Diguo Chicken (地锅鸡 dì guō jī), literally means ground pot chicken. This dish is traditionally cooked with a huge wok sitting on the ground, hence the name. The origin of this dish is believed to be in Xuzhou (徐州 xú zhōu), most local residents are fishermen, when eating on the ship with the crews (which usually are men), they would sit a big wok on a small stove on the ground, cook a chicken along with pot-stick naan (贴饼子 tiē bǐng zǐ) to save time. With one pot, they could carb, meat, and vegetables, with no need to cook several dishes. This way of cooking became popular in modern China, especially amongst the younger generations. It is a great choice of main dish if you have a group of people, it is nutritious, and fun to look at with great taste. The chicken in this dish is tender and flavourful, the pot-stick naans after cooking have absorbed the soup, making it chewy but full of flavors.
In this article, we will walk you through the simple steps you need to follow to create your own Diguo Chicken. This eye-catching and tasty traditional Chinese dish would definitely be a showstopper on your dinner table during the holiday season.
I don’t have a big-enough Chinese wok, so I used my ProCook 28cm shallow cast-iron casserole. If you have a 35 cm Chinese wok, you could fit in more naans on the side (which my husband and I fought tooth and nail over ;p).
Ground Pot Chicken (Di Guo Ji) with Pot-stick Naan Recipe
Course: MainCuisine: ChineseDifficulty: Medium3
servings40
minutes50
minutesThis recipe shows you how to make an authentic ground pot chicken dish also known as di guo ji, a Chinese classic packed with flavour.
Ingredients
Guinea fowl 1.05kg (you may replace this with a whole chicken)
All-purpose plain flour 160g
Room temperature water 90g
Salt 2g
Bell pepper x 2
Spring onions x 2
Fresh garlic 7 cloves
Fresh ginger sliced 10g
Chili pepper x 1 (I added only one, feel free to replace bell pepper with chili peppers if you are a spicy food lover)
Star anise x 1
Bay leaf x 1
Sichuan peppercorn 2 tbsp
Dried shiitake mushrooms x 9
Light soy 2 tbsp
Dark soy 1 tbsp
Oyster sauce 2 tbsp
Salt to taste
Lager beer 1 cup
Hot water 1.5 cups
Chinese 13 spices ¼ tsp
Brown sugar 1 tbsp
Directions
- Mix 160g plain flour with 2g salt, pour in 90g room temperature water in 3 batches, mix well and thread the dough. Cover with lid or cling film for 10 mins.
- Wash the dried shiitake mushrooms and soak them in a bowl of fresh water for at least 30 mins.
- Cut fresh ginger into slices, cut spring onions in 3 equal sections put them together with the 2 fresh garlic cloves and set them aside.
- Cut the bell peppers and chili pepper into small pieces, put them together with 5 crushed fresh garlic cloves, and set them aside.
- Take the dough, and thread it again until the surface is smooth. Cover with a lid or cling film. Let it rest for 20 mins.
- During this time, let’s prepare our meat. We used a medium-sized Guinea fowl purchased from Sainsbury’s but you can replace it with a whole chicken. Chop it into small pieces.
- Cut the soaked mushrooms into small slices. Filter and save the mushroom juice.
- Heat up the cooking pot first, and add 4 tbsp of vegetable oil.
- Wait for the oil to heat up and add our Sichuan peppercorn, bay leave, and star anise to fry with medium-high heat until nicely browned.
- Take them out and add sliced ginger, chopped spring onion, and garlic in the oil to fry until lightly browned.
- Add the chopped Guinea fowl/chicken in with 1 tbsp brown sugar, and stir fry until nicely browned.
- Add 2 tbsp light soy, 1 tbsp dark soy, and 2 tbsp oyster sauce and keep stir-frying until the color is darkened evenly.
- Add the sliced mushrooms in, add 1 cup lager beer, 1.5 cups hot water, and 1 cup mushroom juice we have saved earlier.
- Stir and mix well and let it boil for 5 mins. Add the 5 cloves of crushed garlic. Mix well. Cover with lid, reduce heat to medium-low, and stew for 30 – 40 mins.
- Meanwhile, take our well-rested dough out, divide it into 9-10 evenly distributed balls, and soak them in a bowl of fresh water. This is important (Do Not Touch Them Again until ready to use).
- When the time is up, open the lid and make sure you still have enough liquid in your cooking pot.
- Take the soaked dough ball out one by one, and stretch evenly with your hands until it is a thin piece. Gently place it on the side of your wok/cooking pot, with at least of it soaked in the liquid. Unfortunately, my cast iron cooking pot didn’t give me much wiggle room so mine naans are pretty much all swimming in there with just their “head” hanging on the side of the pot.
- Turn the heat to medium or medium-high, cover with its lid and let it cook for another 15 mins.
- Open the lid, add the peppers in, and let them cook for another 2 – 3 mins.
- Ready to serve!
- The meat is succulent and tender, the pot-stick naan is full of flavour and chewy, it is beautiful to the eye and a great mixture of tastes to satisfy your taste buds. Let us know what you think in the comment section below. Enjoy your meal (您慢用 nín màn yòng)!
