Food Stall: Customers Chase Me across the Country

Chapter 632 - 586: Wang Fan’s Poached Saliva Chicken

Boss Wang is making pre-prepared dishes?

This suspicion lingered in the minds of many diners.

Nowadays, there are numerous food safety issues. Events of shoddy goods, zombie meat, and lymph meat occur frequently, causing public trust in pre-prepared dishes to plummet to freezing point.

If Boss Wang uses pre-prepared dishes, then fans would instantly turn away, and even official media endorsements wouldn’t work!

Just as the decision was made, diners in the front could see what Wang Fan took out from the pot, and when that item appeared, all doubts vanished like smoke.

Huaxia has such a vast variety of ways to eat chicken that it claims to be second to none in the world, and there are many provinces in Huaxia famous for their chicken dishes.

If we had to say which province’s chicken is the best, it would be subjective, but if we had to say which province produces the most tender chicken, then Guangfu is undoubtedly the first.

After all, the cooking of white-cut chicken is so precise that any claim of being more tender just means your chicken isn’t cooked through; it’s a culinary experiment on the boundary between cooked and raw.

Sichuan Cuisine’s mouth-watering chicken, in theory, is based on the same principle as white-cut chicken—slow simmering to infuse the chicken with flavor—except white-cut chicken is eaten with dipping sauce, while mouth-watering chicken is poured with a seasoned sauce directly over it.

Whether white-cut chicken or mouth-watering chicken, the requirement for the chicken is to be as tender as possible. Wang Fan simply used the white-cut chicken’s poaching method to handle the chicken.

Wang Fan had learned to make white-cut chicken before, and with such long training, he couldn’t possibly remain stagnant. Today’s white-cut chicken version of mouth-watering chicken is meticulously upgraded by him.

Red dates, ginger, dried scallops, and Codonopsis, plus the dried sand worms Wang Fan found when in Fujian, the broth cooked from these not only infuses the chicken with flavor but would even make grass taste divine.

Most importantly, through continual trials, Wang Fan discovered the ultimate ratio of 25 grams of salt per 1 kilogram of water. This ratio not only allows the chicken to absorb the flavor wonderfully but also tightens the skin and fat, resulting in crispy skin and tender meat, achieving the pinnacle of chicken perfection.

This infusion process takes 25 minutes, and it was already underway on the bus, so it was just right when taken out now.

At this point, it’s possible to cut it up and season it directly, but that would be half-hearted, almost wasting the chicken infused for 25 minutes. Someone like Wang Fan, who pursues culinary excellence, would not do such a thing.

He took out a large basin, scooped out the chicken broth from the pot, and added ice cubes. Then he retrieved the chicken from the poaching pot.

This action of taking out the chicken already made the diners in front unable to stop exclaiming "Wow".

"Wow... Golden Legend..."

"If I hadn’t watched it being taken out of the broth, I would’ve thought it was painted with gold leaf."

"It looks delicious, worthy of Boss Wang’s reputation."

Wang Fan was now using chopsticks to clutch the chicken’s neck, lifting the entire chicken from the broth pot. The chicken was distinctive, with a small mouth, little wings, and small legs, but a large bottom. Its round backside was exceptionally firm and plump, and its golden-yellow skin glowed under the white light.

Wang Fan placed the retrieved chicken into the ice water basin. After putting everything in, he started putting fresh chicken into the broth pot to simmer.

There were just about 20 chickens in this pot, which he reckoned wouldn’t satisfy the demand of these diners.

By dipping the chicken in the broth repeatedly, the once fair chicken skin gradually picked up a hint of golden color. With each subsequent dip, the color intensified until the entire chicken turned golden.

"Wow, the great golden chicken transformation?"

"No way, is the pot filled with dye instead of broth?"

"It turned into gold right in front of me, that’s amazing!"

This maneuver by Wang Fan was visually impressive, as if he weren’t cooking chicken but dyeing it in the diners’ eyes.

The fresh chicken being poached needed no supervision, and neither did the ones chilling in ice water, which gave Wang Fan ample time to prepare the marinade for mouth-watering chicken.

The marinade for mouth-watering chicken upheld the Lower River Sect’s Sichuan Cuisine tradition of emphasizing numb and spicy flavors, and Wang Fan applied the ingredients liberally as he prepared the sauce.

To enhance the flavor, he strained the chili flakes when adding the red oil and threw a handful of toasted sesame seeds into the bowl. Then came the salt, sugar, light soy sauce, minced garlic, a hint of vinegar, and the soul of mouth-watering chicken—sesame paste.

Ground Sichuan pepper, sesame oil, and Sichuan pepper oil were all added to the marinade bowl according to his proportions, followed by a few spoonfuls of the original chicken broth and a touch of red chili oil. The marinade was thus ready.

People at the front of the line were already struggling to hold back their craving. The cold red chili oil was subtle in flavor, but the few spoonfuls of hot broth brought out the spicy aroma, and combined with the savory taste from slow-poaching, it was incredibly appetizing.

Fortunately, by the time the sauce was ready, the chicken soaking in the ice water was also done.

Wang Fan took the chicken, now firmer from the ice bath, and prepared to chop it. Zhuo Qianqian had already updated the board’s information: Mouth-watering chicken for 60 per whole, and 30 per half. The price wasn’t cheap but also not expensive for a tourist spot.

Xu Mingyi was at the front of the line, intending to buy half a chicken.

The weather today was stifling, and there were many people, naturally reducing appetite. If not for this legendary culinary boss being here, he wouldn’t have bothered to eat lunch today.