Lollipop chicken.
View of Hanyang Street.
Hanyang chicken was grown up eating Hanyang peanuts, so the meat is tender and delicious.
Lollipop chicken, an appetizing dish. Hanyang, an ancient town with unforgettable style. Now, whether it is "Mountain City Lollipop Chicken", "Chengdu Lollipop Chicken" or "Leshan Lollipop Chicken", it will be noted that this dish originated in Hanyang Town on the banks of the Minjiang River in Qingshen County a hundred years ago.
Standing a hundred years later, we reread history and feel a kind of historical opportunity and coincidence. The connection between Hanyang and Lollipop Chicken and Lollipop Chicken to Hanyang has long been inseparable.
1
Sichuan famous dish "lollipop chicken"
Got its name from sticks hitting food
When it comes to "lollipop chicken", many people know that it is one of the eight major cuisines in China - a century-old famous dish in Sichuan cuisine. However, how "lollipops" and "chickens", two seemingly incompatible things, are connected is little known.
It is not difficult to read the historical data to know that before the emergence of lollipop chicken, there was already a precedent in the history of Chinese cooking that linked lollipops with food.
As early as 1400 years ago, an agronomist named Jia Sixun in Shandong wrote a famous book, and in this comprehensive agricultural book called "Qi Min Zhi Shu", a delicious dish made with a wooden stick was recorded in detail and specifically- white breast. The method of white breast is to use the lean meat of cattle, sheep, roe deer, do not fat, cut into slices, soak in cold water, so that it can take off the blood water until the water is clear, put the salt water and peppercorns into the water to soak the meat, soak it for two nights and then take it out to dry. When the meat is half dry and half wet, gently hit it with a wooden stick to make the meat firm.
What Hanyang presents to the world is a quaint style.
As for the practice of "white breast", until the Tang Dynasty, some people relayed Jia Sixun's record verbatim when writing the book. To this day, this once popular snack "white breast" has faded people's taste in the passage of time, but its practice of hitting food with a stick always makes people think of the food that appeared later and was also related to the stick - "lollipop chicken".
What is the name of the lollipop chicken? Is it also like a white breast, which needs to be gently hit with a stick before it is cooked, so it is related to the "stick"? If both have the workflow of tapping food with a stick before they are cooked, is it also the same purpose of the lollipop chicken to hit the chicken with a stick, just to make the meat firm?
At present, Shancheng Lollipop Chicken, Leshan Lollipop Chicken, Chengdu Lollipop Chicken... Many lollipop chickens with local names have sprung up, where is the birthplace of lollipop chickens? And what is the reason for the fame of the lollipop chicken in this place?
2
This dish originated from the green god Hanyang
A town thriving on water
In many Sichuan cuisine books, whenever "Mountain City Lollipop Chicken", "Chengdu Lollipop Chicken" or "Leshan Lollipop Chicken" are mentioned, it will be noted that this dish originated in Hanyang Town on the banks of the Minjiang River in Qingshen County before the Ming and Qing dynasties. As for why the lollipop chicken originated in an unknown town, why it is famous, etc., there is no historical record to make a definitive explanation.
Out of Qingshen County, along the Min River to the south, about 20 kilometers, the river surface is narrowing, a town with a strong and simple style appears in front of you, as far as the eye can see, all gray tiles and old closed wooden houses. Perhaps because the weather was too cold, there were few pedestrians on the road, and the town showed a little loneliness and depression.
Got out of the car, took a few steps forward, only to see three or five old people in a teahouse next to the road swinging the dragon gate array, and vaguely heard a catchy folk proverb - "Poor Qing God, Rich Hanyang, want to play a Liu family field..." As far as the first six words are concerned, there is inevitably a series of questions pouring into the mind: Why does a small town have the momentum of wanting to be richer than the county town? Why does it have such an amazing underpinnings to suppress the Qingshen County? Originally, this Hanyang town was originally an arc-shaped flat dam on the bank of the Minjiang River, and then a market town was formed by water, and it was scenery in history for a long time because of a thousand-year-old water pier in the town.
In the era of "Shu Road is difficult, it is difficult to go to Qingtian", the traffic of inland roads in Sichuan is blocked, and the Minjiang waterway has naturally become an important mode of transportation for traveling inside and outside Sichuan. When the merchant ships traveling between Chengdu and Leshan arrived at Pingba, it was just in time for the end of dusk and the night to come, and the Pingba to the south to Leshan had to pass through a 3-kilometer-long steep gorge area, with thousands of walls in the gorge, strange rocks, and winding rivers, and the merchant ships were all shocked by its mysteriousness. Pingba's open terrain makes it easy for boats to dock, just to meet the needs of merchant ships swimming on the Minjiang River water shipping line who want to find a place to rest and alleviate the fatigue and fatigue of a day of boating and car fatigue.
Overlooking Hanyang. Photo by Xiang Zhe
Day after day, year after year, the docking of merchant ships on Pingba has developed ordinary Pingba into an important transit station on the main line of transportation between Chengdu and Leshan waterways, and slowly and gradually evolved into a cargo distribution center for the transportation of Chengdu and Leshan waterways. The boats that shuttle back and forth, raise the sails and drop the sails, raise the oars and collect the oars, people come and go, bustling, and the brakes are lively.
By the time of the Han Dynasty, Pingba had its own name. Yiyang's family set up shop at the docks along the river, and since then, the family's business has flourished and the people are exuberant, gradually forming a market town. Pingba was developed into a market town because of the Yang surname of the Han Dynasty, so it was slowly called Hanyang Town.
In the stories of the old people, Hanyang is prosperous and rich. It is not difficult to see that in the impression of the older generation, Hanyang is not only a small town, but also a rich place.
