Ginseng black chicken soup

Ingredients
Serves 3-4

1 black chicken, chopped to small pieces

40g American Ginseng “Beards” 洋参须** (can replace with astragalus and dangshen)
1.6 litres of water
25g Huai Shan 淮山
8 red dates
1/2 tbsp wolfberries

* You can also substitute with 1/2 chicken or 250g lean pork, sliced thickly. Skip the blanching part (step 1 below) if using lean pork..

Directions

1. Blanch chicken pieces in a pot of boiling water for 5 minutes. Drain and set aside.
2. Place the blanched chicken and the rest of the ingredients (except wolfberries) into a pot with the water. Bring to a boil, continue boiling over high heat for 10 minutes.
3. Reduce heat to a lower flame and simmer for at least another 40 minutes (and longer if you can). Add wolfberries at the last 15 minutes of cooking. You can also slow cook, or use a thermal pot (or whatever you have) to prolong the cooking (at a gentle pace) to bring out the tastes. Add salt to taste.