Dendrobium Silkie Chicken Soup with Astragalus and Codonopsis 淮山黨參石斛北芪紅棗烏雞湯

Dendrobium (石斛, shíhú) is an orchid, and the part that goes in the pot is the stem, dried into tight golden coils that look like they fell out of a sewing kit. In this soup it shares the water with four pantry regulars, Chinese yam, codonopsis, astragalus and red dates, plus one black-skinned silkie chicken.

The Chinese name reads like an ingredient list because it is one: 淮山黨參石斛北芪紅棗烏雞湯. It's a Cantonese slow-simmered soup (老火湯) for the stretch when autumn dryness hasn't quite left and the cold has started moving in. It takes two hours on the stove, and you're needed for about fifteen minutes of it.

My grandma makes this every year, right after school starts. Once my hands feel cold at night and the fog starts misting in the morning, I know this soup is in season.

> In This Post: What You'll Learn About Dendrobium Silkie Chicken Soup

You'll get the reasoning behind the herb combination, what each ingredient does in the pot, and how TCM classifies it. There's a guide to the two types of dendrobium so you don't pay for the bitter one by accident, plus Canadian sourcing notes.

After that come the stovetop method with visual cues, an Instant Pot option, storage, five variations and the questions people ask most.

Why These Five Herbs Share a Pot

In Chinese food therapy this is a 補氣養陰 (bǔ qì yǎng yīn) soup. Half the pot is traditionally said to tonify qi, and the other half to nourish yin.

Codonopsis and astragalus are the qi pair, combined so often that the duo has its own shorthand, 參芪 (shēn qí). Astragalus is classed as slightly warm, and a pot built on it alone is traditionally considered drying for some people.

Dendrobium is the counterweight. TCM classes it as sweet and slightly cold and associates it with Stomach yin and body fluids, which is how the combination earns the description 補而不燥: nourishing without the dryness.

It sits in the middle of the tonic range. My Chinese herbal silkie chicken soup with yam, red dates and goji is the gentler, neutral pot. This one is a step richer, and the heavy warming tonics wait for Dongzhi.

These are traditional frameworks for seasonal eating, not medical findings. Soup is dinner, not treatment.

Ingredients: Traditional Uses and TCM Properties

Silkie chicken (烏雞, wūjī, also called 竹絲雞). A small breed with white feathers and black skin, meat and bones. It gives a lean broth with a concentrated chicken flavour. TCM classes it as sweet and neutral, and it's traditionally used to nourish yin and blood.

Chinese yam (淮山, huáishān). Dried white slices of Dioscorea polystachya that soften in the pot and add a faint starchy sweetness. Sweet and neutral in TCM, and traditionally associated with the Spleen, Lung and Kidney.

Codonopsis root (黨參, dǎngshēn). Long, wrinkled tan roots with a mild sweetness, sometimes nicknamed poor man's ginseng. Classed as sweet and neutral, it's one of the most common qi tonics in Chinese home soups.

Astragalus (北芪, běiqí, also 黃芪, huángqí). Pale yellow slices shaped like tongue depressors, with a sweet, slightly beany smell. Sweet and slightly warm in TCM, and traditionally used to tonify qi.

Dendrobium (石斛, shíhú). The dried orchid stem. TCM classes it as sweet and slightly cold, and traditionally associates it with the Stomach and Kidney and with generating fluids.

Red dates (紅棗, hóngzǎo). Sweet and warm, traditionally said to harmonize the other herbs. They're also why the broth needs no sugar.

Ginger (薑). Two or three slices, to take the edge off the poultry.

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Ingredient Notes and Sourcing

You'll see dendrobium in two forms. 鐵皮石斛 (tiěpí shíhú, Dendrobium officinale) is usually sold as small golden coils called 楓斗 (fēngdǒu), and it's mild and slightly sweet. 金釵石斛 (jīnchāi shíhú, Dendrobium nobile) comes as flat, straw-like sticks and tastes noticeably bitter.

For soup, most cooks prefer the coils. They cost more, but the recipe uses 10 grams. Dendrobium sold for cooking is cultivated, since wild plants are protected.

Choose dried yam slices that are ivory, not chalk white, because very white slices have often been sulphur-treated. Codonopsis should bend a little and smell sweet. Red dates should be plump, and pitted before they go in.

