Changshu Jiaohua chicken is brownish red in color, oily and bright, fresh and fragrant, full of chicken flavor, crisp and tender, rich in nutrition and unique in flavor. Allusions 1
According to legend, a long time ago, there was a man named Huazi, who begged for food along the way and went to a village in Changshu County. One day, he happened to get a chicken and wanted to slaughter it for cooking, but there was neither cooker nor seasoning. He came to the foot of Yushan Mountain, killed the chicken, removed its internal organs, coated it with yellow mud and firewood, simmered the coated chicken in the fire, peeled off the mud shell when it was cooked, and the chicken feathers were removed with the mud shell, revealing the chicken. About 100 years ago, according to this legend, the "Mountain View Garden" restaurant in Yushan Resort, northwest of Changshu County, removed the rough and refined, and created this chicken with precision. Today, under the continuous innovation and improvement of cooking technology for more than ten years, it is even more unique, and the processing methods are more abundant. Finally, a series of products have been formed, and there are more than a dozen products, which can meet the needs of more people with various tastes. In order to further develop this unique food culture, more people can taste this delicious food.
The domestic fat hens were slaughtered and washed, and diced meat, diced ham, dried Bess, fragrant mushroom tea, various spices and excellent condiments were incorporated into the chicken belly. Wet mud is spread all over the chicken's body, and then it is slowly baked on a charcoal fire. After it is cooked, it is slammed with a strong force, and the mud comes down with it. The whole fat "Flower (Flower) Chicken" that makes people want to drop is full of fragrance. Beggars' chickens often appear in China's story novels. Businessmen rack their brains to imagine the delicious food that Hong Qigong had eaten in those years. What Hong Qigong missed most was the beggar's chicken with a chicken butt torn to her by Huang Rong at the first meeting. Beggar chicken is a traditional famous dish in Changshu, Jiangsu Province. In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, a beggar at the foot of Yushan Mountain in Changshu stole the chicken without cooking utensils, spices and boiled water. After killing the chicken, he pulled out his internal organs, pasted it with mud, and piled up some broken branches and pine leaves to bake. This DIY eating method may have been invented by beggars long ago, so it seems reasonable for Jin Yong to advance Changshu beggar chicken to the Southern Song Dynasty.
Lin Yutang's "Instant Beijing" also wrote a beggar chicken. Mulan, who lost her daughter, pursued peace of mind, made a beggar chicken and dipped it in soy sauce after imitating Changshu cooking. Lin Yutang borrowed her mouth to talk about her views on food: "Chicken originally has its beauty, and too much triggering, stuffing and adding seasonings and spices will only distract its pure beauty." Huang Rong feels the same way about this. Her best dish is not "Who listens to plum blossoms in Yu Di", but the most homely fried cabbage, steamed tofu and stewed eggs.
According to the theory of Huang and Erh Lin people, the specialty dishes of Wangsi Restaurant in Changshu, Suzhou and Louwailou in Hangzhou have obviously gone bad. Huang Rong's "beggar chicken" is baked for a while, and it will be sweet and fragrant in the mud, and it can be eaten when the wet mud is dry; Mulan's "beggar chicken" takes only 20 or 30 minutes, but it takes four or five hours to cook. Moreover, the chicken is filled with various ingredients and seasonings, such as sliced gizzards, shrimps, diced ham, diced mushrooms, etc., which are first wrapped with fresh lotus leaves, then covered with mud and wrapped heavily. This beggar chicken was renamed "noble chicken" instead.
Soil and lotus leaves can be said to be the essence of this dish. When you knock on the soil outside the finished dish, gas will come out, and the chicken smell has the fragrance of lotus leaves and soil. It is best to choose the mud at the bottom of the small river, which has good sealing performance. It is still difficult to really call a beggar chicken, and it is best to use firewood during baking.
China is the first country to domesticate chickens in the world, and according to archaeologists, it has a history of at least six or seven thousand years. The earliest written record of chicken being made into a dish can be found in the Book of Rites, and there are five kinds of preserved chicken, chicken soup and steamed chicken in Qi Min Yao Shu.
With the improvement of people's living standards, the dishes cooked with chicken are becoming more and more abundant. By the end of Qing Dynasty, there were 30 kinds in Suiyuan Food List, and the number in Diaodingji reached 108. Besides the hair, all other parts of the chicken can be eaten into vegetables. The famous dishes made of chicken are all known in various cuisines-Bailu Chicken in Beijing, Braised Chicken and Braised Chicken in Dezhou in Shandong, Braised Chicken in Guangdong, Sticky Chicken in Sichuan, Chicken with Strange Flavor and so on. Interestingly, although the methods of making it are different, it is still the most creative one. "Taoism is natural", beggars get the touch of nature and use local materials when they are hungry, which makes them a delicious food on earth.