According to Chinese medicine, black chicken helps to encourage regular menstruation, benefits the liver and kidneys, and promotes stomach and spleen health.
Black chicken is also rich in 18 amino acids and 18 trace elements such as melanin, protein and vitamin B.
Compared to ordinary chicken, black chicken contains higher levels of niacin, vitamin E, phosphorus, iron, potassium and sodium.
It also contains high levels of cholesterol and fat. It’s total protein levels in the serum globulin are significantly more than that of a common chicken.
In addition, it contains more amino acids and iron than an ordinary chicken.
Eating black chicken has many health advantages over a normal chicken in that it can improve physiology, has anti-aging qualities, promotes strong bones, prevents and treats osteoporosis, rickets and iron deficiency (which can result in anemia).
When I was a kid, I lived in Guangzhou where the soup shops were not as popular as they are now; people were not lining up to purchase the delicious soups.
I would walk along the Pearl River at night on my way home and could not help but stop at the soup shops to buy a cup of warming coconut bamboo stewed chicken or goji berries stewed partridge, which was only one dollar for a cup.
I would try a different soup every day and would not gain weight, my skin would be healthy and the days did not feel so hot and humid because the soup was so light, nutritious and hydrating. Happy days!
It has been many years since then, and if I were to go back after decades of an unchanged menu, I would find long lines at the doors of those shops. The soup is so popular now, that it is hard to buy a bowl, let alone take it away.
For women, black chicken soup helps to improve fertility and reproduction. You can make a lovely soup by adding dates and goji berries (Chinese wolfberry) to a chicken broth, resulting in a faintly sweet taste. Drink it slowly and savor it!
You will be interested in more soup recipes:
- Pig Foot Soup – A Chinese Juicy Recipe
- Chinese Fish Soup Recipe – Step By Step Guide
- Seaweed Egg Flower Soup – Easy And Beautiful
- Nutritious Chicken Feet Soup
- Chinese Lamb Bone Soup Recipe – How To Make Lamb Soup
- 33 Chinese Soup Recipes (Learn How To Make Chinese Soups)
Now let’s get on with making this wonderful soup!
Mushroom and Black Chicken Soup
Ingredients:
- 1 black-bone chicken
- 12 dried Shiitake mushrooms
- 6 red dates (jujubes)
- 1 handful of goji berries
- 6 fresh mushrooms
- 4 slices of ginger
- a pinch of salt
Method:
- Clean the black chicken and cut off the head.Wash the dried mushrooms and soak in warm water. Also wash the dates and goji berries, and soak them in a separate bowl of warm water. Cut the ginger into four slices.
- Fill a casserole pot with sufficient cold water and add the whole chicken. Boil the water and skim off any foam that appears on the surface of the water.
- Place the sliced ginger into the pot.
- Add the soaked mushrooms, dates and goji berries to the pot.
- Bring the soup to the boil and then turn down to low heat and let it simmer.
- Cut a star-like pattern into the top of the fresh mushrooms (see pictures below).
- After the soup has simmered for one hour, place the fresh mushrooms into the pot.
- Let the soup simmer for 2 hours, adding a little salt.
Tips:
- If you cannot obtain a black chicken, a regular chicken will do just as well.
- Do not use too much ginger, as the soup will become too spicy, affecting the original flavor.
- Always add the salt. Do not add any more water to the soup otherwise it will be too weak.
- If you are worried about too much oil on the surface of the soup, you can skim the oil off and then drink it.
- Cooking soup or casserole results in the best liquid/sauce, so simmer it slowly, do not hurry.
- Do not add the fresh mushrooms until the end, as you will want to make sure the soup has enough flavor and is not discolored.
Ingredients
- 1 black-bone chicken
- 12 dried Shiitake mushrooms
- 6 red dates (jujubes)
- 1 handful of goji berries
- 6 fresh mushrooms
- 4 slices of ginger
- a pinch of salt
Instructions
- Clean the black chicken and cut off the head.Wash the dried mushrooms and soak in warm water. Also wash the dates and goji berries, and soak them in a separate bowl of warm water. Cut the ginger into four slices.
- Fill a casserole pot with sufficient cold water and add the whole chicken. Boil the water and skim off any foam that appears on the surface of the water.
- Place the sliced ginger into the pot.
- Add the soaked mushrooms, dates and goji berries to the pot.
- Bring the soup to the boil and then turn down to low heat and let it simmer.
- Cut a star-like pattern into the top of the fresh mushrooms (see pictures below).
- After the soup has simmered for one hour, place the fresh mushrooms into the pot.
- Let the soup simmer for 2 hours, adding a little salt.
Warm chicken soup contains mostly oil, calories and fat. For some people, drinking chicken soup will not affect its advantages. There are five sorts of people that should not consume black chicken due to health problems.
- Patients suffering from Chronic Superficial Gastritis (inflammation of the stomach) cannot digest properly. Drinking the chicken soup will promote gastric acid secretion, increasing gastrointestinal problems, resulting in indigestion.
- If you suffer from Cholecystitis (inflammation of the gallbladder or gallstones in the common bile duct) and have frequent seizures, you should not drink chicken soup. The fat in the soup will stimulate the production of bile, which causes the gallbladder to contract, leading to Cholecystitis attacks.
- Patients suffering from Hyperuricemia should not consume chicken soup as the purine (alkali) and fat will induce gout attacks.
- If you suffer from Hyperlipidaemia and a fatty liver you should not drink chicken soup. The fat in the soup is absorbed, promoting blood lipids. Blood cholesterol levels are further increased resulting in the accumulation of fat in the liver and Vascular Intima Deposition which leads to coronary atherosclerosis and other diseases.
- Patients with acute or chronic renal insufficiency (poorly functioning kidneys), acute nephritis, or uremia should not drink chicken soup as it contains small protein molecules. These are broken down creating protein waste products which cannot all be filtered by the nephrons in the kidney. A build-up of the waste products can lead to high Azotemia.
