Shandong Zaozhuang Spicy Chicken Recipe

Spicy chicken is loved by many people because of its color, aroma and taste, as well as its rich nutritional value. Especially for those who like spicy food, spicy chicken is an excellent choice. Spicy chicken is available all over the country, and Zaozhuang in Shandong is known as the "Hometown of Spicy Chicken". The local spicy chicken has become a representative food of the southern Shandong region. So, what is the specific method of making Zaozhuang spicy chicken?

1. Introduction to Zaozhuang Spicy Chicken

Zaozhuang is the hometown of Chinese spicy chicken. Zaozhuang spicy chicken, also known as "Zaozhuang big plate spicy chicken", is a distinctive delicacy in southern Shandong Province. It is characterized by being fresh, spicy, fragrant, bright in color and strong in taste. Local free-range roosters are best used for stir-frying chicken, among which old roosters and young roosters are the most preferred. Now, chefs in Zaozhuang have creatively developed a series of derivative dishes: chicken soup with steamed buns, fried spicy chicken, chicken noodles, ground pot pancake spicy chicken, etc.

2. Cooking Method

Ingredients: a whole chicken or a box of chicken legs, peppercorns and dried chilies (1:4), onions, cooked sesame seeds, salt, MSG, cooking wine, cooking oil, ginger, garlic, sugar

Specific steps:

1. Cut the chicken into small pieces, add salt and cooking wine, mix well, put into 80% hot oil pan and fry until the surface becomes dry and dark yellow, then remove and set aside. Cut the dried chilies and green onions into 3 cm long segments and slice the ginger and garlic.

2. Heat oil in a pan to 7 layers, pour in ginger and garlic and stir-fry until fragrant, then pour in dried chili peppers and Sichuan peppercorns, stir-fry until the smell starts to choke. After the oil turns yellow, pour in the fried chicken pieces, stir-fry until the chicken pieces are evenly distributed in the chili peppers, then sprinkle in scallion segments, MSG, sugar, and cooked sesame seeds, stir well and remove from the pan.

3. Notes

1. You can add chili peppers and Sichuan peppercorns according to your taste. However, in order to preserve the original flavor of this dish, it is best if the chili peppers cover the chicken completely, rather than just a few chili peppers and Sichuan peppercorns scattered among the chicken pieces.

2. Sprinkle salt on the chicken before frying. Make sure to sprinkle enough salt. If you add salt while frying the chicken, the salt will not be able to penetrate the chicken because the shell of the chicken has been fried dry and the texture is relatively tight. The salt can only adhere to the surface of the chicken and affect the taste.

3. The oil used for frying chicken must be very hot, otherwise the surface of the chicken will not be fried dry even after a long time. Even if it is fried dry after half a day, it will be really dry, a piece of dead meat, very unpalatable, and has no taste at all. So the fire must be high so that the outside is crispy and the inside is still relatively tender.