In China, there are many places where people prefer spicy food,but a place like Zaozhuang is still rare because “Zaozhuang Spicy Chicken“ has dominated locals’ dining table for hundreds of years.Zaozhuang is located in the south of Shandong Province,close to Weishan Lake. Most of the locals preferspicy food because of the high humidity.

　　According to legend, in the late Qing Dynasty, in Lincheng County, Shandong Province, ( in Zaozhuang nowadays), there was a chef named Xu Zihua, who used to work as a royal chef in the palace, opened a restaurant after returning to his hometown and created “spicy chicken“.The dishhas a spicy flavor, which made diners sweat but hard to resist. There was a saying,“The guests sit ten miles away, can still smell the fragrance of the chicken“.Zaozhuang was the transportation hub of the North-South shipping lanes at that time, and there was an endless stream of merchants. Zaozhuang Spicy Chicken waspassedfrom mouth to mouth with general approval.

　　Till now, Zaozhuang spicy chicken is still a popular dish on the table of Shandong people.Zaozhuang spicy chicken is bright in color, spicyand fragrant, with traditional and exquisite workmanship, and strict ingredients.Genuine spicy chicken needs to be made with Zaozhuang local chicken, peppers and peppercorns.If two or three of the ingredients were replaced, the spicy chicken fried in Zaozhuang can only be counted as chili fried chicken, not the traditional Zaozhuang spicy chicken.In thisdish,the chicken and peppers go fifty-fifty, and the whole chickenis buriedby the peppers.This is by no means cutting corners because of the lack of chicken, in fact, in this dish, peppers and chicken are equally important.

　　Zaozhuang Spicy Chicken is a uniquelocal delicacy that carries food memories of generations.The custom of eating spicy chicken has been passed downfor 300 years.In 2016, Zaozhuang City was named “Hometown of Spicy Chicken in China“.Zaozhuang spicy chicken cooking skills wereselected into the fifth batch of representative projects of Shandongprovincial intangible cultural heritagein 2021.

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