Xinghua Chicken

Xinghua Chicken

　　Xinghua Chicken

　　People in Guangdong love eating chicken, so it’s only natural to find it on this Xiguan food street. The “Xinghua Village” specialty, Xinghua Chicken, is relatively small in size, weighing between 0.75–1.25 kilograms. Even after improvements, it has only grown to about 2 jin (1 kg). Its characteristics are described as “two thin, three yellow, three short” (thin head, thin bones, yellow beak, yellow feathers, yellow feet, short neck, short legs, short body), with thin skin, little fat, tender meat, and soft bones. The best way to cook it is by boiling it plain. According to the chef, Xinghua Chicken doesn’t grow much bigger than this, and it must be raised for at least 150 days to fully develop its chicken flavor. The shop also has a special preparation method to enhance the taste—after poaching, the chicken is briefly soaked in chilled medicinal herbs. This not only makes the meat even more refreshing but also allows the warming, tonic herbs to be absorbed into the chicken.

　　There are many other ways to prepare chicken, with some more unique methods including soaking Xinghua Chicken in ginseng leaves or cooking it with water buffalo milk and pumpkin. Most of these are light and delicate dishes.

　　To outsiders, “every Xiguan bride knows how to make a good herbal soup,” and this shop run by a Xiguan girl offers plenty of nourishing soups, whose therapeutic benefits can often be seen right in their names: Nourishing Vitality Soup, Yin-Nourishing Qi-Regulating Soup, Qi-Benefiting Lung-Moistening Soup… The ingredient lists are usually quite extensive, so the soup names don’t go into detail. What they all share is a clear broth with rich flavor. The most prized is the Nourishing Vitality Soup, which contains many valuable herbs such as Morinda officinalis and sea horse.