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!

Ingredients

• 1 fresh whole chicken bones
• 5-6 dried scallops (conpoys)
• 2 dried shiitake mushrooms
• 1 large fresh onion
• 2 fresh corn
• 2 fresh carrots
• 4 L of water
  

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!

Chicken soup base (for double-boiling soups)

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.