Home-cooked Superior Chicken Stock

I love to drink soup. But whenever we have soup outside, we will wonder what do they add to make the broth tasty. Many restaurants and eateries may add MSG or chicken powder to enhance the flavour of the broth. That is why sometimes we get so thirsty after drinking soup. And my body somehow reacts to an overdose of MSG. My cheek or lips will feel numb and it will normally take hours to get over the numbness.

Years ago, we used to buy packet chicken stock to cook dishes. But I have never use any chicken powder or chicken cubes in my cooking. Yes, they are convenient. But after we started to make our own stock, we don't turn back anymore. We know what we add into the pot of stock and we know how good it will taste.

We normally cook one big pot and store them in containers and freeze them. They can last weeks. No additional preservatives, just the refrigerator.

Superior Chicken Stock

Slow-cooked Soup

Most Chinese will have a soup dish on the dining table and hence the common phrase 三菜一湯. We don't cook 3 dishes and 1 soup all the time unless we have more people over for meals. For the two of us, we sometimes cook one big pot of soup and have just that for our dinner.

I love to cook soups using my beloved slow cooker which has been with me for about 20 years. When I was still working, I normally throw in the ingredients for the soup in the morning and set it to cook in low heat. When we were back from work, a pot of delicious soup was ready for us. Soups cook in low heat will be clearer yet have all the flavours from the ingredients added. This is the reason why we continue to cook our soup and even homecooked stock using our slow cooker.

Watercress Pork Rib Soup