A Gently Simmered Broth with Restorative Ingredients
This soup is built for balance, not boldness. It’s slow-simmered with bone-in chicken, ginger, red dates, goji berries, and often lotus seeds or ginseng. These ingredients aren’t just for flavor — they’re chosen for how they support the body.
Ginger and red dates stimulate warmth and circulation. Goji berries soften in the broth and add subtle sweetness. Blanching the chicken first keeps the soup clear, and a donabe maintains steady, radiant heat for consistent extraction.
The technique is simple but deliberate. It reflects the same values seen all along the trade routes where food was medicine, and every ingredient had a purpose.
This is my take on a more traditional Chinese double-boiled soup — adapted for the home kitchen using a donabe, while preserving the gentle, medicinal spirit of the original method.
Chinese Ginger Chicken & Red Date Tonic Soup (中式姜雞紅棗滋補湯)
Ingredients
2 chicken legs or 4 thighs (bone-in, skin removed)
6–8 dried red dates (jujubes), pitted
1 tbsp goji berries (add near end)
3 slices fresh ginger
1 small piece dried Chinese yam or lotus root (optional)
2 dried shiitake mushrooms (optional)
6–7 cups filtered water (do not exceed 2/3 full in your donabe)
Tiny pinch of salt (to season at the end)
1 small piece dried ginseng (2–4 inches long)
→ Add it at the start of simmering to extract its medicinal compounds and slight bitterness. Use sparingly — it has a strong, earthy flavor.• 1–2 tbsp dried lotus seeds
→ Soak in warm water for 1–2 hours before adding (or simmer longer if unsoaked). Remove any green centers if present (they’re bitter). Add at the beginning with the chicken.
Directions
- Blanch chicken: Pour boiling water over the chicken in a bowl and let sit for 30 seconds to blanch, then rinse with cool water. (This gently removes impurities and keeps the broth clear.)
- Assemble donabe: Place chicken, red dates, ginger, optional yam or lotus root, mushrooms, optional dried lotus seeds, optional ginseng, and water into the donabe. Add a tiny pinch of salt. Leave 1–2 inches of headroom. You can use a ceramic pot or a Dutch oven.
- Start slow: Set donabe on medium-low heat and gently bring to a simmer (10–15 min).
- Low simmer: Once simmering, reduce to low heat. Cover and cook for 2.5 hours. Avoid strong boiling — you want a delicate extraction.
- Add goji berries: Toss them in for the last 20 minutes only, or they’ll get mushy.
- Season lightly: Just a small pinch of salt to finish — this is not meant to be aggressively salty. You can add more salt if needed, but this soup is meant to be light and clean, not heavily seasoned.
Notes
- Ginger Chicken & Red Date Tonic Soup (Donabe Method)
This is a simplified, donabe-style version of traditional double-boiled tonic soups found in Chinese home kitchens. While true double boiling involves a ceramic jar inside a water bath, this gentle one-pot method mimics the same nourishing effect — slow extraction of flavor, minimal agitation, and deeply restorative results.
