More than ten years ago, when I went to Hainan for the first time, I was very interested in seeing the "chicken rice" on the street, and I must have never eaten this kind of rice as an authentic northerner. Later, he settled in Guangzhou, and finally ate the "chicken rice" over and over again. White cut chicken, ginger wine chicken, stewed chicken, fried chicken, steamed salt chicken, salt baked chicken, onion oil chicken, five-fingered peach chicken, etc., found that the original "chicken" played a major role in the food chain of Guangdong, the so-called "no chicken no feast".
After living in Guangzhou for many years, my favorite food is "Hakka salt baked chicken". The "Hakka" is known as the "gypsy" of the Han chinese, and in the history of the Hakka, they have undergone about five great migrations, most of them living in the mountains and hills, hidden in the layers of mountains. The unique living environment determines that Hakka ingredients are mainly based on poultry livestock and mountain treasures in the selection of materials, and chicken is the most common poultry in poultry, so it has become one of the main ingredients of Hakka. Baking and brewing are two common cooking methods in Hakka cuisine, salt baking is the salted food in a closed container, using steam to smoke the food. The Hakka salt baked chicken ingredients are preferably three yellow chicken, the three yellow fingers chicken beak, chicken feet and chicken feathers are yellow, it is said that this name was ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang.
The ancient method of salt baked chicken is more complicated, after slaughtering the chicken, the chicken should be salted with oil and ginger powder with a little salt. After marinating, spread the salt evenly over the whole chicken and wrap the whole chicken in a piece of paper. The paper for wrapping chicken is more exquisite, the upper layer should use yarn paper, and the lower layers should use the popular Hakka straw paper. The purpose of wrapping multiple layers of paper with different kinds of paper is to prevent the loss of moisture and excessive penetration of salt.
Stir-frying salt is a particularly important step in making salt baked chicken, and the salt fried must be larger sea salt, because sea salt is high in calories and resistant to baking. Stir-fry the sea salt over medium heat until the salt grains change from white to gray, then put the wrapped chicken in a pot over medium heat and bake slowly. In about an hour and a half, the fragrant Hakka chicken came out.
The traditional way to eat salt-baked chicken is to tear it up by hand, which is both primitive and fragrant, with endless aftertaste. There are many legends about its origin, one of which is that there was a merchant surnamed Yang in Jiaying Prefecture (present-day Meixian County) in the Qing Dynasty, who often went to various parts of Lingnan to buy and sell goods and made many friends from all walks of life. One year, at the end of the year, he happened to be on a business trip in Guangxi, got things done, and prepared to go home for a meal at a friend's restaurant. The friend who opened the hotel was a Hakka, and when he left, he gave him a few local specialties- three yellow chickens. The merchant surnamed Yang was very happy, but how to take it home was difficult, and he thought about it, so he had to slaughter the chicken, dig out the internal organs, and then coat the whole chicken with salt, and finally wrap the chicken with straw paper. In this way, it not only saves the trouble of bringing live chickens, but also ensures that the chicken will not easily deteriorate in a short period of time.
The merchant took these chickens on the road like this, and when he was about to arrive in Meixian County, it was late, and he happened to come to a place where there was no shop in front of the village. His stomach was also grumbling with hunger, and the merchant remembered that he had a few chickens on his back, just enough to take them out and roast them. After the chicken was roasted, as soon as it was introduced, the merchant was surprised to find that the taste of the chicken completely overshadowed the previous practice. So when he got home, he quickly told his wife, who was proficient in cooking. The merchant's wife made improvements to the merchant's practice, and this "Hakka salt baked chicken" was born.
Today's salt-baked chicken has not only become a classic dish of major restaurants, but also made into vacuum-packed salt-baked chicken feet, chicken wings, chicken legs, etc. are exported to all parts of the country, and more importantly, Hakka salt-baked chicken has been recognized as "provincial intangible cultural heritage" by Guangdong Province.
In Hakka culture, "chicken" is not just a dish, it is also a symbol of "auspiciousness". Every New Year's Festival, large and small banquets, no matter how poor or noble, chicken is always an indispensable dish on the table. It has the meaning of symbolizing the phoenix. "Hundred birds and phoenix", the phoenix is the king of the birds, is the symbol of auspicious rui. Chickens have colorful feathers, phoenix crowns, and golden tails, and the Hakka people regard chickens as phoenixes. There is a famous dish called "Dragon and Phoenix Soup", and the "phoenix" in it is chicken. Whenever the gods worship the ancestors, the chickens take the lead. When relatives come and go, chicken is the most honorable gift, entertaining guests, and chicken gizzard (chicken leg) is the highest courtesy. Men and women get married, the chicken is the protagonist, the man must send a big red rooster and a hen that has not laid eggs to the woman. The rooster is used to make "under the car wine" to feast on relatives and friends, and the hen is married to the man's family with the woman, commonly known as "lead the way chicken". When the bride and groom drink a glass of wine, they eat a chicken together, which means "one heart and one mind". When the woman returns to the door, the son-in-law will send chickens to the relatives of the woman's family, and when the relatives take turns to feast, the son-in-law will eat chicken gizzards at each meal. When the woman leaves, the mother's family will send a small rooster and a small hen that has not laid eggs, commonly known as "rooster mother", which means to ask them to breed "chickens".
As we say, pigs are full of treasures, and in the eyes of the Hakka, the same is true of chickens, and chicken gizzards are one of the "holy relics". Chickens have no teeth, and everything they eat is stored and digested through chicken gizzards. The gizzard is the stomach of the chicken, that is, the chicken gizzard. Its taste is sweet and flat, according to the "Compendium of Materia Medica", chicken gizzards have the effect of aiding digestion, and modern nutritionists also believe that chicken gizzards have the function of strengthening kidney iron. Based on the above role of chicken gizzard, The Hakka family cherishes chicken gizzard. According to legend, chicken gizzards are often used to entertain Mr. Feng Shui in order to obtain a treasure land of feng shui, one is to continue the descendants of the descendants, the prosperity of mending, and the other is to ensure the prosperity of the family business.
Wenshan Chicken Ding carries the "Hundred Virtues and Filial Piety First" in Chinese culture, and filial piety is also the most important social morality in Hakka culture. Wen Tianxiang calls himself Wen Shan, and this dish is related to him. When Wen Tianxiang was in Ganzhou Zhizhou, he held a large-scale banquet to respect the elderly, and the elderly who participated in this banquet were all over 71 years old. At the feast, a dish made of chicken, bamboo shoots and red peppers is loved by the elderly. Later, in order to commemorate Wen Tianxiang's move, the Hakka family named this dish Wenshan Chicken Ding.
The Hakka recipe is far more than "chicken", but the "chicken" first entered the hearts of the Hakka, which triggered a long-term chicken food feast.