Clear Bird's Nest & Chicken Soup

How to Prepare

1. Soak bird's nest in cool water until soft, then carefully remove any fine feathers or impurities. Drain and set aside.
2. Cut chicken into pieces. Blanch in boiling water, then rinse.
3. Place chicken, ginger, and Shaoxing wine in a pot with 4 cups of water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to low heat and simmer for 2 hours.
4. Strain the chicken broth into a clean pot. Add the cleaned bird's nest and heat gently for 2-3 minutes — do not boil for long or the nest will dissolve.
5. Alternatively, pour the broth into a double-boiler with the bird's nest and steam for 20 minutes. Season with salt before serving.

Why This Combination

The most expensive ingredient on the site, and the one with the least conventional nutritional case — which is worth handling honestly rather than dressing up. Bird's nest is the nest of the swiftlet, and in the Chinese material it is the premier tonic for the lungs and for the skin, classified as neutral and mildly nourishing, with a specific reputation for moistening rather than building. None of the more extravagant claims made for it are well supported. What is defensible is that it is largely protein, low in fat and sugar, and an expensive way to eat a bowl of clear chicken broth. This recipe is still worth including — it is genuinely delicious, it is a real celebration dish in a lot of Asian households, and it is a useful thing to know what you are actually eating.

What Each Ingredient Is Doing

Dishes are combinations, not lists, and the reason for including an ingredient is often not the one you would guess from the name. Here is what each one is actually contributing.

• Dried bird's nest

  The defining ingredient, and the expensive one. Mostly protein, low in fat and sugar. Sold in tins and boxes; soaking it properly takes a few hours and is the whole technique.

• Chicken breast or a whole small chicken

  The broth. A clear, slow-simmered chicken stock is most of what you are actually eating, and using a good one is the single biggest quality lever in this dish.

• Ginger

  Two or three slices, to warm and to cut any residue from the chicken. It is also traditional in every version of this soup.

• Rock sugar

  A small amount, for the slight sweetness that a bird's nest broth is meant to have. This is the one place on the site where a little sugar is genuinely traditional.

• Goji berries

  Added at the very end for colour. They are also the most nutritious thing in the bowl by a considerable margin, which is a useful thing to know.

The Properties of This Dish

The three properties each of these ingredients carries, so you can see what the dish as a whole adds up to. The full profile for each is below the table.

The Key Ingredients in Full

How each is described in the traditional material, what the research says about it, and the safety notes. Where those two accounts disagree, both are given.

When and How to Eat It

Adjusting the Dish

• Use snow fungus and goji with a good chicken broth and you get most of the texture and none of the price. This is the version most people should actually make.
• Add a small amount of goji for colour and a genuine nutritional boost, which the original does not have.
• Add a few pieces of dried longan for a sweeter, more nourishing version that suits a depleted picture.
• Add snow peas or a green vegetable for a more substantial bowl, because on its own this is a very small amount of food.

FAQ

Sources for This Dish

Every claim on this page falls into one of two groups, and they are sourced differently. Statements about the traditional use of an ingredient are references to the classical and modern literature that describes it, and they are not claims that it works. Statements about research point at the published work, including the work that came back negative. Where a search link appears it goes to the current results for that query rather than to a single paper, so you can see the whole record for the ingredient instead of the most favourable part of it.