Hakka Boiled Chicken

Hakka Boiled Chicken

　　The time when Hakka Boiled Chicken was introduced to Fujian seems to date back to the second year of the Yongjia era (308 AD) at the end of the Western Jin Dynasty, during another peak wave of mass exodus by the Central Plains gentry. The main families that flocked to Fujian were the Lin, Chen, Huang, Zheng, Zhan, Qiu, He, and Hu clans, historically referred to as the "southern migration of the literati, the eight clans entering Fujian." Back then, Hakka Boiled Chicken merely existed as an ordinary Han Chinese dish, hidden among the hurried footsteps of the eight clans fleeing south and the desolate landscapes of the eight Min regions. Today, however, boiled chicken has long been elevated to the status of the “foremost dish of Tingzhou,” where “no banquet is complete without chicken.” The selection of ingredients for Hakka Boiled Chicken is extremely particular—the best must be a two-and-a-half-pound hen that hasn’t yet laid eggs, and it must be a Hetian chicken. Capon comes next, followed by roosters. Chickens of this size have just the right amount of fat deposited between their muscle fibers, resulting in tender and smooth meat. Chickens that are too large or too tough are not ideal.

　　Apart from the Hakka method, there are also the "Shanghai-style" and "Lingnan-style" versions.