No silkie chicken? You can use regular chicken. Besides pork bones, you can also use lean pork meat.You may also add Chinese yams 淮山 and dried longan 桂圓. If adding longan, then add it in the last 20 minutes of cooking.I am really bad at chopping chicken. I can never land the cleaver where I want. Thank goodness I still have my fingers! Ever since getting a rubber mallet, it’s been a lot easier. I just place the cleaver where I want to chop and I pound the cleaver with the mallet a few times.
In a large pot, put in silkie chicken pieces and pork bones. Add water to cover and bring to a boil. Turn off heat. This step is to cleanse the meat so that your soup can be free of any impurities and bone residue. You may want to scoop out the impurities and foam before pouring everything out so that it doesn’t stick to the meat
Pour into a colander and rinse clean with cold water
Soak ginseng, red dates and goji berries for 10 minutes to soften and to rinse off any dust
Remove the pits in the red dates Pits can cause heatiness and is often removed before cooking
In a clean pot, place silkie chicken, pork bones, ginseng, red dates, goji berries, ginger and 2 L of water. Bring to a boil and then turn heat down to low
Cook on low heat for 3 hours
Taste and add salt to suit your taste.
Serve
Silkie chicken and meat on bones can be eaten. It’s common to serve with soy sauce for dipping. I generally will not eat it and I add another 1.5L of water and make more soup for the next day.