Surprise dish!

Yahooo!!! 

As promised a post of my grandma's birthday celebration special dish.  It came out later than I expected due to preparation of ICSS final, which was held yesterday and I will definitely write about it after my final exam.  

Okay,  now to the special dish.  It was a very special Chinese dish that is said to be originated from a legend story - Beggar's chicken!  As per the name, the origin of this dish came from a story where a beggar. Somehow, he got his hand on a chicken and probably due to his poor circumstances, he had to be creative and decided to cook the chicken with the mud. As the chicken was cooked,  a crust formed over it and thus a new way of cooking chicken appear.  This is the story I heard from my grandma and aunt. The other versions of story can be found in Wikipedia. 

In modern days,  we replicate this dish,  not using mud,  but mostly by wrapping the chicken with a layer of lotus leaf and a bread dough. And that's how my aunt made it,  with a little modification here and there.

First, she stuffed the ingredients that she wants into the chicken for flavouring. Then, wrapped the chicken with a lotus leaf. As the lotus leaf had a lot of holes,  my aunt wrapped it with another layer of paper (I supposed is parchment paper)  and a layer of foil.  Lastly, cover the wrapped chicken with a dough and put it into the oven. And tadaaa!!!! 

A very big bread

It was broke open with a hammer and when it was finally opened, mmmmm... The fragrance of the chicken covered the dining area.  

As it was my aunt's first attempt, she baked for quite long,  about 3 hours,  which was why the chicken was super tender. The baking time of the chicken is totally depend on what chicken you use. So,  I would not suggest one. Do try and error.  What I do know is that,  to eat this chicken requires patient.

Before I end this post, do enjoy a video my sister took:

That's all about this special dish.  Have fun in your kitchen!