Wenchang Chicken

文昌鸡; 


Can you remember who was the first Hainanese you know?


As a little girl I was very interested in knowing how my Hainanese uncle speak his dialect. And that was how I found learning a language wasn't that difficult. But since he spoke better Foochow we forgot all about speaking of Hainanese and as a busy business man he did not have time for little kids ..and furthermore my aunt was sickly and we needed to interact with her more.




 In fact he was so Foochow that everyone forgot that he was a Hainanese. (May he rest in peace). All his children speak Foochow. Recently I met up with another  relative who has been working in Hong Kong and has dealings with the Hainan Island. He brings many friends to visit the island too during his spare time.



He was the one who told me about Wenchang Chicken. And thus I remember how my Foochow Aunt cooked her chicken in a special way. The chicken is "white boiled" for about 40 minutes  when a skewer comes out of the thigh area clean...the chicken then lifted up and plunged into ice cold water. the chicken is then hanged for a while to be dried in room temperature.

the chicken has to be free range and kampong chicken...

How the skin gets to be yellowish and golden too depends on a sauce made up of ginger and soy sauce and a bit of chili and lengkuas (if you like) After chopping up the chicken like in the picture the sauce is rubbed on the skin before serving..


Another way of preparing this dish is to boil the chicken in fresh coconut juice. the shell of the coconut then becomes the soup bowl and the chicken is chopped and served separetly. I have tried cooking in this way and it is really nice.

In Hainan the kampong chicken is really free range and they run around freely and are reared until they are 8- 9 months.

The Wenchang chicken purported originated with an Emperor in the Qing dynasty who came to visit Wenchang . 

The legend said that a court chef brought local chickens and cooked in this particular way for the Emperor who loved the dish so much that he made an edit and declare the dish an Imperial Dish called Wenchang chicken. 

As a result the township flourished ..and the rest is history. 

Wenchang chicken is served in Guanzhou and the Hainan Island and even in Taiwan.

To the experts, Singapore chicken rice is similar to Hainan Chicken Rice.

However perhaps the Singapore chicken Rice is cooked in a different way. And recipes vary from person to person. But any way, people love Chicken Rice, and most shops would advertise that they are Singapore style chicken rice.

The most important ingredient in the preparation of chicken rice is a free range or kampong chicken which has to be very mature, and not jusr k2 or 3 months old.

The savoury sauce is made from the chicken soup. The chilli sauce is also special and every outlet has a secret chilli sauce.