Chinese Chicken Soup with Shaoxing and Shiitake

Tweet

Chinese Chicken Soup with shaoxing and shiitake is easy to make! Seven simple ingredients combine into a delicious soup that is hearty and satisfying to every palette.  You can find the ingredients in most supermarkets. However, you may have to search for an Asian market in your area to find dried shiitake mushrooms, Sichuan Chinese Peppercorn and Shaoxing cooking wine.  If you can’t find them, mail order is the way to go! 

Shiitake Mushroom

Dried shiitake mushrooms are an important ingredient in Chinese cooking. They appear in everything from stews and soups to stir fried and braised dishes.  The flavor is intense and smoky and they have a meat like texture.  If the stems are tough, discard them before serving. They can go directly in a soup. However, before being added to a stir fry or braised dish, they need to be hydrated. Soak them in hot water until they soften.

Sichuan Chinese Peppercorn

Sichuan Chinese Peppercorn is a fragrant spice with sweet citrus tones.  It is one of the five ingredients in five-spice powder, a popular spice used in savory Sichuan dishes. The spice comes from the pink colored husks of the seeds of the prickly ash shrub.  The inner black seed is gritty and discarded. The husks are used whole or ground into a powder.  When eaten, the spice numbs the tongue and lips and gives a sensation of heat.  Even though the spice generates a tingling and numbing sensation, it is not related to black pepper or chili pepper.  The peppercorn contains hydroxy-alpha-sanshool, a molecule that interacts with the nerve cell receptors in the mouth. Overstimulation of the receptors is responsible for the resulting sensation. 

Shaoxing Cooking Wine

Shaoxing (shao xing, shao hsing, shaohsing) is a rice wine from Shaoxing in the Zhejiang province of China. The province is known for its rice production. The wine is a fermentation of rice, water, and a tiny amount of wheat. The fermented wine is brown in color, and the flavor is much stronger than mijiu, which is another rice wine that’s popular in Chinese cooking. I find that shaoxing tends to be a bit salty and use it carefully in my recipes. Wondering how to pronounce shaoxing? Take a listen!

Serve it up!

Chinese Chicken Soup with shaoxing and shiitake is delicious paired with any type of noodle – Chinese, Japanese, Italian – dried or fresh.  Vegetables such as bok choy or Napa cabbage add flavor and texture.  Tofu or a fried egg adds complementary protein.   It’s no wonder why chicken soup of any kind is nutritious and good for the soul!

Try some Chiu Chow Style Chili Oil or Chili Radish Strips with your soup!

Print Recipe

Chinese Chicken Soup

Chinese Chicken Soup: fast, simple, easy, delicious! It is one of the most satisfying soups I have ever made. It is great on its own or paired with any style of noodle, a vegetable such as bok choy, and a fried egg. Sichuan Chinese peppercorns add a mouth numbing sweet citrus heat, but if you want to really spice it up, I suggest adding Chiu Chow Style Chinese chili oil.

Prep Time20 minutes mins

Cook Time2 hours hrs

Course: brunch, dinner, lunch

Cuisine: asian, Chinese

Keyword: Chicken, Chinese, Ginger, mushroom, Sechuan peppercorn, Shiitake, soup

Servings: 6

Equipment

• Dutch Oven or large pot
• Tea infuser or other spice holder for soup.

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken substitution: whole chicken cut up
• 12 cups water
• 2 cups Shaoxing cooking wine
• ½ cup dried Shiitake mushrooms, about 8
• 2-3 oz sliced ginger root
• 1 tbsp Sichuan Chinese peppercorn
• 6-8 spring onions, whole

Instructions

• Wash the chicken and remove the skin.
• Wash spring onions. No need to trim.
• Slice ginger root into large pieces.
• Place peppercorn into the tea infuser/spice holder.
• Place chicken in a large cooking vessel such as a Dutch Oven.
• Add water to just cover the chicken.
• Add the Shaoxing cooking wine.
• Add the scallions, ginger root, shiitake mushrooms, and peppercorns.
• Over a medium heat, bring the soup to a boil, then turn down to a slow simmer. Cook for 2-3 hours until the chicken is tender and falls off the bone.
• Remove the tea infuser/spice holder.
• Optional: Remove the spring onions.
• Serving Options: Any style of noodle – Chinese, Japanese, Italian. Add some bok choy or Napa cabbage into the cooking pot and let that cook through with the soup. For extra protein and flavor, add firm tofu or a fried egg. Chinese style sweet pickles and chili oil are excellent accompaniments.

Notes

Removing the skin will make a broth that is void of fat.  

If you don’t want to remove the skin first, another way to remove fat is to allow the finished soup to cool and then chill at least 8 hours in the fridge or until the fat congeals and solidifies on the surface.  Remove the fat with a slotted spoon and discard.

There is no need to hydrate the dried shiitake mushrooms as they will plump up while cooking in the soup.  They have a strong flavor and meaty texture.  When adding to any soup or dish, too many can overpower the other flavors.  Start with a conservative amount and then with experience you can add more or less to your liking.

How to pronounce Shaoxing.  the letters “ao” sound like the “ow!” in  “ouch!”   Xing sounds like “shing”.