Beggar's Chicken

China

Also known as Jiaohua Chicken

About Beggar's Chicken

Beggar's Chicken is a famous Chinese dish, especially associated with Hangzhou and the Jiangsu region in eastern China, though many places claim it. A whole chicken is stuffed, wrapped in lotus leaves and sealed in a thick layer of clay or dough, then baked for hours. The shell is cracked open at the table, releasing a cloud of fragrant steam.

Its name comes from a legend about a hungry beggar who stole a chicken, had no pot to cook it in, and so coated it in mud and buried it in a fire. When he broke the hardened clay, the feathers came away and the meat underneath was beautifully tender.

Today the chicken is marinated in Shaoxing wine and soy sauce and stuffed with pork belly, mushrooms, ginger and other aromatics. Slow cooking inside the sealed shell keeps the meat very moist and lets it absorb the earthy aroma of the lotus leaves.

Ingredients

• chicken
• lotus leaves
• clay
• pork belly
• mushrooms
• ginger
• shaoxing wine
• soy sauce