Three-Cup Chicken 三杯鸡
Three-Cup Chicken is featured among the local specialties of Jiangxi.
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Three-Cup Chicken (三杯鸡) is found across Jiangxi (江西), with a distinctive version in Ningdu (宁都) made from local three-yellow chickens. Its three principal seasonings are a cup each of glutinous-rice wine, soy sauce and lard.
How it is made
In Contemporary Jiangxi, writer Xia Hanning (夏汉宁) describes cooking the cleaned offal in the same earthenware pot as the chopped chicken. No water is added. Three or four ginger slices and the white parts of spring onions are placed over the meat.
The pot starts over high heat. Once the liquid boils, the heat is lowered and the sauce slowly reduced. The chicken is turned several times during cooking to keep it from sticking to the bottom. When the meat is tender, the ginger and spring onion are removed and a little sesame oil is drizzled over it.
Flavour and texture
The Ningdu preparation produces glossy, reddish chicken with tender, smooth meat and a rich sauce. The wine, soy sauce and lard form the cooking liquid that reduces around the chicken.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer on 2026-09-27. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.