Chapter 32 Dongjiang Salt Baked Chicken

Chickens, ducks, and geese are the three birds. Physically speaking, geese are the largest, followed by ducks and chickens.But in terms of the order of eating, the chicken has always been the first, the duck is the second, and the goose can only be the third.This order of arrangement is probably based on the taste and tenderness of the meat. There are countless ways to eat chicken, regardless of the parts of the chicken, there are dozens of ways to eat the whole chicken, such as roasting, sauce, marinating, grilling, marinating, steaming, stewing, smoking, roasting , bad, etc., which shows the richness of Chinese cooking.Beggar's chicken is also made of yellow mud spread on the outside of the chicken body and roasted with fire, and then the shell is removed to keep the freshness of the chicken, and the nutrition and original flavor will never be lost. It is said that it was an invention of a beggar, so it is also called beggar. Chicken, can be described as unique.People in Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang are fond of chicken. Apart from the "three yellow chickens" that are all over the street, I like the two types of chicken and drunk chicken. Torn apart and eaten with japonica rice porridge, it is a family-style side dish.Drunken chicken is steamed and boiled three-yellow chicken from that year. After it is half-cooked, it is fed with white wine. When eating, the best part is cut into pieces and served on a plate. It is tender and has a wine aroma. It is a cold dish at banquets and is very appetizing.

Although there are many ways to prepare chicken, the choice of raw chicken is very important.Anyone who has been to the United States knows that the cheapest and least delicious food in the United States is chicken.This is because the United States began mechanized chicken farming as early as the 1920s. They were bred in large numbers for meat. They grow fast and are big and meaty, but they have no chicken smell and taste a little fishy.Although the chicken dish invented by Colonel KFC is popular all over the world, it is only a fast food to satisfy the hunger, and it is definitely not a gourmet food.In recent years, the breeding of broiler chickens is also very common in China. Restaurants do not pay attention to the selection of materials, so a large proportion of broiler chickens are used in dishes. Boiled chicken, Sichuan's strange-flavored chicken, and broiler chicken are so fishy and greasy that they are almost inedible.It is also for this reason that the value of farm-raised chickens has naturally risen.The so-called "Three Yellow Chickens" in Shanghai, no matter what their essence is, are advertised as non-broiler chickens.In the north, this kind of chicken is called "grass chicken" or "chai chicken". This kind of chicken can still be bought for a little more money today. I wonder if it will be assimilated by "broiler chicken" and "foreign chicken" in a few years and become "foreign grass chicken " or " Yang Chai Chicken ", worrying.

Cantonese are also fond of chicken, and there are many varieties, such as the popular and popular Qingping chicken, Taiye chicken with a long history and human history, unique and interesting paper-wrapped chicken, and roadside chicken with distinctive personality and the flavor of food stalls. Wait, among many chicken dishes, I like Dongjiang Salt Baked Chicken the most. When I first arrived in Guangzhou ten years ago, my old friends hosted a banquet at the Dongjiang Hotel on Zhongshan 4th Road. The restaurant’s Dongjiang salt-baked chicken is its signature dish.Salt-baked chicken has a history of more than 300 years. It is said that it was created in the coastal salt-producing areas. The Dongjiang River flows through Panyu, Guangdong, and enters the sea from Zengcheng County.This area is very rich due to salt production, until Huizhou on the coast, there were many salt merchants in the old days, and the economic development brought cultural prosperity. Huizhou and Panyu have produced many intellectuals and collectors in modern times. Panyu Koch is an example.It is said that salt-baked chicken was first created by Huizhou salt merchants. The method is to wrap the cooked chicken in gauze paper and put it in the salt pile at one time. It will be ready to eat after a while. The quantity is large, and the method is relatively simple. The salt is made from local materials, which has more local characteristics.Because the salt-baked chicken does not use other condiments, the chicken skin is crisp, the meat is tender, and the bone is fragrant, maintaining the true color of the chicken.

Cantonese people have high requirements on the variety of chicken whether they are making soy sauce chicken, oyster sauce chicken or scallion sauce chicken. Qingyuan chicken is the first choice.Qingyuan is located in the central part of Guangdong, on the middle reaches of the Beijiang River. It is the famous "hometown of three birds (chicken, duck and goose)" in Guangdong.Among the Qingyuan chickens, Qingyuan ephedra chicken is the most popular, which is famous both at home and abroad together with the local black brown goose.Therefore, the ingredients for cooking salt-baked chicken are also required to use the chicken produced in Qingyuan in the same year, so that it can be made with yellow skin and white meat, complete in color, aroma and taste.Boiled chicken in the north needs seasoning, but salt-baked chicken itself has been soaked in salt and no longer needs any seasoning.