BEGGAR'S CHICKEN Recipe - cooking a whole chicken in CLAY | How to Make Clay From Dirt

Greetings my beautiful loves! It's Emmy. Welcome back. Today I'm going to try to

make

a

recipe

that I've been thinking about for a long time: and it's

beggar

's

chicken

. In Chinese it is called "叫化鸡" (Jiào huā jī) and it is a

recipe

that uses a

whole

chicken

, it is marinated, seasoned and stuffed. It is wrapped in lotus leaves, then in

clay

and baked. When it's fully cooked, you take a hammer, break up the

clay

, and eat the perfectly cooked chicken inside. So, the legend of this recipe says that a

beggar

stole a chicken and in his haste he threw the stolen chicken into the mud to hide it.

But then he had no means to cook it, so he took the mud-covered chicken, threw it on the fire and baked it all. Meanwhile, the Emperor arrives, smells the chicken, approaches, shares the food with the beggar and was so impressed with the food that he included it on the imperial menu. Now, I looked up many different beggar's chicken recipes. There are many different variations and mine will be based mainly on Cecilia Chiang's recipe from her book 'The Seventh Daughter'. I got it from the library, I got your recipe, but I'll include a couple more ingredients and change the steps a little to

make

it feel a little more authentic.

I've been thinking about this recipe for months and the reason it's taken me so long is because I really wanted to harvest my own clay. So if you missed my dorodango video where I took a piece of clay that we found nearby and rolled it into a ball and polished it, until it was this beautiful shiny marble-like sphere, you should definitely watch that video. I'll put the link above and below. Well, in that video, when my family and I went looking for clay, I picked up some extra clay for this specific recipe. Now, in Cecilia's book, she recommends a specific type of potter's clay that you can order and buy, but I thought, 'Why not use the clay I foraged myself?' Also, I saw all these really interesting videos on YouTube where they take soil and can extract and refine clay from the earth.

So I said 'yeah, that's for me.' So we came home with buckets full of clay and sediment, and bits of brick, all kinds of organic material, and now we have to refine it. All you have to do is add a bunch of water and then use a stick and very patiently break up all the clay bits and all the

dirt

and create a slurry. Basically, we want to break down all the pieces and put them in suspension in that water, so we can sift and strain all the pieces. Next we are going to strain it, that is why it is important to have another cube.

And then we just used some chicken wire with about a quarter inch mesh. Put it over the bucket and pour our grout. That will filter out all the organic matter, all the big pebbles, and then throw them away. Stir the mixture again, add a little more water and strain again. Next, you're going to switch to some leggings. I just used an aluminum window screen. The mesh size is of course much smaller. And again, we're going to pour our grout through it. Do this several times and you will now have clay water. So now we have to remove all that water.

So we are left with a nice, moist, soft clay. So what I did was take an old cotton sheet and put it into a five-gallon bucket. Make sure you have a large amount sticking out of the bucket. I then poured the clay slurry onto the sheet. Then I brought the edges together and now I have a big bag of clay water. And then I used a zip tie to hold everything together. I then suspended this entire bag of grout water and let it sit in the garage for a few days. So you're going to put the bag of clay down, then you're going to open it up and then you're going to scrape all the clay out.

Now my clay had really solidified and turned into a really hard dough. And then I had to spend some time kneading everything again. I kept kneading it and kneading it. It was a lot, a lot of work, but it was something I always wanted to do. And now this is the result! Dun-dun-dun daaah~ It's probably, I don't know, 10 or 13 pounds of clay that came straight out of the ground. So I tore off a piece of that sheet and then wrapped the clay in it and then put it in a ziplock bag to retain moisture. He's like a baby or something.

And here is my beautiful clay, isn't it great? I love it. So here it is. Here is the beautiful homemade clay we made. So stinky and cool. This was a really fun process. A lot of work, but I totally recommend it if you have some time or if you have some rugrats interested in digging and playing with mud. Cecilia orders a two and a half pound chicken. I couldn't find one that small. So I have a three and a half pound chicken and I'm going to adjust the

cooking

times accordingly because this is a larger bird.

