🍽️ Drunken Chicken

Chicken cured in rice wine, aromatic and tender.

Drunken Chicken is a classic cold appetizer of Shaoxing, Zhejiang, where local rice wine makes all the difference. A tender yellow-skinned chicken is poached just until done, left to steep off the heat until the skin turns firm and the meat juicy, then chopped while warm and soaked for hours—or overnight—in a marinade of Shaoxing rice wine, salt, a little sugar and chicken stock, chilled. The skin comes out golden and taut, the meat firm and succulent, with a quiet wine aroma unfolding as you bite; it is savory, gently sweet, and lifted by rice wine's mellow fragrance, best served cold. It is a summer banquet staple and a standard cold plate in Jiangnan restaurants. Wine is the soul: a proper drunken chicken is aromatic without being harsh, tender without being mushy, and pairs perfectly with congee or as a drinking snack.