Ginseng Herbal Chicken Soup

Ingredients
Serves 3-4

1/2 chicken*, chopped to small pieces and skin removed
40g American Ginseng “Beards” 洋参须**
1.6 litres of water
25g Huai Shan 淮山
10 red dates
1/2 tbsp wolfberries
a pinch of salt* (optional)

* You can also substitute with 1 small black chicken or 250g lean pork, sliced thickly. Skip the blanching part (step 1 below) if using lean pork. I personally prefer using chicken.
** If you are ‘scared’ of the ‘bitter’ taste of ginseng, reduce to 30g. Similarly, if you want a richer ginseng taste, you can increase the amount to 50g.

Directions

1. Blanch chicken pieces in a pot of boiling water for 5 minutes. Drain and set aside.
2. Place the blanched chicken and the rest of the ingredients (except wolfberries) into a pot with the water. Bring to a boil, continue boiling over high heat for 10 minutes.
3. Reduce heat to a lower flame and simmer for at least another 40 minutes (and longer if you can). Add wolfberries at the last 15 minutes of cooking. You can also slow cook, or use a thermal pot (or whatever you have) to prolong the cooking (at a gentle pace) to bring out the tastes. Add salt to taste.