Three tonifying herbs Chicken soup

This is my favorite nourishing herbal chicken soup that my mom taught me how to make. It’s so simple and easy, and almost can have it in any season. 

I often use  枸杞Gou Qi Zi, 紅棗Hong Zao, 黃芪 Huang Qi as basic tonifying herbs, because they tonify Yin, Qi and blood, and most important of all, the combination taste so good!  

Sometimes I add other things according to season or what other aspect I want to tonify. In today’s recipe, I put some 當歸 Dang Gui because I want to tonify blood.

Ingredients:

1.枸杞Gou Qi Zi: 2-3 Qian(5-10g)

2.紅棗Hong Zao: 2-3 Qian(5-10g)

3.黃芪 Huang Qi: 2-3 Qian(5-10g)

4.當歸Dang Gui: 1-2 Qian(3-5g)(this herb is a little bitter and has special aroma, so don’t put too when you first time making this soup. If the soup still turn out too bitter, you can put some more 枸杞 or 紅棗 to balance the bitterness)

5.Chicken or other meat (better with bones), these herbs should go with a mid-size chicken or 4 chicken leg. If you are a vegetarian, you can put some shitaki mushrooms or Japanese yam. 

How to cook:

Just throw everything together in a big pot, add water until everything gets covered. And heat up until boiled. Turn into small fire for another half hour or so. 

Try the soup, add some salt if needed. 

See, it’s super easy, and if the soup is too thick, you can always add more water. I add some Pok choi(cook in another pot, better not cook with the herbs together, can add in the last 5 min though) 

Note: 

枸杞Gou Qi Zi, 紅棗Hong Zao, 黃芪 Huang Qi are really 

good basic tonifying herbs, so I sometimes just cook these 3 herbs as herbal tea.