Quang Ninh is a land endowed with sea, forests, hills, mountains, and fertile plains. Therefore, this place boasts a rich cuisine with many delicious dishes. Tien Yen chicken hotpot cooked with fermented rice mash is one such delicacy!
Visiting Quang Ninh to enjoy delicious and nutritious Tien Yen chicken hotpot cooked with fermented rice mash
When mentioning Quang Ninh cuisine, besides fresh seafood, Tien Yen chicken is also a specialty reflected in the proverb “Mong Cai pigs – Dam Ha girls – Tien Yen chickens”.
Tien Yen is about 70km from Ha Long City. This district has predominantly hilly and mountainous terrain, suitable for raising poultry and livestock outdoors in nature. Therefore, Tien Yen chicken is famous far and wide as a specialty with the distinctive flavor of this region.
Tien Yen chicken, a native hill chicken breed. Photo: Quang Ninh Newspaper.
Tien Yen chicken belongs to a local breed of hill chicken, or bearded chicken, with hens having a characteristic tuft of long feathers beneath their beaks. The rustic, healthy farming method in harmony with nature is the secret to producing chickens with firm meat.
Characteristics of the Tien Yen chicken breed. Photo: Dan Toc Newspaper.
The people of Tien Yen raise their chickens free-range, allowing them to roam freely throughout the area to forage for ants, termites, crickets... As a result, the chicken meat is sweet and fragrant, low in fat, with thick, golden, and crispy skin.
Tien Yen chicken can be prepared into many different dishes: boiled chicken, salt-steamed chicken, roasted chicken, chicken cooked in ginger wine soup, stewed with Chinese herbal medicine... and one cannot fail to mention the hotpot of Tien Yen chicken cooked with fermented rice mash, familiar yet wonderfully novel to the palate.
Boiled Tien Yen chicken with crispy golden skin and sweet meat. Illustrative photo: Van Hoa Newspaper.
The ingredients to prepare the dish are all familiar items: fermented rice mash, ginger, shallots, shiitake mushrooms, chili... Seasonings include chili oil (sa te), marrow bones simmered for broth, seasoning powder, and sugar. In addition, there are vegetables served with the hotpot such as scallions, cordyceps mushrooms, water spinach, napa cabbage, culantro...
The delicious flavor of the hotpot lies in the bowl of fermented rice mash made from yellow flower glutinous rice, similar to the fermented sticky rice that often appears on the Dragon Boat Festival (the 5th day of the 5th lunar month).
Eye-catching boiled chicken meat. Illustrative photo: Quang Ninh Newspaper.
Clean the Tien Yen chicken and chop it into bite-sized pieces. Finely slice the shallots and ginger. Cut the shiitake mushrooms in half. Next, marinate the chicken with half a bowl of fermented rice, shallots, ginger, seasoning powder, and sugar for about 30 minutes.
Roasted Tien Yen chicken. Illustrative photo: Van Hoa Newspaper.
While waiting for the chicken to absorb the seasonings, prepare the hotpot broth. The broth is simmered from pork marrow bones, with a small cup of fermented rice mash, the remaining half bowl of fermented rice, and seasoning powder added.
When the broth is boiling vigorously, it is time to add the marinated chicken, shiitake mushrooms, and cordyceps mushrooms, and after a few minutes, it is ready to enjoy. Once finished, the chicken hotpot has an eye-catching golden color from the cordyceps mushrooms.
Hotpot ingredients. Photo: Quang Ninh Newspaper.
For Tien Yen chicken hotpot cooked with rice wine lees, it is best paired with a dipping sauce mixed from soy sauce, sesame oil, and several other seasonings to enhance the dish's appeal.
The broth is rich and fragrant with the aroma of glutinous rice wine, featuring a deeply savory sweet taste and a tongue-tingling spiciness. The chicken is firm with crispy skin, tasting even more enticing when dipped in the sauce. In addition to being delicious, this hotpot is also very nutritious, suitable for postpartum women or people suffering from colds, sneezing, and runny noses; having a bowl of the hotpot broth refreshes the body and restores energy.
An eye-catching golden hotpot. Photo: Quang Ninh Newspaper.
Tien Yen chicken hotpot with sour bamboo shoots. Illustrative photo: nhahangquatram.
Tien Yen chicken hotpot cooked with rice wine lees is cooked from the famously delicious chicken of the mountainous district of Quang Ninh Province, savory and enticing to food connoisseurs from all over. Follow more useful new posts from the iVIVU blog for a wonderful vacation!
