You all know I love a healing chicken soup. It’s classic TCM food therapy. This soup is so easy and economical and I wanted to share how special the flavor is, too. The broth turns out a beautiful, rose-tinted color from the rainbow chard added at the end, and slow-cooking the whole chicken gives much mineral content to the broth as well - which is so important for our immune health right now. The chicken goes in whole, but you will be able to break it apart with tongs and remove it easily in parts after it’s done, avoiding the mess of cutting your chicken into parts while it’s raw, or even after it’s roasted. And it basically shreds itself it’s so tender. You can keep the bones of this chicken to then create another broth later on, and the gift keeps on giving. So minimalist, refined, and delicious. Here’s the recipe - it will make about 6+ servings depending on your appetite. This is also an ideal postpartum recipe to build blood with chicken meat, dark leafy greens and mineral rich broth, adding some red dates to the mix while cooking would even enhance this action.

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Boiled Chicken & Chard Soup //

1 whole chicken, about 3.5 lbs + Salt

veggie scraps, garlic, ginger, peppercorns

a few large leaves of rainbow/red chard

Let the chicken rest and pat dry, then salt it inside and out. I salt very generously & use about 1/4 - 1/3 C of salt for this chicken, rubbing it in well and thoroughly.

Then gather any veggie scraps you have for the broth. I used some celery tops, chunks of yellow onion, a few ginger slices, a few fennel tops, some chard stems (white stems), some black peppercorns, a few smashed garlic cloves. Place these in a large pot, then add your chicken and cover the whole thing with water almost to the top. Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer and cover the pot (I leave a little crack for some steam to escape). Simmer this on low for about 2 hours (it will technically be done sooner than that, if you’re in a rush, so check it). If your chicken is sticking up out of the water a bit, you may want to get tongs and a wooden spoon and gently turn it over so that it cooks evenly top to bottom when you’re about half way through. Remove the chicken and let it cool for a few minutes in a pan, it will come out in very tender pieces with your tongs. Shred it up - it basically shreds itself. Strain the broth and return it to the pot, composting the veggies. Add back in shredded chicken and reheat, then roughly chop your chard and add it in, cooking just until the greens are tender. You can serve it with some dulse flakes, cilantro, lime and avocado if you want to get into toppings, but it doesn’t need it.

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