Shouguang Hutou Chicken 寿光虎头鸡

Shouguang Hutou Chicken (寿光虎头鸡) is chicken chopped into date-sized pieces, coated in flour and egg, deep-fried and then slowly stewed, a dish of Shouguang (寿光) in Weifang (潍坊). Hutou means 'tiger head': the golden, round pieces are said to look like one. Its standard name is songji (松鸡), meaning crisp, loose and tender, and the version from Wanggao town (王高镇) in Shouguang, known as Wanggao Hutou Chicken, is described as the most authentic.

How it is made

The traditional dish uses the large Cilun chicken (慈伦大鸡) of Shouguang and is made in two stages. First the pieces are mixed with white flour and beaten egg and deep-fried. The fried pieces keep for a long time, so they are carried on journeys and given as gifts. To serve, they are stewed slowly in water with seasonings such as spring onion, ginger, Sichuan pepper, star anise and vinegar; Chinese yam or potato may be stewed with them, which also takes away some of the grease.

How it is eaten

The golden pieces are served in a strongly scented broth, scattered with a few lengths of coriander. At Shouguang weddings and funerals the banquet follows the order 'one chicken, two fish, three cold dishes' (一鸡二鱼三凉菜), a pun on 'one fortune, two surplus, three fine talents', so Hutou chicken comes to the table first. Dazhong Daily reports the same order for the New Year's Eve dinner. Chicken, eggs and frying oil used to be costly, so ordinary families made it only for weddings, funerals and New Year ancestor offerings. In the writer Li Shouting's home village, the first bowls from the pot on a wedding or funeral day go to the clan elders, each with two steamed buns.

Where it comes from

China Tourism News traces the Shandong-style songji to the area around Damatou town (大码头镇) in Guangrao County (广饶县), which belonged to Shouguang in the Ming dynasty, and gives it more than 400 years of history. From the late Qing into the Republican period, Wanggao Hutou Chicken spread beyond the town and restaurants there became known for it. The Shouguang County Gazetteer (寿光县志) records that the Wanggao cook Wang Jingshun (王景顺) won a cooking contest in Tianjin with the dish; Ta Kung Pao (大公报) interviewed him and the Pei-Yang Pictorial News (北洋画报) printed a photograph of it.