Qingyan Hanyang Chicken

Qingyan Hanyang Chicken

　　Qingyan Hanyang Chicken is a famous specialty from Hanyangba in Qingyan County, Meishan City, Sichuan Province. The chicken has tender meat, making it ideal for white-cut preparation. Boiled in well water over a wood fire, the spring chicken boasts crispy skin and tender flesh, enhanced with sesame seeds, fried peanuts, fine salt, and sugar — all melting in the mouth. It has gained widespread popularity.

　　Hanyangba is located at the junction of Leshan, Jiajiang, and Qingyan counties, a large sandbar in a bend of the Min River. The land is fertile and rich in grain and peanut production. During harvest season, not only are the peanuts on the sandbar collected, but plenty also remain in the sandy soil. Local farmers let their chickens roam freely in the fields, pecking at insects and digging up residual peanuts in the sand. As a result, the chickens raised in Hanyangba grow especially tender and plump, and have come to be known to outsiders as “Hanyang Chicken.”

　　Among the many local snacks, spicy white-cut Hanyang Chicken pieces are the most popular. The chicken’s meat is tender and richly flavored, and its preparation method is also notably meticulous: before cooking, every feather — even the finest down — is removed from the chicken. Before boiling, the wings and legs are tied with hemp twine to intensify the flavor of the meat. Fine holes are poked into the thicker parts of the chicken using bamboo skewers to help moisture absorption and heat penetration. The cooking process is remarkably precise — the water must be kept at a rolling-but-not-boiling state to ensure the cooked chicken remains intact without cracking. As for the seasoning sauce that accompanies the chicken pieces, its primary flavors are, of course, numbing and spicy, though each household has its own special recipe.