Samgye-tang(Chicken ginseng soup) is a hot chicken soup served in a pottery pot. Due to the properties of the clay-made pot, the soup is still boiling, even after being placed on the table. Diners are supposed to sweat while enjoying the soup. The "Oriental" flavor from the ginseng is added to the familiar flavors of the chicken soup. The name for the soup in Korean, Samgye-tang, literally means "ginseng and chicken in a hot soup.”
During Korean summers, there are three peak days of especially hot weather according to the traditional lunar calendar. They are called the Early Term, Chobok, the Middle Term, Jungbok, and the Last Term, Malbok. On these days, many Koreans enjoy this hot soup. It may be ironic that they have a hot food to overcome hot weather. This is based on the traditional Asian folk belief that heat can be controlled by heat.
It means that people need to take foods to "warm up" the human body,
since our insides get "cold"
and tired from the prolonged hot weather. Ginseng's effect of energizing the body by
"strengthening the internal Samgye-tang, the meat from a mid-sized hen who has not lain any eggs is normally used since its meat is tender and easy to chew. The belly of
a deep-boiled soft chicken is filled with sticky rice, garlic, ginseng, ginkgo nuts, chestnuts and a jujube. All of these are "heat" foods or
"energy-boosting foods." In particular, this soup is made mainly by boiling milk vetch roots, a medicinal herb that removes the chicken smell and helps to control the water content in the human body and to prevent sweating. In addition, deluxe chicken and ginseng soup is available. It's made by adding other herbs, such as angelica root and licorice root, or seafood, such as abalone or octopus. When it's served, diners mix the soft ingredients inside the chicken with the broth, and enjoy the chicken meat together with the ingredients. If you need a chicken soup for your soul, as stated in the book series
"Chicken Soup for The Soul," and for your tired body, Samgye-tang , with its deep flavors of ginseng, is highly recommended. It is a steady selling health food, cooked under the philosophy of Korean cuisine that food and medicine are from the same source.
Samgye-tang ingredients
Ingredients
Main Ingredients (for two people) 2 chickens, under 600g each
1/2 cup glutinous rice, 2 roots of fresh ginseng 4 jujubes, 10 pieces garlic, 4 ginkgo nuts Ingredients for the Broth
15g milk vetch roots, 8 cups water Ingredients for the Seasoning a little salt, black pepper powder 1/2 tablespoon ginger juice 1 10cm spring onion
Recipe
① Cut out the tails of the chickens. Wash the insides. Drain them.
② Soak the glutinous rice in water for over one hour. Pass it through a sieve and drain it. Cut off the head of the ginseng roots and wash them. Remove the seeds from the jujube. Peel the garlic and ginkgo nuts.
③ Put 1/4 cup of glutinous rice, one ginseng root, 5 pieces of garlic, 2 jujubes and 2 ginkgo nuts in the belly of each chicken. Cross the two chicken legs and fix them with a thread.
④ Boil the soup. Pour water into a pot and put in the milk vetch roots when the water is boiling. Boil it until the soup becomes yellowish.
⑤ Put the prepared chicken in a pot, pour in the soup and boil it.
After it comes to a boil, cook it further over medium heat for about one hour and remove the film that builds up as needed.
When the soup becomes thick and yellowish, and the chicken meat is fully cooked and tender, take each chicken out of the pot and place it in an earthenware bowl.
⑥ Season the soup with salt, black pepper powder and ginger juice.
Chop the spring onion.
⑦ Pour the soup into the earthenware bowl.
Samgye-tang Recipe
If you have a young Korean friend, he or she may suggest to you, "Let's go for Chimaek!" referring to the Korean slang word for deep fried chicken and draft beer.
The first item you might have upon landing in Korea might be chicken and beer. People who watch Korean soap operas might remember the fried chicken and draft beer that actress Jihyun Jeon enjoyed as a midnight snack in the show "My Love From the Star."
The slang word Chimaek is trendy these days, combining the chi from chicken and the maek from the Korean word for beer, maekju. On summer evenings, Korean people enjoy their fried chicken and beer at many indoor and outdoor pubs, one of the most popular items when eating out in Korea. Draft beer rather than bottled beer is commonly the pair to chicken.
Korean-style deep fried chicken is differentiated by the use of traditional fermented seasonings such as gochujang(chili pepper paste), ganjang(soy sauce),. The most popular one is Yangnyeom Dak Red Spicy Sauce Chicken made by putting red pepper paste-based sauce on the fried chicken. The sauce, made from red pepper paste, ketchup, corn syrup, sesame oil, sesame seeds and minced garlic, has a spicy-sweet-tangy finish. (The New York Times, 2009.10.7.)