Bobo Chicken (Cold Skewered Poultry in Spiced Oil)

Bobo chicken is a cold skewer snack in which boneless chicken slices and assorted meat and vegetable morsels are threaded onto bamboo sticks and laid in an earthenware bowl (bobo) filled with a dressing of chicken-bone broth sharpened with chilli oil or green Sichuan peppercorn oil. Diners lift a skewer straight from the bowl, tasting the oil and the seasoning together in a numbing, spicy, fragrant bite with a faint sweet finish.

Bobo chicken originated in Leshan, taking shape in the late Qing and early Republican years as country-market vendors threaded cooked, sliced chicken onto skewers and steeped them in seasoned bowls before spreading to Chengdu and the whole country to become a hallmark of Sichuan cold eating.

Eaten cold and by the skewerful, diners choose between the chilli-oil style, rich and hot, or the green-peppercorn style, fragrant and tongue-numbing; it is a staple of Leshan's street stalls and night markets and a popular drinking snack.

The earthenware bowl, the bamboo-skewer form and the two vivid dressings of red chilli oil and green peppercorn set bobo chicken apart from other Sichuan skewered snacks.