When you cook chicken soup, do you start with cold water or hot water? And should you use low heat or high heat? Stay tuned for all the cooking tips! This is my Chinese Chicken Soup with Red Date & Mushroom Recipe!

Chinese Chicken Soup Recipe

Serving 4-6
Prep time: 5 minutes
Rest time: 2 hours
Cook time: 1 hour

For the shiitake mushrooms:
1 ½ cups water
12 pieces dried shiitake mushrooms

For the soup:
1 (4 pounds) whole free-range chicken
8 cups water
6 pieces ginger
2 tablespoons rice wine
12 red dates, deseeded
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon goji berries

Chinese Chicken Soup Instructions

1. In a bowl, add the thoroughly cleaned dried shiitake mushrooms and pour in the water. Rehydrate for 2 hours.
2. In a pot of water over high heat, place the chicken inside, and bring it to a simmer. Skim off any impurity.
3. Place in the shiitake mushroom along with the soaking water, ginger, and rice wine (You could also replace it with other cooking wine, or omit it if you can’t consume alcohol.) Turn to low heat, cover the lid, and cook for 30 minutes.
4. Place in the red dates, cover the lid and cook for another 20 minutes until the internal temperature of the chicken is at least 165 degrees F or 74 degrees C.
5. Season the soup with salt, place in the goji berries, and cook for another 5 minutes.

Cooking Tips

1. When you cook chicken, you can start with cold water for tastier soup, or start with hot water for tastier meat. So it really depends on what you are looking for.
2. When you cook chicken soup, you could use low heat if you wanted your soup to be clearer, or use high heat if you wanted your soup to be richer. Again, it depends on your preferences.
3. I took out the seed of the red dates because the seed could provide too much internal heat while cooking. In Chinese, we call it “shang huo”. Also, if you cooked the red dates for too long, they would have a sour taste, and also fall apart at the end.
4. Goji berries also don’t require a long cooking time. The nutrition inside will be destroyed, and they will fall apart if they are cooked for too long.