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Korean Ginger Chicken Soup (Baek-Sook)

Prep Time: <1 hr | Cook Time: 1- 2 hours | Serves: 2

This is an alternative to the popular Korean dish, sam-gye-tang, made with ginseng and dates.  Though the ginseng version is commonly eaten in the summer to release sweat and thus cool the body, this ginger version can be enjoyed in the winter for an extra boost to your immune system.

Traditionally, the chicken is stuffed with sweet rice but I’ve substituted it with sweet brown rice. It does take longer for the brown rice to cook so you have the option to cook the sweet brown rice separately in your pressure cooker. I imagine this dish would be a great candidate for a slow cooker so try adding your stuffed chicken in the morning and come home to a great one-bowl meal! The broth is seasoned at the table with sea salt to taste.

You can serve a Cornish hen per person if they are small but if you’re using a 2-lb or bigger chicken, cut into halves or quarters and split. The hen I used was 2 lbs, fed two and yielded a bit of leftovers for chicken porridge.

Ingredients

  • 1 small chicken or hen (about 2 lbs)
  • 10 cloves Garlic
  • 1/4 cup Ginger, sliced
  • 1 medium onion, quartered
  • 2 stalks celery (optional)
  • 1 cup Sweet Brown Rice, soaked
  • 1 medium Yellow Onion
  • water
  • 3 scallions, chopped

Prep Directions

  1. Wash and soak the rice for 1 hr minutes (or overnight in the fridge). This step is optional but brown rice is heartier than white rice so I highly suggest it. If you don’t soak the rice, it will expand a lot more while cooking than if you do soak, so stuff loosely.
  2. Clean the cavity of the chicken.
  3. Add half the garlic to secure the grains of rice from falling out.
  4. Add rice and top with remaining garlic cloves.
  5. Secure with toothpicks, skewers or tie with twine.
  6. Add ginger, onion, celery and chicken in a pot and cover completely with water.
  7. Bring to boil and heat on medium-high for about 30 minutes.
  8. Lower heat to medium and skim the fat and foam while simmering or the next hour or so.
  9. Add more water as need to roughly cover the chicken.
  10. Chop green onions.
  11. When the chicken and rice are cooked, cut the chicken lengthwise with kitchen sheers.
  12. Divide the broth and chicken into 2 bowls and top with a handful of green onions.
  13. Serve with a side of sea salt.