dates thinly
          2. Add to a mug and add boiling water
          3. Steep for 2 minutes. It will get sweeter over time as the tea steeps further.

          Any benefits?

          • Helps rejuvenate the body after a period and restore blood loss
          • Excellent for maintaining healthy blood pressure
          • Excellent source of Vitamin C

          Any precautions?

          • Make sure you remove the seeds of dried red dates as the seeds are known to create “fire” in the body
          Chinese Yam with Apples and Corn in Chicken Broth

          Chinese Yam with Apples and Corn in Chicken Broth

          Soup Name: Chinese Yam with Apples and Corn in Chicken Broth (with Ginger)

          Traditional Chinese Name:  蘋果玉米淮山雞湯 (píng guǒ yù mǐ huái shān jī tāng)

          Introduction:
          A simple, clean chicken broth with just a hint of sweetness and a tang of spice (from the ginger). Depending on who your consumer is, add less or more ginger. For confinement, don’t be scared to throw it all in! This soup is easy to make, it’s got basic neutral ingredients and is great for the whole family!

           

          What Ingredients are required?

          1 fresh whole chicken, quartered
          4-5 whole apples, cored and quartered
          2 fresh corn, quartered
          2 fresh pieces of Chinese Yam about 1 foot in length, peeling is optional, quartered
          150 g of sliced fresh ginger (for confinement purposes)
          2 L of water
          salt to taste

          How do I prepare it?

          1. Clean, prepare and blanch chicken in a pot of boiling water for 5 minutes
          2. Set aside to cool
          3. Wash, prepare apples, corn and Chinese Yam
          4. Slice ginger thinly
          5. Boil your soup water, when it boils, add all the ingredients together
          6. Boil on high for about 30 minutes and reduce to a simmer for 1 hour
          7. Serve and enjoy!

          Any benefits?

          • With ginger, it’s a slightly warm soup, but without it, it’s neutral
          • Pregnancy, confinement and child friendly
          • Sweet and fresh to the taste
          • Excellent source of Vitamins and hearty to eat

          Any precautions?

          • For children, go easy on the ginger because that can really spice up the soup!
          • Be sure to clean, peel Chinese Yam with gloves as the outer skin of the Chinese Yam can make your fingers itchy (if you opt to peel the skin)

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