Wenchang chicken

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Wenchang chicken is both a chicken breed and a famous dish from Wenchang, a city in Hainan, China. These are small, free-range birds fed coconut and peanut bran. In the last two months before they’re sold, they’re kept in elevated coops. The meat is known for being tender. Traditionally, it’s prepared with white cutting, boiling the chicken in almost-boiling water to keep it soft, and then eating the pieces with a dip of salt and a mix of chopped ginger and garlic. The skin is usually yellow and a little oily, while the meat is drier and chewier than typical factory-farmed chicken.

The dish is popular across Hainan and has spread to mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and many Southeast Asian countries. Many Hainanese people moved south to Nanyang and carried their cooking with them. Wenchang chicken is considered the origin of Hainanese chicken rice, a beloved Southeast Asian dish. It was created in the 1920s by Wang Yiyuan, a Hainanese chef in Singapore, and gained fame in the mid-20th century through Swee Kee Restaurant run by Moh Lee Twee.