3
Eat peanuts grow up with delicious meat
Hanyang chicken is on a par with "Yayu"
The old people said that Hanyang was born of water, and everything in the land of Hanyang was born of water. Hanyang has three major local specialties, which can be summarized by two folk proverbs - "Hanyang peanut Hanyang chicken, Hanyang River regiment by plane." ”
Hanyang is the outlet of the Pingqiang Small Three Gorges, known as the "Fish Nest", and is the hometown of the precious fish species. JiangTuan is a fine and tender fish with delicious taste. Unfortunately, now that jiangtuan is becoming more and more rare and endangered, it has long been impossible to see the scene of Jiangtuan being exported by air.
However, Hanyang peanuts and Hanyang chickens have always been there. Hanyang is a delta formed by the alluvial water of the Minjiang River, and the soil is soft and soft, which is most suitable for growing peanuts. The peanuts grown in Hanyang Town are not only large in granules and high in yield, but also delicious in taste. When peanuts are harvested, there are always some remnants of peanuts scattered in the soil, and bugs will grow after a period of time. At this time, Hanyang people will always put their chickens into the ground and peck at the peanuts in the soil and the insects on the ground. Hanyang chicken leans in the wild and opens, eating tender peanuts, etc., and the appearance is more and more shiny, and the meat is more delicious. It is also this unique feeding method that makes Hanyang chicken quite famous, thus leaving the reputation of "Jiafuya fish Hanyang chicken".
The raw materials used in the lollipop chicken are carefully selected from these Hanyang chickens. At a restaurant in Hanyang Town that specialises in lollipop chicken, Juniper is slowly cleaning the tools used to make lollipop chicken in the kitchen. As early as the 1940s and 1950s, his grandmother had been making lollipop chickens in the town, and from a young age, he was already familiar with the road.
Juniper said that the most critical part of doing a good job of stick chicken is the selection of materials. The meat of Hanyang chicken is tender and fat, which is the main reason why Hanyang stick chicken is the most popular. Among the many Hanyang chickens, the earth rooster that is more than seven or eight months old is used as the best raw material.
The production method of lollipop chicken is extremely exquisite and has no skills. The rooster is slaughtered to remove the feathers, remove the internal organs, and wash them. Wrap your legs and wings around you with hemp rope, beat your eyes with bamboo skewers on thick flesh, boil slowly in a pot of boiling water over low heat for a quarter of an hour, and mix in half a scoop of cold water. When the water is boiling again, turn the chicken over and cook for another 10 minutes, then mix with half a scoop of cold water. After the water is boiled, turn over, use small bamboo thorns to pierce the chicken, when no blood beads emerge, you can pick it up, soak in cold boiling water for 1 hour, take it out and dry. The chicken head, neck, wings, chest and back are slaughtered, the chicken head is cut into two pieces, and the rest is gently cut with a special wooden stick. When eating, mix red oil chili pepper, sesame powder, pepper powder, sesame oil, mushrooms, soy sauce, sugar, green onion, monosodium glutamate, etc. into a juice, you can dip it.
It is the specialty of Hanyang stick chicken that makes tourists from inside and outside the province come to visit, most of them are from Chengdu, Leshan, Ya'an and other surrounding areas, but there are also many from Beijing or even foreign countries.
4
Chicken sold at the water pier
Food is satisfied, and love is separated
"Lollipop" and "Chicken" seem to be incompatible, but they are closely linked by the production process of lollipop chicken. So, what is the intention of having to beat the chicken with a stick? How is it different from the way white breasts are struck with sticks?
Lei Guangqian, director of the Party and Government Office of Hanyang Town, explained the ins and outs of the Hanyang stick chicken well.
As early as when land transportation was not developed, the traffic in Kawachi mainly relied on water transportation, and the Min River was one of the more important waterways in Kawachi. From Chengdu to Leshan, Hanyang has always been an important transit point, with a steady stream of boats coming and going every day, and boatmen and travelers bustling. Because of the large flow of people, some of the more economically savvy people have started a living road in The Water Wharf in Hanyang - selling snacks to passing boats and pedestrians.
What to sell? Of course, it is a local specialty of Hanyang that is sold at a low cost. As a result, hawkers began selling chicken to passing ships, several chickens per person per day. The chicken is slaughtered into small pieces and placed in a bowl, which is filled with seasoned juice, soaked in chicken, and the guests eat a piece of it, and after eating it, they count the money according to the number of chicken pieces they eat. Since the price is calculated by pieces, it is also necessary for the vendors to slaughter the chicken evenly. In order to facilitate the slaughtering of chicken nuggets and cut them evenly, the vendors came up with a way to align the knife edge at the chicken body and then use a special stick to hit the back of the knife. Later, Hanyang chicken nuggets were also called "stick chicken".
For those pedestrians who are tired of boats, the Hanyang chicken grown up with peanuts on the Hanyang Dam is tender and delicious, coupled with its spicy taste, all of which are inedible and in love. However, what is born of water, without water, is doomed to not last long. After the road from Chengdu to Leshan was completed, the chengle water shipping gradually became depressed, and the reputation of Hanyang's "lollipop chicken" slowly cooled down.
Today, in Chengdu, Leshan, Chongqing and other places, the stick chicken presents a prosperous scene of "thousands of trees and pear blossoms". In order to make it taste better, the dieters continue to transform it, and the pricing method has long been no longer measured by blocks, but torn into chicken shreds and priced according to the number of copies. This no longer requires the use of a stick to knock the back of the knife to slaughter and cut into pieces, but there are still some restaurants, in order to pursue the unique taste of hand-torn chicken, and after the chicken is cooked, gently pat the chicken loose with a wooden stick, although this beating changes the original way, but it is still called "lollipop chicken".