In Canada, T&T Supermarket and most Chinese supermarkets stock silkie chicken, usually frozen and whole, along with dried Chinese yam and red dates. For dendrobium, astragalus and codonopsis, a Chinese herbal shop (藥材舖) is usually cheaper by weight, and staff will portion a soup bundle if you show them the name. Costco isn't much help with this one, beyond the ginger.

Elsewhere, look to Chinese supermarkets, Chinese herbal shops and reputable online retailers.

How to Make Dendrobium Silkie Chicken Soup

Rinse the dried herbs to remove dust. Soak the dendrobium in cool water for 30 minutes, since it's the slowest to soften, and snip tight coils in half so more surface meets the water. The yam, codonopsis and astragalus need only 10 minutes.

Trim the silkie. Remove the head, tail and loose fat, and pull out anything left in the cavity, especially the lungs along the backbone. Leave it whole or halve it to fit your pot.

Blanch the chicken by starting it in cold water, bringing it to a boil and letting it bubble for 2 to 3 minutes. Drain, then rinse off the grey scum. This step keeps the broth clear.

Put the chicken, herbs, dates and ginger in a large pot with 2.5 litres of cold water. Bring it to a full boil, skim once, then turn the heat to low and set the lid slightly ajar. You're after a lazy simmer, with a few bubbles breaking the surface.

Give it 2 hours. The soup is ready when the broth is a clear pale gold, the yam breaks under a spoon and a chicken leg pulls away without a fight. Salt at the end, a little at a time.

The usual mistake is a hard boil, which clouds the broth and drives off too much water. If the level drops, top up with boiling water, never cold.

Instant Pot and Double-Boiling

For the Instant Pot, cut the water to 2 litres because nothing evaporates. Cook on high pressure for 45 minutes and let the pressure release naturally. The broth comes out a touch cloudier, but the flavour holds.

For the clearest broth, double-boil (燉) the soup in a covered ceramic jar set in simmering water for 3 hours.

Storage and Make-Ahead

Cool the soup and refrigerate it within two hours. It keeps for up to 3 days in the fridge and up to 3 months in the freezer. The fat sets on top once chilled, so you can lift it off before reheating.

Reheat on the stove until it's steaming hot all the way through. Strain out the astragalus and dendrobium before freezing, since neither improves with a second simmer.

The best make-ahead is dry. Portion the herbs for several pots into bags or jars, and the next batch takes about a minute to assemble.

Variations

Lean pork. Add 200 grams of blanched lean pork (瘦肉) alongside the chicken for a sweeter broth, or use pork alone for 石斛瘦肉湯, a common everyday version.

American ginseng. Swap the codonopsis for American ginseng (花旗參), a classic Cantonese partner for dendrobium. TCM classes it as cool, so the pot shifts cooler and tastes more bitter-sweet.

Goji berries. Add a tablespoon in the last 10 minutes. Any longer and they go mushy and sour.

Regular chicken. A small free-range chicken or bone-in legs with the skin removed will work. The broth is fattier, so skim more.

Dried Conch. Adds a rich savory depth to the broth while maximizing its Yin-nourishing and fluid-replenishing qualities. If you don't have conch, dried scallops works the same.

Which Silkie Chicken Soup Should You Make?

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Most questions about this soup come down to the herbs: what dendrobium tastes like, which ones you eat, and whether 北芪 and 黃芪 are the same thing. Here are the short answers, plus the traditional guidance on when to skip the pot.

Related NOMSS Recipes

For the gentler starting point, make the Chinese herbal silkie chicken soup with yam, red dates and goji. If you'd like a lighter pot with the same bird, try the silkie chicken soup with lotus seeds and Job's tears.

Si Shen Tang 四神湯 uses Chinese yam in a four-herb soup with no tonic roots at all. On nights when two hours isn't happening, red date longan goji tea covers the warm-mug requirement.

For the seasonal reasoning behind easing into tonics, read the Start of Winter (Lidong) guide.

Have you tried this TCM soup recipe? Share your experience and any adaptations you've made in the comments below. For more traditional Chinese medicine recipes and health tips, subscribe to our newsletter and never miss a post!

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