Anji Free-Range Chicken Pot 安吉土鸡煲

Anji Free-Range Chicken Pot (安吉土鸡煲) is a pot of broth and local chicken from Anji County (安吉县) in Huzhou (湖州), Zhejiang, where it is also called benji bao (本鸡煲), 'local chicken pot'. An Anji travel guide published on the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs' International Tea Day website names chicken from Anji's bamboo groves as a major local speciality and quotes a local saying: 'a meal without local chicken means you have not been to Anji' (餐无本鸡，未到安吉).

Ingredients

The birds are raised free-range in the bamboo groves. They forage for themselves there and are also fed grain, and they drink spring water that runs through rocky mountain gullies.

Flavour and texture

The same guide describes the broth of Anji Free-Range Chicken Pot as crystal clear, with a strong, rich and mellow aroma.

Where it comes from

Anji is bamboo country, and its local cooking uses what the county produces: dishes based on bamboo shoots, fresh shoots from the large bamboo forests, vegetables, wild fish and the local chicken that goes into this pot.