Asian Chicken Mushroom Broth or Soup, Good for What Ails You! And, Preserving Lemon Grass.

Steaming Hot Asian Chicken Soup.

We have had more issues with illness this fall than ever in our 40 years of marriage!  Friday my poor husband had a temperature of 103 degrees F. by the time I got him into our doctors office.  That is a lot of temperature for an adult.  So I am pulling out all of the stops!  Doing everything I know to do to help get him back on his game again.

I had already started juicing as noted in earlier posts and today I broke out the chicken soup!  The special chicken soup chocked full of the herbs and vegetables that are known to have curative properties,  I am hoping this will, along with the medicines from our doctor push him over the top and get him back to his happy and well self.  This is his third lung infection in as many months!

Ingredients for Asian Chicken Mushroom Stock or Soup:

(Stock)

2 chickens
2 large onions quartered
14 cloves of garlic
2-3" piece fresh ginger sliced
2 hot peppers
2 stalks of lemon grass bruised
2 C. shitake mushrooms
water
chicken bouillon cubes
salt
black pepper
1 C. dry *Goji berries (found at Asian markets and Health food stores alike.)
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(Soup)

Cooked cooled rice
Sliced green onions for garnish, optional
Diced chicken, optional
Diced carrots, optional
Diced celery, optional
Frozen peas, optional
Soy sauce, optional
Hot sauce, optional

Combine the first 8 ingredients in a very large stock pot and cover until the water is 2" deep covering the chicken.  Bring to a boil and simmer 1 1/2 hour.  Remove the chicken to a large platter to cool.
Add salt, pepper, and bouillon to the stock to taste.  Add the Goji berries and simmer at lowest setting for 20 minutes more then turn off the heat.  Remove the chicken from the carcass.  At this time you can strain the stock and freeze for use later.  It may be served pipping hot in a mug or you can add chicken, rice, and vegetables and serve as a soup.

To serve as a soup bring a portion of the stock to a rolling boil.  Add desired amount of the raw diced vegetables and simmer 15 minutes or so until tender crisp, add cooked diced chicken and return to a boil.   Place a half cup of cooled rice in a serving bowl and ladle the hot stock atop the rice and chicken.  Garnish with sliced green onions, hot sauce,  and a splash of soy sauce if desired.

If you freeze some of the stock leave 1" head space.  Cooked rice and cooked chicken also freeze well.  This concoction settled my husbands stomach and he was better next morning.

*Goji berries are a newly discovered super food known to have great restorative properties.

My pot of Lemon Grass was handy to have still sitting out on the patio to make this.  I realized it was going to be our first hard freeze tonight!  The temperature predicted to drop to 28 degrees!  So I pulled it all up,  cut the tops down to about 6",  and cleaned off the bulbs much as you would a green onion, but they are much harder and fibrous.  Using my butcher knife on a cutting board I trimmed the bottom root off.  After drying them of any moisture from rinsing them I placed them into a freezer bag and stowed them in the deep freeze to use another day.