So, in a large container (I used a large pot), you can take a gallon of cold water and add a cup of salt. Then we can take our chicken and place it in the salt water brine, and we'll let it soak for three hours. Ooh! Here's my chicken! And we will take it out of the salt bath. So I'm using some paper towels. I'll dry it. Now, when working with raw meat, especially poultry, it is important that we wash our hands between each step to avoid cross contamination. Now we are ready to make our marinade. 1 teaspoon five spice powder, 2 teaspoons sesame oil.

It already smells so good ~ 2 tsp sugar, 2 tsp oyster sauce. Oyster sauce is a bit like ketchup. Oops... It's a little complicated to get out. One tablespoon of soy sauce, 2 tablespoons of water, 1 tablespoon of mushroom sauce, 1/2 tablespoon of dark soy sauce and 1 tablespoon of Shaoxing wine. Wow, I think it was a little more than a tablespoon... Now whisk it all together. Now we are going to marinate our chicken. Be sure to marinate the inside cavity as well. Alright, now we are ready to prepare the filling. We'll take a can of water chestnuts. These have been cut. 1/2 cup sliced ​​bamboo shoots, 1 bunch green onions cut on the bias into about 1.5 to 2 inch pieces, 5 slices peeled ginger, 1 ounce sliced ​​Virginia ham and then I'll add about 11 mushrooms small shiitake that have been soaked in hot water for about 15 or 20 minutes until they are nice and soft.

It is also a good idea to trim the stems because they tend to be a bit woody. This is beautiful. Now we're going to take the chicken and fill the cavity here with our vegetable mixture. And the recipe says to pack it well. When I was researching this recipe, I found many variations. Some stuff the chicken, some don't. I'm going to use some rope, cross the drumsticks, bring them together, go under the Pope's nose, around the drumsticks again and just tie them off. All we're trying to do here is keep the filling inside the chicken. Now we're ready to wrap things up.

Now Cecelia asks to use only large sheets of aluminum foil, wrap them and then place them in a brown paper bag and then wrap them in clay. But the most traditional thing is that the chicken is wrapped in lotus leaves, which are beautiful like the water lily leaves that grow in ponds. That not only acts as a natural barrier against clay, but also gives the chicken a beautiful lotus leaf smell. So I bought a BIG bag of lotus leaves at the Asian market. HUGE bag. And to prepare the leaves I simply separated them and then soaked them in the sink with lots of hot water for about 15 to 20 minutes until they were nice and soft and pliable.

So here they are! I had never worked with these leaves before although I had seen them before in the markets, I had seen them on

cooking

shows. But I've never actually cooked them myself. They have a delicious dry herbal tea smell. It really comes out when you add hot water to them. So this is what they look like. Aren't they amazing? They're so beautiful. They're like little hats or something like that. They're so beautiful. Look at that shape and that beautiful green color. So for the size of my chicken, I'm going to use three sheets and overlap them like this.

Now take the chicken... ...and place it breast side down. Now let's take the leaves and fold it over the chicken. We get a nice little package (whisper). OMG I love this. This is in the days before cling film. This is great! And it works wonderfully. Look at that! He he! Okay, now I'm going to use a little bit more thread and I'm going to wrap this around. There's my cute little chick tied up. Now we will wrap it in newspaper and that will protect it from the clay. Wrap up our cute little package of chicken right there.

So now we're going to take our clay and cover the chicken. And just seal the clay around the chicken. Very funny! I love this! I love thinking about recipes and finally making them when, especially recipes like this one. Now I've seen people do decorative things with birds; put heads and wings and stuff. But I'm going for the humble one, just a little big and oblong here. So we will try to cover the holes, but clay can crack while baking and that is totally fine and normal. So if you don't have access to clay, I've seen recipes that call for simply making a dough with flour and water and I think there's also a tradition of cooking chicken in salt crusts.

