Pingliang Jingning County is located in the west of Liupanshan Mountain at the junction of Gansu and Ningxia. It is an important town on the middle line of the eastern section of the Silk Road in ancient history. Roast chicken has been here for more than 300 years. Besides the local people, many businessmen and officials have tasted the local flavor.
According to the local people in Jingning, there was no store specializing in roast chicken before, but only the dishes sold by braised pork shops. Jingning roast chicken was only famous in recent thirty years. This change is due to the traffic development in Gansu Province, where Pingding Expressway and National Highway 3 12 pass, giving Jingning the reputation of "Longkou Emergency". The development of traffic means the increase of people flow, which also makes this northwest specialty.
What is the authentic Jingning roast chicken? First, you need an old bittern. Many classic foods have some obsessions, such as the authentic Chongqing hot pot pursuing the use of old red oil, and Jingning roast chicken is the same. However, its obsession lies in brine. If you ask a roast chicken shop, the store will openly tell you that "the original brine has been used for decades". The longer the old brine, the more memorable it will be, and it will taste like chicken.
There's another trick to keeping it. After the brine is boiled, the oil slick on the brine soup should be skimmed, and the scum at the bottom of the soup should be discarded. The brine soup should be kept in a jar. Cook at high temperature at least once a day to prevent deterioration. The most traditional bittern seasoning is very simple, usually it only needs six kinds of pepper, fennel, cinnamon, clove, dried tangerine peel and tsaoko, adding appropriate amount of water and salt, and boiling for 1 hour.
Seeing this, some diners may laugh: are these practices not much different from Henan Daokou roast chicken and Shandong smoked chicken? In fact, another major feature of Jingning roast chicken is water. Well water is used in exquisite shops, whether it is washing chickens or making brine. Like many local specialties, local well water is the unique secret of Jingning roast chicken. This is not an isolated case, such as Ximen tofu in Jianshui, Yunnan. The trick is to use well water from Dabanjing and Xiao Jiu wells, and the tofu made is particularly good. People in ancient China always thought that every well had a different flavor, and Jingning roast chicken could not be separated from the local well water, which is probably the reason why every roast chicken shop has a different flavor.
Thanks to the improvement of material living standards and the convenience of logistics, people are exposed to more kinds of seasonings. Similarly, because diners have become more diverse, Jingning roast chicken also needs to improve its taste and embrace new changes. At present, the number of spices used by "Roast Chicken King" to prepare brine has increased to 18, such as nutmeg, dried ginger, star anise and fragrant leaves, which have only been added in recent years. Add all kinds of seasonings and taste slowly. No more, no less. Every roast chicken restaurant has different recipes, which are their own secrets.
In order to sell in the morning market, roast chicken will be cooked at night. Three-yellow chickens sent from slaughterhouses are usually one and a half years old, just suitable for roast chicken-chickens for a few months, and the meat quality is not very good; Old chickens need more time to cook. The masters will put the chicken in the pool to drain the blood, then put it on the shelf to dry, and then start to fry the sugar color. Spread the ginger juice evenly on the chicken, and then fry it in oil for more than a minute. Serve the lascivious chicken and put it back in the pot. After the fire boiled, it was simmered for more than two hours, and Jingning roast chicken was made. The practice is not complicated, but the secret of making good food itself is like enough paper, and the cleverness inside is rarely easily poked.
In 1980s, Jingning roast chicken began to be known by people all over the northwest, which benefited from the developed transportation in Jingning. Once upon a time, this place was the only way of Xilan Highway. Now besides National Highway 3 12, Qinglan Expressway also passes through this place. This year, the expressway from Jingning to Tianshui is also under construction. To some extent, Jingning roast chicken is the footnote of Jingning traffic and regional development. The location of Jingning Roast Chicken Restaurant changed with the highway. The 3 12 National Road was completed, which became the artery connecting the northwest with East China and Central China, and the Roast Chicken Restaurant was also opened on the National Road. Many roast chicken shops in Jingning gather here, forming a small-scale "roast chicken market", which is convenient for tourists to buy. Over time, Jingning roast chicken has also become a specialty in the northwest.
We seldom know the features of a city in a short time, but we can experience the unique fireworks of this city through simple and simple special food.
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Zhao Jingyi, Miao Wen
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The original text is taken from the authentic scenery Pingliang, with additions, deletions and changes.