Taishan Stir-Fried Chicken

Taishan stir-fried chicken is a homely dish made from free-range Tai'an chicken, cut up and flash-fried over fierce heat then braised with a savoury sauce, glossy red, deeply aromatic and with firm, well-flavoured flesh.

The dish grew from the farm kitchens of the Tai'an countryside, using free-range local birds and the central-Shandong method of fierce stir-frying followed by sauce-braising, moving from the villages to the city tables to become one of the most recognisable dishes in the local diet.

Served by the heaped plate, the chicken cut on the bone and stir-fried with green pepper and potato, it is most often the headline dish when hosting guests or gathering the family, best enjoyed with jianbing or rice.

The intense fire-and-sauce flavour, the firm flesh of free-range local chicken and the central-Shandong method of stir-frying then braising are the marks of Taishan stir-fried chicken.