Sanhuang chicken, black-bone chicken, old hen ... There are more and more kinds of chickens on the market, each with different nutrition, taste and flavor. Yu Renwen, director of Beijing Dietitians Association and a registered dietitian in China, suggested that people can choose appropriate methods according to their own preferences and different characteristics of chickens in daily cooking.
Fried chicken tastes tender. White feather chicken is the most common broiler, which is characterized by a short growth cycle and can grow in more than 40 days. In life, the meat of this kind of broiler is mostly used in chicken nuggets, hamburgers and fried chicken shops that people buy. Broilers are big with full breasts and legs. Its meat is tender, quick to mature and high in water content, which is suitable for cooking methods with short heating time such as quick fire and quick frying, and can avoid the meat from getting old and hard. The familiar dish "kung pao chicken" is a typical example. You can also add some onions, garlic, ginger, bamboo shoots, mushrooms and so on. Taste it when frying quickly. Broilers have short maturity and few flavor substances, so they are not suitable for soup.
Steamed Sanhuang chicken tastes good. Sanhuang chicken has the characteristics of yellow hair, yellow skin, yellow legs and yellow shin. Its growth rate is slower than that of white feather chicken and its feeding cycle is longer. Sanhuang chicken has tender meat, thin skin, moderate fat and delicious meat. Many cooking methods are applicable, but most of them are steaming and stewing, and chickens can also be fried or smoked. Before steaming and stewing, the chicken does not need to be blanched with water, and ingredients such as yam and mushrooms can be added to better set off the flavor of the chicken.
Black-bone chicken can be cooked in soup. Black-bone chicken, also known as black-bone chicken, is almost all black, including eyes, feet, skin, muscles, bones and even internal organs. The nature of melanin is quite stable, even if it is cooked for a long time, it will not change color. Black-bone chicken is tender in meat, elastic in taste, delicious and refreshing, and is often used for soup, steaming, boiling and frying.
The old hen's soup smells very strong. Usually, the old hen refers to the laying hens that are free-range in rural areas. Hens are older, and their food is mainly vegetables, grass seeds and miscellaneous grains. Because of more exercise and long growth years, most of them are "thin". Authentic old hen's fur is shiny, chicken feet are thin, chicken oil is light yellow or lemon yellow, but the meat fiber is thick and needs to be heated for a long time, which will make the soup taste purer and more fragrant. You can add some yam, medlar, red dates, Agrocybe aegerita and Tricholoma matsutake to match the soup, which is more delicious and has better nourishing effect.
Laying hens are suitable for fumigation. When laying hens reach a certain age, their egg production will be reduced, and they will be eliminated from the farm and then sold in the market, commonly known as eliminating laying hens. Compared with broilers, laying hens are smaller and generally weigh less than 2 kg when they are slaughtered. After removing feathers and internal organs, it looks much smaller than broiler chicken, and the color of chicken oil is white. The eliminated layers are old in taste, not rich in fragrance and poor in soup taste, and are more suitable for braised chicken, braised chicken and smoked chicken.
Recommend a recipe: steamed bamboo chicken with fragrant lotus.
Ingredients: Half black-bone chicken, salt, chicken essence, cooking wine, pepper, raw flour and chives.
Practice: 1. Wash black-bone chicken and cut it into walnut-sized pieces, add salt, chicken essence, pepper and corn flour, mix well and marinate 10 minute. 2. Soak the fungus and wash it. Prepare a dried lotus leaf, soak it in warm water until soft, and spread it on the steamer. After the chicken is marinated, mix it with the soaked fungus and put it on the lotus leaf. 3. After the water is boiled, put the steamer into the pot, steam for 12~ 15 minutes on high fire, and sprinkle with shallots.
Reminder: Because chicken skin contains a lot of fat, there is no need to put extra oil.