But there's something so elemental and fun about using clay, right? Alright, here's my clay wrapped chicken, very heavy. Now I'm going to place this in a very hot oven, 450 degrees for an hour. That will help set the clay crust and then we'll reduce the temperature to 350 and then we'll cook it for two more hours and then we'll give it a hammer and eat the contents. I can not wait!! Hurrah. Okay, let's put this in the oven. Alright, my beautiful loves, I'm back. Three hours have passed and here is my beautiful chicken. I am very happy about this.

The clay is nice and hard. I had a small crack right in the front here. But other than that, it seemed to go through the baking process without any major difficulties. Alright, then the moment I was waiting for arrived. Let's open the chicken. Here we go! Ah, it's so satisfying! I can immediately see the steam escaping. Alright, let's dig this out. Oh, I love this. Remove the newspaper. Oh my god, this is great. Oh, look at this. Reveal the lotus leaves. Cut the thread. It smells so good now. We can smell those five spices. Alright, here we go.

And there's the chicken, beautifully cooked inside. Yaaa!! We are almost ready to try our chicken, here I made a quick sauce that Cecilia included in her recipe. It is very easy to make, you take a quarter cup of water or chicken broth, place it in a small saucepan, add 3 tablespoons of soy sauce, 2 tablespoons of oyster sauce, 2 teaspoons of sugar, 2 teaspoons of oil. sesame and ready. mix everything together until the sugar develops. Then you take 2 teaspoons of cornstarch, dissolve it in 1 tablespoon of water, and then add that mixture to your sauce. And then continue whisking and heating until it boils and the sauce is very thick.

This is what we have here, a delicious and beautiful sauce. It is cooked very well, it just falls off the bone. Check it out. Dark meat is my favorite. Very well, there it is. Then we're going to grab our beautiful hot sauce. Put that on top (gasp). This looks absolutely delicious. Let's go ahead and try it. The meat is wonderfully cooked, very tender after three hours baked in clay. Alright, let's try it! Itadakimasu! MMM! So, so cute! And then we have the delicious sesame soy sauce we just poured on top, which echoes the flavors of the marinade.

There's a nice hint of five spice in the marinade, but the texture of the chicken is very, very tender and moist. Mmm-hmm. I'll try some of the breast meat and see how the brine fares. Let's give it a try. MMM. The brine does a very good job of keeping the meat flavorful and not dry. I love the fact that this is also served with sauce. You can add a little additional salt if you wish. And I think if this were poured over rice it would be equally delicious. Alright, let's try some of the filling. We have some of that ham and some bamboo shoots and onions.

Hmm! MMM. The ham has dried out a little because it has been cooking inside the chicken. But it has a very pleasant smoky flavor. And again, you have that five spice marinade. Let's try a mushroom. I love these mushrooms! Mmm, so, so, so tasty. Really great intense shiitake mushroom flavor, and they have a little bit of that ginger from the filling. Delicious. Delicious! Now I'm going to have a crispy water chestnut. (Giggles) Canned water chestnuts don't really have much flavor. If anything, they have a somewhat metallic taste. But they have a really nice crunch. If you ever have the opportunity to have a freshwater chestnut I recommend purchasing them.

You have to use a spoon to scrape the outer skin of the water chestnut. And then you bleach them. But they are much sweeter and starchier and still have that great crunch. Like many things, they are much better fresh. Alright, there you have it! Beggar's Chicken, a recipe I've been dying to make for a long time and it's absolutely wonderful and really fun to make. It's a spectacular, spectacular dish that would be so fun to present to a group of people. You have to invest a little time and you will probably have to search for some of the ingredients, but it is definitely worth it.

Really fun recipe to make. Very good! I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you learned something.Make sure to share this video with your friends, follow me on social media, like this video and see you in the next one! Toodle-oo. Take care. Bye bye!! (End music) Whoa, whoa! Whoa, whoa! Whoa, whoa! Whoa, whoa!