Since this anti-inflammatory chicken soup is a family recipe, it satisfies my childhood palate like no other soup. It combines sourness, sweetness, and salt with a mild Asian herbal taste, making every sip a pleasure for your palate.
Cook with me!
And since there are several vegetables in it, I don’t usually make a separate salad as a side, instead, I would add extra veggies and garnish with a generous amount of coriander or Chinese celery/ parsley.
Ingredients high in anti-inflammatory & antioxidant
- Turmeric
- Ginger
- Garlic
- Lemongrass
- Cinnamon
- Star anise
- Cardamom
- Coriander leaves & root
- Celery
- Carrots
If you follow my other recipes, you know I have given up cooking with refined oil and white sugar. Since my mom’s original recipe usually had those, I came out with the version without all those processed ingredients while retaining the result as close to hers as possible.
In Malaysia, many foods start with frying blends of onion, garlic, and other herbal ingredients with refined oil until they are fragrant. And for this recipe, I have figured the same logic can be applied with chicken fat instead. Since it’s a chicken recipe, I might as well utilize that part of chicken most people don’t use for a more concentrated flavor.
Traditional Jewish and Eastern European cooking has been using chicken fat, called rendered chicken fat, for centuries as a flavor enhancer. Known as ‘Schmaltz,’ which is typically made from rendered chicken or goose fat, the use of it is similar to pork lard in Chinese cuisine.
Is chicken fat good?
Chicken fat is categorized under monounsaturated fat, it contains healthy fat that is also found in extra virgin oil and avocado. It is high in linoleic acid, an omega-6 fatty acid and safe to consume in moderation. Chicken oil is safer to cook at high temperatures than olive oil. And I believe free-range chicken is the best option to make this oil substitute as it contains less fat and is organic. Source 1 2.
Ingredients to make this anti-inflammatory chicken soup
Palm sugar vs white sugar
When there is a need to add sugar to the recipe, I always choose natural palm sugar. Unlike heavily processed white sugar, palm sugar is minimally processed, mainly by a traditional means, lower in glycemic index (which causes a spike in your blood sugar less than white sugar) and higher in micronutrients such as magnesium, potassium, iron and zinc. It also contains amino acids, Vitamin B1, B2, B3 and B6.
It is important to know how much sugar you need in a day and try not to go above your daily needs. According to this article, an average adult needs 24 grams of sugar per day, and this recipe needs 25 grams of palm sugar.
Salt
You can reduce the salt if you want, but if you do, reduce the amount of sugar as well. You don’t want your soup to taste sweeter than it should
Other Chicken recipe
- Lemongrass chicken noodle salad
- Hot and sour chicken tom yum soup/Tom Yum Gai
- Turmeric and black pepper chicken
Anti-inflammatory chicken soup
Difficulty: Medium4
pax10
minutes50
minutes1
hourDelicious Asian chicken soup, combines anti-inflammatory herbal ingredients cooked with free-range chicken.
Ingredients
- Ingredients A – To grind
4 pieces of shallots – peeled and cut into half
5 clove of garlic – peeled and cut into half
A thumb size of turmeric/around 5g
1 inch of ginger/around 9g
- Ingredients B
1/2 pieces of cinnamon stick
1 pod of star anise
2 whole cloves
2 cardamom pods
1 tbsp of peppercorn
1 stalk of lemongrass
2 stalks of coriander root
- Ingredients C
1 stalk of celery
1 whole carrot
2 medium-sized potato
1 medium-sized tomato
2 bird’s eye red chilli – optional
- Other Ingredients
1 free-range chicken cut in small, wash and separate the fat & skin. This recipe is using half of the chicken. But to make the chicken fat, you need all the chicken skin and fat from the whole chicken. Store the other half of the chicken for later use.
4 cups of water
2 tbsp of lime juice
1/2 tbsp of salt
2 tbsp of original palm sugar
Directions
- To prepare the chicken fat oil, grill all the chicken fat & skin in a non stick pot over medium heat without any oil.
- Stir the fats & skin gradually and cover the pan to trap some moisture. Do this for 15 minutes or until the fat and skin dry.
- Turn off the heat, strain the fat and chicken skin into a small glass bowl, and set aside.
- Gather all ingredients A into a food processor or blender and pulse for around 20sec or until it is coarse. You can also use a pestle and mortar to grind. Set them aside.
- Cut all ingredients C and set aside – Refer to the video below.
- Scoop 3 tbsp of the chicken fat into a pot and heat it over medium heat. Keep the rest in a fridge.
- Add ingredients B into the pot, stir, and fry for about 2-3 minutes.
- Add the blended ingredient B and keep stirring until it dries and is fragrant.
- Add 1/2 of the chicken into the mixture, stir, and combine for 5 minutes or until the chicken looks a bit pale.
- Add 4 cups of water into the pot, raise the heat, and let it boil.
- Add ingredients C except for tomato, salt, and palm sugar, and stir to combine.
- Cover the pot and leave it to cook for around 20 minutes.
- Open the lid, add tomato and lime juice to the soup, and leave it to cook for another 10 minutes.
- Turn off the heat and it’s ready to serve!
- Scoop the soup into the bowl and garnish with chopped coriander leaves.
Recipe Video
🥣 Did you try this recipe? Let me know your thoughts in the comment below.
