Zaozhuang Chilli Chicken 枣庄辣子鸡

Ingredients

Wei Deqiang (魏德强), head of the city's cooking and catering chamber of commerce, told Qilu Evening News that the genuine dish needs Sunzhi chicken (孙枝鸡), Zaozhuang's own wrinkled-skin chilli (皱皮辣椒), and soy sauce and vinegar from the local Baodu (抱犊) brand, fermented from local grain; swap the main ingredients and it becomes just chilli-fried chicken. Sunzhi chicken is Zaozhuang's native breed, a small, active bird that roosts in trees at night. One long-running restaurant on Guangming Road (光明路) in Shizhong District (市中区) works to a rule of one jin (half a kilo) of wrinkled-skin chillies to each bird. Beijing News adds that experienced cooks favour young, tender chickens, so the dish was first called lazai ji (辣仔鸡), 'chilli young chicken'.

Where it comes from

One story told by iqilu.com traces the dish to the late Qing dynasty, when Xu Zihua (徐子华), a former palace cook, retired to Lincheng County (临城县), today's Xuecheng District (薛城区) of Zaozhuang, and opened a restaurant there. Zaozhuang was then a transport hub on north-south shipping routes, and passing merchants spread the dish's name. Later cooks cut the chicken ever smaller, down to pieces the size of a fingernail.

Flavour and texture

Dazhong News describes the finished dish as evenly cut chicken, glossy red, with fresh chillies, pronounced heat, crisp bones and tender meat, a sour-fresh edge, slight sweetness and a strong soy-sauce aroma. Eaten hot it comes with sauce; eaten cold it sets with a jelly-like gravy.

It arrives in a large bowl with green chillies, spring onion, garlic cloves and Sichuan pepper among the chicken. Diners who find it too hot wrap pieces in the thin flatbread (单饼) served alongside.