Ginger Miso Chicken Stock

Cooking Martha Stewart's chinese banquet for 12 friends, part 1; somehow cooking for 12 people entails a menu of 12 recipes to match

9 ingredients•Prep: 30 mins•Cook: 3 hrs

Ryan Nordheimer•

May 5, 2026

The menu:

day 1

ginger-miso chicken stock (for the watercress soup and meatballs)
pineapple pink peppercorn macarons
hot and sour cabbage pickle
scallion pancakes
Chinese pearl balls
fruit platter

You might be thinking, “Geez, that’s a lot of food. Is it possible it’s even more food than Easter?” YES! It is actually more food than the Easter. This dinner is supposed to be for fewer people and yet actually has more recipes. Isn’t that swell?

For day 1 (my prep day, essentially), I made one major substitution in the recipes. Martha provides a recipe for traditional Chinese almond cookies. But, I’ve always found them a bit bland for my dessert tastes. I thought substituting macarons, which are an almond cookie of a sort, would be a much more exciting dessert bite. To play into the menu, I opted for pink peppercorn pineapple compote and not-too-sweet pink peppercorn buttercream fillings. These were incredible. Eating them, I honestly thought I could open up a macaron shop and easily sell out every day.

I also used my own recipe for scallion pancakes, as Martha’s recipe is actually for “Scallion Bread” (seemingly a much, much thicker form that me and my many Chinese friends had never witnessed before). Classic scallion pancakes seemed like a safer bet.

And Martha doesn’t give a recipe for the chicken stock (used in two other dishes) but says you should use a “high-quality” one. So, this is my go-to chicken stock recipe, fortified with plenty of ginger and miso paste to give it a resounding warm and aromatic taste that I could drink the entire pot’s worth. I couldn’t wait to use it to make the watercress soup and the lion’s head meatballs.

Similar to Easter, none of the Chinese Banquet recipes were that complicated. Just the quantity of recipes is a bit overwhelming. But by splitting the work up over 2 days, it didn’t feel so bad. I was still feeling nervous about day 2 and how I was supposed to fry 6 fishes as I completed the rest of the buffet. But that’s a problem for a different day.

Ryan

Ingredients (9)

Whole chicken(5 lb, organs discarded)
Yellow onion(1, split in half, skin left on)
Carrot(1, cut into chunks)
Chinese celery(3 stalks, cut into chunks)
Garlic(1 head, split in half crosswise)
Large ginger(1 piece, split in half lengthwise)
Red or white miso(3 Tbsp)
Black peppercorns(10–12)
Any parsley, cilantro, or scallions lying around your fridge

Instructions

In a large Dutch oven or pot, add all the ingredients. Add enough water to submerge the chicken (5 lb) and all the vegetables.
Turn the heat to medium-high. As the pot comes to a simmer, use a spoon and start to skim the scum that floats to the top. Once the water is at a simmer, lower the heat to maintain the faintest of simmers and continue skimming (after the first 30 minutes or so all the scum should be dealt with). Continue simmering for 2 to 3 hours to extract all the flavor from the chicken.
Strain the liquid through a fine-mesh sieve. Transfer to 2 quart containers. Stock will last in the fridge for 5 days or in the freezer for many, many months.