Chaozhou Soy-Braised Goose 潮州卤鹅
Chaozhou Soy-Braised Goose is featured among the local specialties of Guangdong.
Chaozhou Soy-Braised Goose (潮州卤鹅) is a whole goose cooked in a spiced soy-sauce master stock, a Teochew dish from Chaozhou (潮州), Guangdong. The Chaozhou Daily calls braised lion-head goose (狮头鹅) the first plate served to honour guests at a Chaozhou banquet, and a local saying holds that there is no feast without goose.
How it is made
According to Nanfang Net (南方网), the stock is made by frying soy sauce, rock sugar, cassia bark, star anise, bay leaves, galangal (南姜), garlic and liquorice over a low flame, then simmering them with boiling water and pork belly. The Chaozhou Daily describes the old stock (老汤) as a pork-bone and chicken-bone broth with dozens of spices, including dried tangerine peel, seasoned with fish sauce, soy sauce and rock sugar.
The plucked goose is rubbed with salt, then with crushed galangal and garlic inside and out, left for 30 minutes, rinsed and dried. It is then cooked by 'three dips and three hangs' (三吊三浸): lowered into the stock for about 15 minutes, hung up by the neck on an iron hook for three to five minutes, dipped again at a gentle boil for about 15 minutes and hung again, then given a final dip of about 30 minutes. The skin turns a golden soy colour.
Where it comes from
The bird is the lion-head goose, which Nanfang Net says originated in Raoping (饶平), a county of Chaozhou, and describes as the largest goose breed in the world, with a fleshy crest on its head shaped like a lion's head. In Chaozhou city, Linxi town (磷溪镇) in Xiangqiao District (湘桥区) was named a 'home of braised goose' by the city catering association in 2023, at the first braised-goose culture week, hosted by the Xiangqiao district government and the city agriculture bureau to promote the Xikou braised goose (溪口卤鹅) brand.
How it is eaten
The Chaozhou Daily describes the braised goose as glossy-skinned, tender and salty-fragrant, eaten with garlic vinegar so that it is rich but not greasy. Nanfang Net lists eight prized parts: head, liver, feet, wings, gizzard, intestines, meat and eggs. The head is gelatinous, the liver soft and powdery, the feet chewy and the wings meltingly tender. A mixed platter is dipped in garlic vinegar, or goose meat, liver and egg are served over rice with coriander and a spoonful of the braising liquid.
At Spring Festival, when ancestors are worshipped, the goose's neck, wings and feet are decorated with red paper cutouts before it is placed as an offering.
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.