Samgyetang Ginseng Chicken Soup Recipes

SAMGYETANG (GINSENG CHICKEN SOUP)

Steps:

• Wash the chicken (including the cavity) thoroughly under running cold water.
• Stuff the chicken cavity with sweet rice, ginseng, garlic cloves, jujube, gingko nuts, and chest nuts. Cross the chicken legs and tie them with a cotton tie. Alternatively, you can make a slit on one side of the chicken thigh skin and put the other leg through it. (It sounds difficult but it's not!) This is to minimise the stuffed ingredients falling out.
• Pour the water into a large pot and add the stuffed chicken. Boil the pot over medium high heat, covered, for 20 mins. Reduce the heat to medium to medium low and boil further until the chicken is fully cooked (about 30 mins further). Also, make sure the stuffed sweet rice is fully cooked too. Skim off any scum as desired.
• Transfer the chicken and the soup into a serving bowl. Garnish with the green onion and serve. Also, serve a small plate of salt and black pepper mixture (one plate per person). You can dip your chicken pieces into this sauce or add to your soup as desired. (Finally, don't forget to serve some Kimchi too!)

SAMGYETANG (GINSENG CHICKEN SOUP)

Steps:

• Rinse the rice, then cover it with water and soak for at least 2 hours, or overnight. At the same time, soak the ginseng (if using dried; there's no need to soak fresh) and the red dates, separately.
• When rice, dried ginseng and jujubes have finished soaking, drain and rinse them. Remove the giblets from the hens and rub about 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt all over each, inside the cavity and underneath the skin.
• Put a couple of spoonfuls of soaked rice into each cavity, then add the ginseng root, jujubes and garlic, and finish stuffing with more rice. Some cooks truss the birds, but the rice will expand during cooking and keep most of the stuffing inside the cavity.
• Place the two hens and any remaining rice in a pot just big enough to hold them both. Add the white parts of the scallions. Fill the pot with 8 cups water or more, if needed, to cover most of the chicken.
• Cover, bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer gently for 1 hour, until the meat falls easily off the bone.
• Transfer each chicken to a large soup bowl and add the broth. Sprinkle chopped green scallions on top, and salt to taste at the table.