Old-Fashioned Chicken Soup (Lao Huo Tang)
老火汤
Cantonese slow-simmered soup — chicken with goji berries, red dates, and dried herbs. Healing, nourishing, the ultimate comfort in a bowl.
📋 Ingredients
What Is Old-Fashioned Chicken Soup (Lao Huo Tang)?
💡 Ingredient Notes: Old-Fashioned Chicken Soup (老火汤, lǎo huǒ tāng, 'old fire soup') is the heart of Cantonese home cooking — a slow-simmered soup made with chicken, dried herbs, and natural ingredients, cooked for 3+ hours until the broth is deeply nourishing. Cantonese families serve this soup before every dinner — it's considered essential for health, with different ingredients for different seasons and needs. This version uses chicken, goji berries, red dates, and dried scallops for a sweet, savory, deeply restorative broth. It's what Chinese mothers make when you're sick, tired, or just need comfort.
Ingredients You'll Need
The Soup
- 1 whole chicken (about 1.5kg), chopped into pieces
- 20g dried scallops, soaked
- 15g goji berries (枸杞)
- 8 dried red dates (红枣), pitted
- 1 tbsp dried longan (桂圆, optional)
- 3 slices ginger
- 3 liters water
- 1 tsp salt (add at the end)
📝 Instructions
Blanch the chicken
Blanch chicken pieces in boiling water for 3 minutes to remove impurities and blood. Drain and rinse. This gives a clearer, cleaner-tasting soup.
Combine everything
Place chicken, soaked scallops, red dates, longan, and ginger in a large clay pot or stock pot. Add cold water. Bring to a boil.
Slow simmer
Reduce to the lowest possible simmer — the water should barely move. Simmer for 3 hours, covered. Skim any foam from the surface in the first 30 minutes. Do not add salt yet.
Add goji berries
In the last 15 minutes, add the goji berries. (Adding them earlier makes them disintegrate.) The soup should be golden and aromatic.
Season and serve
Add salt to taste — start with 1 teaspoon. The soup should taste naturally sweet from the dates and scallops, savory from the chicken. Serve hot in individual bowls. Eat the chicken and dates too.
💡 Pro Tips
- 💡Simmer, never boil — boiling makes the soup cloudy and the meat tough. The lowest setting is essential.
- 💡Blanch the chicken first — this removes blood and foam for a clear, clean-tasting broth.
- 💡Salt only at the end — adding salt early makes the meat tough and can make the soup too concentrated.
- 💡The longer the better — 3 hours is minimum, 4-5 is traditional. A clay pot is ideal but any heavy pot works.
📊 Nutrition Facts
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use a slow cooker? Yes — cook on LOW for 6-8 hours or HIGH for 4 hours. The texture is slightly different but very good and completely hands-off.
Where do I get the dried ingredients? Asian grocery stores sell goji berries, red dates, dried longan, and dried scallops in the dried goods section. They keep for months.
