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Chicken Watercress Soup

12 January 2009 6,501 views 5 Comments

Soup Name: Chicken Watercress Soup

Traditional Chinese Name: 西洋菜雞湯 (xī yáng cài ji tāng)

Introduction:

Watercress is a very popular ingredient for Chinese soups. Typically, watercress soup is made with pork bones (see recipe here). However, for those who cannot eat pork or dislike the taste of bone marrow, it is equally delicious made with chicken!

What Ingredients are required?

1 whole chicken
2-3 bunches of fresh watercress
1 tablespoon of apricot kernals
1.5 – 2 L of cold water

How do I prepare it?

Prepare the chicken (see chicken for preparation steps)
Add the apricot kernels to the soup
Boil for 45 – 60 minutes (until the chicken is cooked and soft)
In a separate pot, pre-boil the chicken, strain and add the chicken to the boiling water of your soup
Thoroughly wash the watercress in cold water
Add the fresh watercress and boil for at least another 30 minutes or until the watercress becomes soft
You can continue to boil the soup for more flavour (a slow cooker is ideal for this)

Any benefits?

This soup is traditionally used as a cough remedy
It helps relieve heatiness
The watercress is high in A , B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B17, C, D, E and K

Any precautions?

Women who are pregnant (less than 3 months into term) or menstrating should drink in moderation as it watercress is a “cool” food and can potentially cause contractions

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5 Comments »

anyhow-cook said:

I’m not so familiar with home-cook soup and I’ve learnt a lot from your blog. Thanks for the information !

# 7 June 2010 at 11:18 am

Susan said:

I like this website so much, it is hard to find English Chinese soup recipes. But I have 1 question here, is chicken a hot type food? so when boiling with this veggie, will it offset the cool feature? Looking forward to ur advice Thank you.

# 30 July 2011 at 9:47 pm

LadyTong (author) said:

Hi Susan,

I know it’s difficult to find English translated Chinese soup recipes! Which is why I was so keen on starting a site, so people like me could continue the tradition! Chicken is considered a “warming” food, but depending on what cooling feature, it won’t totally offset it. For example, chicken and ginseng is considered cooling. Hope this helps and thanks for your continued support! Lisa

# 31 July 2011 at 10:43 pm