Taiwanese Chicken Soup

Sometimes I cook because I want to eat something healthy, and sometimes I cook because I enjoy the process of cooking. But often I cook because I want to eat something that restaurants don't serve. In the winter, what I usually really need is good chicken soup, and often what I really want is Mom's Taiwanese herb chicken soup. Here's my California version of Mom's soup.

Taiwanese Chicken Soup

(revised on December 14, 2009)

Ingredients:

2.35 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs (or chicken legs)

1 handful of dried goji berries

2 bunches of green onions (white parts chopped, green sections cut into long strips)

1/2 paper bag of shitake mushrooms (whole, rinsed)

1 large ginger root (peeled and sliced diagonally)

4 garlic cloves (smashed)

1 bunch of collard greens (stems removed and chopped)

1 yellow beet

sea salt

ground black pepper

sesame oil

1 meyer lemon

Serve with:

green section of green onions.

Cook:

Heat oil in cast iron pot. Add chicken thighs, saute until browned (about 12-14 minutes, flip half way through) for each batch - probably 2 batches. Season with salt + ground black pepper while sauteing. Remove chicken.

Saute white part of green onions + ginger for 5 minutes. Add water + lemon juice to deglaze.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Put back chicken. Add mushrooms, garlic, goji berries, ground pepper, collard greens. Add water to cover mixture. Bring to a boil, turn off heat.

Place cast iron pot, covered, into the oven and leave it alone for 45 minutes.

Dinner party serving notes:

- After the soup is done, remove ginger and yellow beet and shred the chicken.

- Serve with a small bowl of rice.