Zhen'an Chicken Stewed with Big Chestnuts 镇安大板栗炖鸡
Zhen'an Chicken Stewed with Big Chestnuts is featured among the local specialties of Shaanxi.
Zhen'an Chicken Stewed with Big Chestnuts (镇安大板栗炖鸡) is a pot of free-range chicken stewed with chestnuts from Zhen'an County (镇安县) in Shangluo (商洛), Shaanxi. Zhen'an is known as China's home of chestnuts (中国板栗之乡), and the dish is built around the county's big chestnut.
Ingredients
The Zhen'an big chestnut (镇安大板栗) is described by Shangluo Daily (商洛日报), in a report carried by China.com, as large, thin-skinned, thick-fleshed and sweet, grown in a mountain climate with no severe winter cold or summer heat. In 2024 the China Meteorological Service Association named it a 'climate-good product' (气候好产品). The county holds two geographical-indication certification marks, 'Zhen'an Big Chestnut' and 'Zhen'an Chestnut', and promotes a local variety called Zhenli No. 1 (镇栗一号); the big chestnut also has national organic certification, according to a 2017 Shaanxi Daily report carried by China National Radio.
How it is eaten
The dish was served at the 2020 climbing and chestnut-picking food festival at the Muwang Mountain (木王山) scenic area in Zhen'an, held in October. There, chestnuts and free-range chicken were stewed beside the visitor centre for a 'thousand-person chestnut chicken banquet' (千人板栗炖鸡宴), with visitors queuing to try it.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer on 2026-09-24. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.