Guangxi is located in southern China, and most of the residents there are traditionally self-reliant farmers. Kiln-roasted cooking, or cooking food buried under heated soil, is a primitive cooking technique used in many parts of the world. Guangxi is no exception, and this ancient Chinese cooking technique is still practiced today. Maybe you have heard of New England clambakes, in which a pit lined with heated stones is covered with layers of wet seaweed, and the food is steamed between the seaweed layers for several hours? Early New England settlers learned this technique from indigenous tribes in the area. In Guangxi, cooking with clay kilns is a similar traditional method.
The kiln is built over a shallow pit, with clay blocks piled into a beehive shape. The clay mud is heated with a wood fire. When the clay is heated red hot, the fire is removed and the food, safely wrapped, is put into the fire pit. Then the heated clay is collapsed onto the food.
Guangxi kiln-roasted chicken is a juicy and delicious food that is sealed inside to make it more flavorful.
Ingredients:
- 1 whole chicken
- ginger
- coriander (cilantro)
- Shiitake mushrooms
- garlic
- light soy sauce
- oyster sauce
- sesame oil
- cooking wine
Marinating and preparation steps:
- Kill a chicken of about 1 kg (2.25 lbs). Pluck the feathers. Clean the chicken by cutting between the two legs of the chicken to remove the internal organs.
- Use a skewer to pierce the skin of the chicken with some small holes, this is for better seasoning of the chicken.
- Spread the cooking wine and salt evenly on the skin of the whole chicken. Marinate for 30 minutes.
- Chop shiitake mushrooms, coriander, and ginger. Add light soy sauce and stir well with oyster sauce.
- Put the ingredients prepared in step 4 into the belly of the chicken, and bend the chicken feet into the belly of the chicken (or you can cut off the chicken feet).
- Close the hole in the chicken’s belly with a skewer, or cooking twine.
- Wrap the chicken with tin foil, four times, to create four layers of tin foil.
Making a kiln:
- In a well-ventilated flat open area, dig a 5-8cm hole.
- Use stones or bricks to make a stable opening at the base of the kiln. Use dry clay blocks to surround the pit and stack into a pyramid-shaped kiln. The middle of the kiln is empty and the top is sealed with mud blocks.
- Using the door in the kiln to insert wood, build a fire inside the kiln to heat the mud. The fire burns continuously for 1 hour. When we see that the color of the mud in the upper half of the kiln turns red, then it is complete.
Roasting the chicken in the kiln:
- Remove the burning wood and put the foil-wrapped chicken inside the empty kiln through the door at the base.
- Use a tool to knock down the mud from the top, and break the red-hot clay to cover (bury) the chicken.
- After an hour, carefully dig out the chicken, tear the tin foil, and you will get a Guangxi kiln-roasted chicken!
Notes:
- Do not use a chicken that is too large, this will be difficult to cook thoroughly.
- When removing the internal organs, protect the skin on either side of the incision, and do not make the hole too large, so that you can easily close the bird.
- When building a kiln, use larger mud blocks at the bottom and smaller blocks toward the top to make the kiln stable.
- The clay is heated until it changes color.
- When the kiln is being heated with fire, be careful that it does not collapse.
- Tinfoil is fragile and care must be taken not to break the foil or make holes when handling it.
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