Chicken Garlic Soup with Jumble Dried Red Dates (Jujubes)

Popped by the Korean supermarket last night and spotted these gigantic dried red dates. I have never seen such big ones!

I later looked it up on the internet and found out that they are also called jujubes.

The other day I read an article about a Taiwanese dish, chicken garlic soup, and wanted to give it a try. Koreans are also famous for their chicken soup. So when I saw those jujubes, I decided to make a crossover chicken soup.

Here is the chicken garlic red date soup from my kitchen:


Ingredients
1 whole chicken
about 10 dried red dates, pitted
2 heads of fresh garlic
some chicken stock, you may use 1/2 stock and 1/2 water or just water

How

1. I wanted a clear soup so first I gave the chicken a quick hot bath. To do this, place the chicken in a pot and add room temperature water just enough to cover the chicken. Bring the water to a boil and reduce the heat to low. Let it simmer for 2 minutes. Drain and discard the water. Gently clean the chicken under cold tap water and set aside. Cleaning the hot bathed chicken with cold water will tighten up the chicken skin and maintain its shape during the cooking process.
2. Fry half of the garlic cloves. Place the garlic cloves in a small pot and add  oil just enough to cover them. Slowly fry the garlic on medium heat and make sure not to burn them. As soon as the garlic cloves turn golden, remove them from the heat and drain off the oil. Frying half of the garlic will enhance the flavor of the soup. Keep the garlic infused oil for cooking other dishes.
   
3. Wash the dates, cut them open with a pair of scissors and remove the pits from the middle. Cut the dates into halves or quarters. The dates I bought seem to be semi dry so I didn't soak them. But if you have some that are very dry, soak them for 1/2 hours before pitting them.
   
4. Now we are ready to make the soup. Use a pot that is at least big enough to fit the chicken. Pour in the stock or water or a mixture of both, whatever you are using, and bring it to a boil. Put in the chicken, breast down, and add the dates and all the garlic. The water/broth should cover about 2/3 of the chicken. Bring it to a boil again and turn the heat down to low. Let it simmer with the lid on. Do NOT add salt.
   
5. After 30 minutes, turn the chicken over. Put on the lid and simmer for another 15 minutes.
6. The soup is now done. Turn off the heat and skim off the fat. Add salt to taste. Because I used half broth and half water, it was favorable enough that I didn't have to add any salt.
   
7. Serve hot. I added cooked dumplings, vegetable and noodles to serve as a one dish dinner.