Jinfo Mountain Herbal Mutton Stew 金佛山药羊肉
Jinfo Mountain Herbal Mutton Stew is featured among the local specialties of Chongqing.
Jinfo Mountain Herbal Mutton Stew (金佛山药羊肉) is a pot of goat meat slow-simmered with medicinal herbs, from the Jinfo Mountain (金佛山) area of Nanchuan District (南川区), Chongqing, also written as Jinfo Mountain yao yang tang (药羊汤, 'herbal goat soup').
Ingredients
In a 2025 essay in the Chongqing Morning Post (重庆晨报), a local writer explains that both the goats (山羊) and the medicinal herbs that go into the soup come from Jinfo Mountain and its district. Nanchuan grows medicinal plants on a large scale. One guesthouse at the foot of the mountain makes its house version with high-mountain yellow goats (高山黄羊) that graze on mountain plants.
How it is made and how it tastes
The pot simmers over a low fire for several hours. The meat comes out fresh-tasting without a strong mutton smell and tender rather than stringy, and the broth is rich, full and strongly aromatic; in the guesthouse version it turns as white as milk.
How it is eaten
It is a cold-weather dish: the essay describes it as the centre of gatherings among friends once winter sets in after the winter solstice, with diners seated around a large pot and the broth ladled into bowls and topped up.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer on 2026-09-23. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.