"Called flower chicken", also known as yellow mud simmered chicken, is a traditional dish in Changshu, Jiangsu Province, and is also a delicious dish that is famous all over the world. Regarding its origin, there is a rumor circulating in the folklore.
According to legend, in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, there was a area called Huazi in Yushan, Changshu, Jiangsu Province, who usually held a wooden stick in his right hand and carried a broken bowl in his left hand to beg everywhere. One day, a well-meaning rich old lady saw that he was pitiful and gave him an old hen, and Hanako danced with joy. But he was a man named Hanako, and there was nothing but a stick and a broken bowl in his hand, and he wondered how to cook this chicken to eat. He thought about it for a long time, and he didn't come up with a good way to do it. He took the chicken to a broken temple and sat down, and suddenly, his mind flashed, and he finally had a way. So he found a broken knife left by the predecessors in the broken temple, sharpened the embroidery knife and slaughtered the chicken, removed the internal organs, went to the mountain behind the temple and dug some yellow mud wrapped around the surface of the chicken, took the dead branches and dead leaves to light the fire, put the wrapped chicken in the fire and burned it, and when the mud was boiled, he estimated that the chicken was also cooked, so he knocked out the mud shell with a stick, and the chicken feathers also fell off with the mud, and the chicken aroma overflowed.
Hanako was very surprised, so she picked up the chicken and devoured it. Just when Hanako was eating vigorously, Qian Muzhai, a scholar of the Ming Dynasty University, walked by here, smelled the smell of chicken, and saw the scene of asking Hanako to eat chicken, so he went up to ask Hanako how to make this delicious chicken. Hanako saw the smile and giggled, so she said something about the cause and effect, and took a small piece of meat to Qian Muzhai, qian Muzhai tasted it, felt that the taste was indeed very good, and could not help but praise: "Miao, Miao."
Back at home, Qian Muzhai ordered the cook to make it according to the method called Hanako, and added various condiments such as diced meat, ham, shrimp and spices to the chicken's belly, wrapped in lotus leaves, and then wrapped in yellow clay, baked in the fire, simmered and eaten with taste, and named "called flower chicken".