the little stone

If you follow me on Instagram (@thelittlestoneblog), you would’ve seen that I posted the first five ingredients of my mom’s chicken soup.

The broth is created first with water, ginseng, ginger, garlic, and scallion roots. If you’ve read my previous posts, you’ve probably heard this before, but my mom and her side of the family are known for their “clean” broths. This broth is no exception. Ingredients are added then taken out to prevent the soup from tasting gamy.

This cooking session was a little different from the others that are part of the Omma’s House series, as I was given this recipe beforehand and then cooked it on my own at my apartment!

I first learned the recipe back in August of this year and took some photos, but as you know I’ve been trying to up my photo game, so I decided to make the soup on my own and reshoot it this past weekend! I knew I succeeded when I took my first spoonful and it tasted exactly like my mom’s.

The recipe might look intimidating, but I promise it’s super simple to make! It’s just not a set it and forget it type of recipe, so make sure you have a couple of hours to look after this soup as it cooks.

Also, make sure you use sweet rice! It’s crucial!

Ingredients for 5 quarts of soup

• 3 lbs. of chicken (I used 2 cornish hens)
• 5 quarts of water (use a 6 qt. pot)
• 5 scallion roots
  • Don’t discard the rest of the scallions! You’ll chop them up to add to each bowl of soup
• 0.5 oz ginseng
• 0.5 oz ginger
• 1 head of garlic
  • You’ll use 7 cloves of garlic for the broth
  • You’ll mince the rest to add to each bowl of soup
• 1.5 oz dried jujubes, or red dates
• 1 medium-sized yellow onion
• 1 and 1/3 cup of dry sweet rice. I used brown sweet rice, but you can use white sweet rice!

Directions:

• Rinse the scallions and cut off their roots.
• Peel 7 cloves of garlic and leave them whole.
• Peel 0.5 oz ginger. No need to cut it into small pieces.
• Measure 0.5 oz ginseng
• In a large soup pot, add the 5 quarts of water. I used a 6 qt. pot
• Add the garlic, scallion roots, ginger, and ginseng to the pot
• Put the cover on, turn the heat to high, and let everything come to a boil

• While you’re waiting for the water to boil, take the skin off the chicken and trim off the fat
• Once the water boils, add the chicken. Keep the top off.
• Once the water comes to a boil again, lower the heat to medium, put the top back on, and let it cook for about 1.5 hours.

• Meanwhile, cook the sweet rice. I cooked 1 and 1/3 cups of dried sweet rice for 3-4 servings.
  • Make sure to give the dried rice a few rinses to get rid of the excess starch.

• Cut your 1.5 oz of dried dates. I usually cut mine into thirds.
• Peel and cut in half one medium sized yellow onion.
• Mince the rest of the garlic. You’ll add a small spoonful of raw garlic to each bowl of soup.
• Chop the scallion into small pieces. You’ll sprinkle some scallion on top of each bowl of soup.
• After about 1 hour and 20 minutes have passed, boil some water in a separate pot so you can add it to the broth to replace the reduced liquid.

• After 1.5 hours, take everything out of the broth except for the chicken and discard.
• Then, place in the onion and dried dates.
• Add more water so that the broth is about an inch below the top of the pot.
• Turn the heat to low and let it cook with top on for about 20 more minutes.

• Meanwhile, attend to the rice. By this time, the rice should be ready or close to finished, so make sure you turn off the rice cooker and mix the rice a bit.
• Scoop some sweet rice into a bowl.
• Gather your chopped scallions, minced garlic, some salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper.
• After 20 minutes have passed, turn off the heat and take out the dates and onion.

• Ladle some soup over the rice.
• Add some chicken to the bowl, as well as the scallions, garlic, and pepper, salt, and crushed red pepper to taste!

And that’s it!

This soup is the perfect one to make when you want a warm, cozy meal on a cold day. It tastes even better when you let the sweet rice boil in the soup until it becomes a porridge consistency. You can also use wheat flour noodles in place of the sweet rice!

I know it seems like a lot of steps, but most of the steps are just chopping and taking things out of the broth. I promise it’s a lot simpler than it looks!

Let me know if you guys try it either in the comments below or on Instagram @thelittlestoneblog!

As always, thanks for reading ❤ Stay warm!