Chicken became a common food on the table of ordinary people in Song Dynasty, because chicken was also the most developed and extensive livestock in Song Dynasty. In the Song Dynasty, the scale of raising chickens was much larger than before. Even ordinary farmers keep hundreds of chickens.
For example, "Shilin Guangji" Volume II "Tie Chicken Line" records:
"The little slave tied the chicken to the market, and the chicken was in a hurry."
This sentence also describes the excitement of vendors selling chickens in the vegetable market, and also describes the number of chickens sold, which proves that the chicken industry was developed at that time.
Local officials in the Song Dynasty also asked the governed people to raise chickens and vigorously develop the chicken industry. For example, there was a minister named Sean Song in the Northern Song Dynasty. When he was working in Henan province, he asked every household he managed to raise chickens, and it was stipulated that chicken breeders should regularly take chickens to a special yamen to check whether they were cheating him. Because local officials encourage people to develop the chicken industry, which also stimulates the increase in the number of chickens, it is not surprising that chicken has become a delicious food on the table of ordinary people. For example, in the Song Dynasty, a person killed dozens of chickens every day. Such a large supply shows that there is a great demand for chicken.
The song dynasty is characterized by the fact that the scale of chicken raising in the south of the Yangtze River far exceeds that in the north. This is also because in the Song Dynasty, especially in the Southern Song Dynasty, the originally desolate Jiangnan area was valued and developed by the imperial court, and the grain planting area was also expanded. With more food, there will naturally be more feed for raising chickens, and the development of aquaculture will naturally surpass that of the north.
In the Song Dynasty, commerce was developed, and many vendors used chickens as food to attract customers. For example, at that time, there were many kinds of restaurants and restaurants. Ordinary chicken is often processed by chefs and turned into delicious food. Some towns also have "chicken shops" that specialize in supplying these chickens. For example, Hangzhou, the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, has a "chicken and goose tour" to meet the needs of urban residents for meat such as chicken.
According to the income of ordinary people in the Song Dynasty and the price level at that time, ordinary people could buy and eat chicken without spending much money to satisfy their taste buds. Moreover, the Song Dynasty also opened a curfew, so ordinary people can also visit the night market at night and eat delicious chicken at midnight.
Because of the large number of chickens, there are more ways to cook them. Song people also pursued the diversification of chicken cooking methods. For example, according to the old man in West Lake and other documents, the cooking methods of chicken in Song Dynasty mainly include fried chicken, lobster sauce chicken, roast chicken, chicken head paste and so on. For example, a prime minister in the Song Dynasty was famous for his incorruptibility, but drinking a bowl of chicken tongue soup would kill 100 chickens, which proved that chicken food was developed at that time.