Black Chicken Herbal Soup, Ren Shen Chong Cao Tang

This is another version of Herbal Soup.I bought it from an expensive looking herbal shop named, HockHua Tonic herbal shop. It is almost double the price of the previous packet I bought from another herbal shoplot . So what’s in the box, Ren Shen, Hua Shan, Yu Zhu, JiZhi, DangShen, Chuan Xiong, Chong Cao, Gan Cao, Dung Gui, not to forget they have cooking instructions too.

I am using half the packet of ingredient because the packet label it is for 4 person. Since I am making it for 2 person, I would have to remove half. Having all in the soup might make it too bitter for 2 person.

Ingredients

1 black chicken

½ pack herbal ingredient as mentioned above

Prepare and cook

Parboil chicken 5 minutes, ensure water covers the chicken

Remove impurities

Add herbal ingredients

Bring to boil 20minutes on medium heat

Taste, add salt if required (2 teaspoon)

Low heat Boil 30 minutes, taste again

Boil 30 minutes

Ready to serve

Don’t you think is tiring checking on the soup every 30mins? Those days old folks keep saying they gotta watch fire for the soup. Is this what they meant.  I did this for this soup, checking every 30minutes. Aw … this is really so tiring! Next round of soup cooking, I am just going to add salt after 1.5 hours of boiling.

Logically thinking, if we keep soup boiling for the first 30minutes, the soup taste would be a little sweet, if we add some salt, the taste would be balance. If we keep another 30 minutes (total 1 hour), the soup taste would be sweeter, then you add salt again. . If we keep another 30 minutes (total 1.5 hour), the soup taste would be even sweeter, then you add salt again. Why trouble yourself? So my conclusion, I will only add salt after 1.5 hours after boiling in future.