I was quite curious about Chu Huang Royal Chicken after hearing about it, and so was glad that buddy SN jio-ed (invited) me to visit the little restaurant at People's Park Centre.
厨皇香港贵妃鸡 literally translates Chef King Hong Kong Royal Concubine Chicken.
We met for lunch, smacked into the lunch crowd 😂 but SN managed to snag a table for three of us - he is almost a regular here 💪 The restaurant was full house with a short queue waiting outside for tables.
Finding Chu Huang restaurant is easy as it is at Chinatown MRT station and level 1 of People's Park Centre. Just next to Ya Kun kopi.
The menu for your reference.
There were rice and noodles, chicken, pork and fish. Prices were competitive, only a slight premium over hawker centres but in air con comfort and with table service.
Our spread, a bit of a few different dishes.
I zeroed in on the chicken 🐔
We had half a bird. The skin had an even yellowish hue. The bird was poached through.
The bird was dressed with soup which formed a watery puddle beneath the chunks of chicken meat. Ah yes, I like it that the bird was chopped into big bold, meaty chunks.
There were a little jelly fat just behind the skin but not much as this was a leaner breed (often referred to as "kampung" chicken).
The skin was quite thick, soft crunchy to the bite, smooth though not silky. It had a bit of natural chicken taste. I like it, I like chicken skin 😀
The chicken was tender but not soft. Natural chicken flavour was slight and there was an umami savoury, subtle herbal / spice layer.
The bird was raised over ninety days, so it had more flavour and slightly more stringy, chewy texture which I appreciate.
I read that the poached bird was cold dipped in cold stock (the Cantonese way) flavoured with herbs, spices, and dried shrimp, scallop, etc. Source credit.
The technique of cold dipping poached chicken in herb / spice, dried seafood flavoured stock was invented in Guangzhou city in the 1960s. To differentiate this from other chicken preparations, it was given the fanciful moniker "贵妃鸡" or Concubine Chicken.
"贵妃鸡" also refers to another chicken dish created in Beijing which was based on the story of 贵妃醉酒 "drunken concubine" from Bejing opera. In the opera, Yang Guifei (Concubine Yang who lived 719 - 756 AD) during the Tang Dynasty drowned her sorrows in wine after she was given the cold treatment by the emperor. So 绍兴酒 wine is a big part of this Bejing 贵妃鸡 recipe. Source credit.
Chu Huang Hong Kong Royal Concubine Chicken serves the HK version from the 1960s.
The rice was soft-tender, moist, well greased but not oily, had a slight savoury flavour, grains were a mix of whole and broken.
Mashed ginger and scallion sauce 姜葱酱, a quintessentially Cantonese dip. The other sourish, spicy, chili sauce for local palates.
Reminds me of this HK style chicken rice stall at Chinatown Complex, though very sadly 😞 this stall has closed 👈 click
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Hong Kong style concubine chicken
Guangzhou style concubine chicken
Bejing style concubine chicken with red wine
Bejing style concubine chicken with red wine (there must always be wine, if not how to be drunk? 😂 )
Good place. Went 3x by myself. Half a bird + rice every time. 😆😆😆 I love the dip.
ReplyDeletei favour the “throw-a-raw-chicken-into-a-boiling-pot-of-soup-and-turn-off-the-heat-and-dunk-into-iced-water-after-45min-method”
ReplyDeleteDid I think too much, Tony? Save for the chicken dish, you just named the other dishes 😊, are they forgettable? 😆
ReplyDelete