Drunken chicken
| Drunken chicken | |||||||||||||||
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| One possible version of Shaoxing drunken chicken | |||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 醉雞 | ||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 醉鸡 | ||||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | drunk chicken | ||||||||||||||
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Drunken chicken is the name given to several different ways of preparing chicken using alcoholic beverages.
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[edit] China
In Chinese cuisine there are many different ways of cooking drunken chicken.
- One nationally known and very popular version, Shaoxing, originated in the Zhejiang province of eastern China.[1] Shaoxing drunk chicken is cooked and marinated exclusively in historic Shaoxing wine to create a deep taste.[1]
- In another version of the dish, the whole chicken is first steamed then chopped up into pieces appropriately sized for picking up by chopsticks. The steamed meat, along with its juice, is cooked with scallions, ginger and salt. After the chicken is cooked it is marinated in Chinese liquor, sherry or a distilled liquor, like whiskey, overnight in the refrigerator. The chicken is served chilled, often as an appetizer. Besides the liquor-flavored meat, another feature of the dish is the liquor-flavored gelatin that results from the chilled mixture of the alcohol and the cooking juices.
[edit] North America
A North American version (also known as beer can chicken, beer butt chicken, dancing chicken or chicken on a throne) is made by standing a prepared chicken upright on a partially filled can of beer and cooking it slowly in a barbecue or oven. The can goes into the opening of the chicken so that the beer evaporates and permeates the cooking chicken. It received the name dancing chicken due to way the chicken wobbles once the beer has evaporated and due to the fact the chicken is flavored with evaporated beer. The wobbling and falling usually indicates the chicken is done.
Another related recipe is bourbon chicken, which is prepared from bourbon whiskey.
[edit] Latin America
The Argentine, Chilean and Mexican versions of this dish are called pollo borracho, and usually include green and black olives and cinnamon.
