Meng style beggar’s chicken

( chinadaily.com.cn )

Updated: 2014-03-31

Meng’s Restaurant is located south of Guojing Road, Wenjiang district, in the city of Chengdu, and covers an area of more than 4 hectares, which can accommodate up to 800 people a day.

One of its most famous dishes, the Meng style beggar’s chicken, is a stuffed and marinated chicken dish, sealed tight with layers of lotus leaf, wax paper, and mud. It is tender, juicy, moist, and aromatic.

The famous chicken dish can be traced back to the Song Dynasty (960-1279), when a homeless and starving beggar had a chicken but didn’t have a stove to prepare it. So he killed the chicken and covered it with mud and baked it in the fire. The chicken turned out to be very fragrant and tasty. The cooking technique is handed down and improved from generation to generation.

Edited by Nelly Min