Mengyin Lonely Man Chicken

Mengyin Guangqianji (Mangyin 'Lonely Man' Chicken) is one of Shandong Province’s renowned local delicacies from Mengyin County, created by the three brothers of Jia family in Mengyin Town. Due to the fact that all the chefs were male, and the ingredients were all whole chickens, it was playfully named ‘Guangqianji’ (Lonely Man Chicken).

Mengyin Guangqianji is prepared with a mixture of thirty medicinal herbs. It uses carefully selected grass chickens from Mengshan, cooked over both strong and mild fires using firewood.

Ingredients: One grass chicken (about 2000g), pork lard 70g, green bell pepper 50g, ginger, scallions, soy sauce, chicken broth, salt, MSG, dried citrus peel, star anise, peppercorns, and 30 other medicinal herbs in appropriate amounts.

The chicken is slaughtered, cleaned, and cut into firewood chunks; scallions are cut into segments, ginger is sliced, and green bell peppers are sliced. Oil is added to sauté ginger slices and scallion segments until the chicken chunks turn gray-white and no longer have moisture; soy sauce is then added and cooked until the chicken chunks are a rosy red. High broth, salt, medicinal herbs, etc. are added and simmered over low heat for 20 minutes. When the broth thickens, green bell peppers and MSG are added, and it is served in a pot.

The color is bright red, the broth is rich and wide, the flavor is fragrant and mellow, with a strong and rich medicinal fragrance.