yesterday was cook a pot of chicken soup day. haha. i was craving for traditional chicken soup and the food court downstairs didnt have it. so i went grocery shopping and whipped it up for dinner!

raw ingredients - a whole jumbo chicken, 4 australian washed potatoes, 2 medium-sized carrots. i also had 2 whole onions added when the soup simmered.

raw chicken, washed and chopped up into smaller pieces.

potatoes and carrots, skinned and cut into bite-sized pieces

to give the chicken soup a tinge of traditional taste, i used the above herbs. as you can see, there's a lot of wolf berries cause i love them. and the stalk of ginseng is a young one. you shouldnt use an old big ginseng for boiled soup. just a small stalk will give you enough to taste.

haha, jiaquan looking silly.

in a pot of boiling water, add in the chicken, potatoes and carrots.

keep stirring to keep the heat even.

when the soup comes to boil, pour in all the herbs and continue stiring till it boils.

cover the pot, turn down the flame, and simmer for the next hour.

add in a dash of pepper before serving.

tadah! yummy traditional chicken soup.

here's a hint if you want to keep your soup from being too oily. ten minutes before the soup finishes cooking, throw in a tea bag that has already been used. if you use a fresh one, you'll be drinking chicken tea in the end. hahah!