Before eating the gourd chicken, I always wondered, how can the gourd and the chicken be related? This may also be the confusion of many outsiders.
In the perfect hotel of xi'an academy of fine arts, I really made such a dish, served a look, a muddy shell, shaped like a water hyacinth, cut open with a knife, so that there was a chicken curled up in it __ This is a realistic cooking method, shaking a baggage, but making almost no imagination.
In fact, if the traditional gourd chicken is judged from the visual point of view, it has almost nothing to do with the gourd. It is estimated that many people have muttered in their hearts: What kind of medicine did the Xi'an people buy in this gourd?
Shaanxi people have a lot of snacks, but there are very few signature dishes, on their table, gourd chicken is a more authoritative sense of representative hard dish, other such as lamb bubbles, meat sandwich steamed buns, cold skin, powder soup and sheep blood, etc., are more casual, can not do the main dish. Therefore, if friends from other places come, gourd chicken has almost become the first choice for Guanzhong people to order food.
Shaanxi's gourd chicken is most famous for Sanyuan and Chang'an (this Chang'an refers to the former Chang'an County, now Chang'an District), and is known as "the first taste of Chang'an (this Chang'an refers to the ancient city of Chang'an)". In the scattered documents seen so far, the history of the gourd chicken is traced back to the Tang Dynasty, and it is said that its founder was the cook of The Rebbe Shangshu WeiZhi during the Tang Xuanzong period. Because Wei Zhi was born into wealth, lived a luxurious life, and paid great attention to meals, people at that time already had the saying that "people want to eat and feel comfortable, and they must be cooked by people". Regarding the origin of the gourd chicken, there is a story circulating: one day, Wei Zhi ordered the family chef to cook chicken in order to satisfy his appetite. The first chef used the method of steaming first and then frying, Wei Zhi felt that the meat was too old after tasting it, and he was quite annoyed, and ordered his family to drag the cook out and whip him, killing him fifty times. The second chef was afraid in his heart, and thought out some methods in his heart, taking the method of cooking first, then steaming, and then frying, and the tender requirements were met, but because the chicken was tossed through three processes, the flesh and bones had been separated and became fragments. Wei Zhi suspected that the cook was stealing food, and he could not argue, so he ordered someone to beat the cook to death. When he arrived at the third home cook, he accepted the lessons of the first two failures of the home cook, and first tied the chicken with a thin rope before cooking, then boiled first, then steamed, and then fried, this simple method was adopted, so that the cooked chicken was not only mellow and tender, but also the chicken body was intact and shaped like a gourd. At this time, Wei Zhi, who had tasted the delicious food, laughed with satisfaction.
The traditional authentic gourd chicken is selected as a petite chicken, which is usually raised for a year, with a net weight of about one kilogram, and the meat is tender and delicious. Today's gourd chicken in the production process is still the ancient method, basically through three rough processes, washed chicken, tied with hemp rope, and to ensure the regularity and beauty of the chicken shape, after boiling water, the chicken into the, about half an hour or so, the chicken fished out, put in the basin, add broth, cooking wine, salt, soy sauce, onion, ginger, star anise, cinnamon and other flavors, and then into the cage cooking, a quarter of an hour to twenty minutes later, take out the frying, the temperature control of the frying link is very important, rapeseed oil burned to eight ripe, the whole chicken into the pot After about half a minute, the skin of the chicken is golden brown, immediately fished out with an iron fence, drain the remaining oil, and then serve, with another dish of pepper and salt to accompany the food.
Gourd chicken to eat while hot, the same standard for thousands of years is "touch chopsticks bone off", that is to say, the requirements for chicken meat is that once chopsticks are paired, the chicken body will fall apart, the bone and flesh will be separated, and the fragrance is fragrant. Diners use chopsticks to pick up a pinch, and then dip it with pepper salt and pepper noodles, the taste is even more delicious.
Xi'an Restaurant, Sanyuan Huangjia's gourd chicken is well-known in Sanqin, but I have not tasted, Chang'an District Guo Du Town's gourd chicken professional village has heard about for many years, the village's catering to gourd chicken as the main dish, in recent years, the rapid formation of industry, there are many Xi'an citizens and diners from other counties are admired, only for this food.
Three years ago, in the late autumn, two Suzhou friends came to Shaanxi and drove there, so that the fine-tongued Gusu people could verify the delicious taste of Chang'an gourd chicken. On that day, the end of the south is like a dai, and the wood is golden. The clean and dazzling yellow flashes on the car window, echoing with the gourd chicken in the heart, which makes people look forward to it. The shop we visited was the most famous "bamboo gourd chicken", a large farm yard, five floors full of buildings, and when you look at the large parking lot in front of the door, you can see how good its business is. Entering the house, there was a mess, like people in the village were in trouble, and the Guanzhong peasant woman with a high throat and a loud voice kept shouting from time to time: "Go upstairs and find your own room!" So, someone above echoed: "Fourth floor, come up!" "We went up the stairs and sat down in an empty room on the fourth floor, the private room was small, some cramped, and the house was also very simple, except for the tables and stools, which showed the peasants' frugal and practical concept of life. The waiter put the recipe on the table, standing on the side with a dark face, two Suzhou colleagues were turning over the recipe, and the black-faced waitress opened a cavity: "What you want to eat, there are all on it, try to be as fast as possible, I am busy with business!" The two colleagues smiled and gave me the menu, "You are from Shaanxi, just make the decision!" "Gourd chicken is naturally necessary, and a few plates of farmhouse dishes with Shaanxi characteristics have been added."
The efficiency of serving food is very high, the gourd chicken is served, we are really a little shocked, the chicken is as delicate as a pigeon, thin and small, we asked: "Why is this chicken so small?" The waiter replied very competently: "My chicken is no problem!" The three of us laughed at each other, and later learned that the authentic gourd chicken used was a small chicken, and the ones we had eaten before were large, but not the chickens. The waiter's attitude is not satisfactory, quite Characteristics of Guanzhong, but the gourd chicken between the bamboo is still good, the muscles are extremely tender and delicious, otherwise, there will not be so many people flocking to it, and there is a point that is more important, the price of the farmhouse dishes is not high, in line with the concept of affordable consumption.
In Xi'an's similar medium-sized restaurants, gourd chicken is a regular dish and, of course, a specialty. Xingshan Temple West Street entrance has a narrow alley, Shaanxi cuisine is very authentic, three or five friends come, is a good place. Many dishes, you can taste the real childhood memories, the store's gourd chicken as the signature dish, if the general process, are similar, but each successful store has its own unique taste code, just like painting and writing, although the general brushwork used is to follow the tradition, but only when these techniques and an individual's spirit are connected, will glow with real vitality and unique value. Good gourd chicken, in addition to the visual requirements of "touching the chopstick bone" and "outer scorched and tender", "crisp and tender, the taste is not wood" is the core of its true value.
In terms of reputation, Xi'an's gourd chicken is far less famous than Beijing roast duck, Texas grilled chicken, Nanjing saltwater duck, Zhengzhou Daokou roast chicken, but when you sit in Xi'an's restaurants, surrounded by a variety of Guanzhong snacks and dishes, the Chang'an taste of gourd chicken will truly play a warm and mellow Guanzhong meaning in its context.
#头条美食 #