Hakka Salt-Baked Chicken

Hakka Salt-Baked Chicken

　　Salt-baked chicken is a long-renowned Hakka dish that has been widely loved by the public since ancient times. A local tender chicken is selected, slaughtered but not cut into pieces, with its internal organs removed, cleaned, and air-dried. The whole chicken is then tightly wrapped in bamboo and straw paper, buried in a pile of stir-fried hot salt, and baked over a low flame. After removal, the chicken is deboned and shredded into slices, placed on a plate for serving, and then paired with ginger oil or sesame oil. The skin is tender, the meat is soft, the aroma is rich, and it offers good warming and tonic properties.

　　“Salt-baked chicken” is a famous dish from Guangdong. It was first created in the Dongjiang area of Guangdong. Over 300 years ago, in some coastal salt fields of the Dongjiang region, people would wrap cooked chicken in gauze paper and preserve it in piles of salt. This method produced chicken that was delicious and uniquely flavorful. Later, as the salt industry flourished in Dongjiang’s capital, local restaurants competed to serve the best dishes to guests, leading to the creation of a method where fresh chicken is blanched and then baked in hot salt for immediate serving. Since this dish originated in the Dongjiang area — home to the Hakka people — it came to be known as “Hakka Salt-Baked Chicken.”

　　The method for making salt-baked chicken is as follows: Select a tender female chicken weighing about 1.25 kilograms, remove its internal organs, hang it to dry, and place one to two green onions and a few slices of ginger inside the cavity. Then, moisten a piece of gauze paper lightly brushed with oil, wrap the chicken, and bury it in stir-fried raw salt. Bake it over a low flame for 30–40 minutes until cooked. After cooking, remove the chicken, debone it, and shred the meat. Arrange it on a plate, and serve it with a dressing made of ginger oil blended with cooked peanut oil or sesame oil. Salt-baked chicken has a distinctive bone fragrance, tender texture, and offers warming tonic benefits.