Hakka Three-Cup Chicken

Hakka Three-Cup Chicken

　　The meaning of “three cups” comes from the ingredients: “one cup each of soy sauce, cooking oil, and rice wine,” hence the name Three-Cup Chicken.

　　Basic ingredients

　　· one young chicken,

　　· one cup each of soy sauce, cooking oil, and rice wine,

　　· ginger chunks, scallions, a little sesame oil

　　Method

　　1. Clean the young chicken, cut it into 5-cm cubes, and place them along with the giblets and liver into an earthenware pot. At the same time, using a cup that holds about 80 grams, measure out the soy sauce, cooking oil, and rice wine. Add a few slices of ginger and a bit of scallion whites. Do not add water.

　　2. Simmer over a low charcoal fire, turning the ingredients every ten minutes or so to prevent burning. Do not open the lid too often. Simmer for about half an hour until the sauce thickens. Remove the scallions and ginger, then add a small amount of sesame oil before serving.

　　Note: If this is your first time making it, be sure to buy a cheaper chicken, otherwise you may regret it if it doesn’t turn out well.

　　Features: The name comes from cooking chicken cubes with a small cup each of sweet rice wine, lard, and soy sauce, without adding any water or broth, and simmering the chicken over charcoal until cooked. It’s said that the dish originated when a chef discovered it elsewhere, and upon returning to his hometown, he improved the recipe by adding scallions, ginger, and other seasonings, then slow-cooking the dish covered in a small clay pot over a charcoal stove. When served, the aroma fills the room; the chicken in the pot turns red, the meat is tender and delicious, the sauce rich and mellow, all in its original flavor—making it very popular.

　　Nutritional value: Chicken – Chicken has the effects of warming the middle and benefiting qi, enriching essence and marrow, and nourishing deficiency and intelligence. The “Shennong Bencao Jing” (The Divine Farmer’s Materia Medica) states that regularly eating chicken can nourish the spirit; later physicians mostly believe that it makes people intelligent.