Food starts with noodles

To put it aside, if Xu Zhuo said this, Xu Wenhai would definitely say that he was whimsical.

But as Xu Zhuo's culinary skills and talents became more and more stable, Xu Wenhai really felt that Xu Zhuo could figure out how to roast chicken.

After all, it is not very difficult to make roast chicken. As long as the spices are sufficient and the ingredients are good, and the heat is in place, the roast chicken will not be too unpalatable.

But in order to prevent Xu Zhuo from making mistakes, and Xu Wenhai was worried that he was too inexperienced to guide Xu Zhuo, so he asked Jianguo to drive and took the old man over.

With the old man in charge, Xu Zhuo at least has a technical guarantee for cooking roast chicken.

No matter where he is crooked, the old man can straighten the axe.

Although Xu Wenhai's cooking skills are not bad, there is still a certain gap between him and the old man when it comes to teaching his apprentices.

The way the system rewards Xu Zhuo is Daokou Roasted Chicken, which is a famous dish in the Central Plains. In fact, everyone is familiar with it. In many cities in the Central Plains, you can see Daokou Roasted Chicken stores.

However, with the proliferation of brands, the quality of Daokou Roast Chicken is also uneven.

Take the provincial capital as an example, there are no less than ten brands of Daokou Roasted Chicken. These brands don’t think about how to make the name card of Daokou Roasted Chicken stronger and bigger, but instead compete viciously and fight each other.

While waiting for the old man to come over, Xu Zhuo had already started preparing the ingredients for the roast chicken.

The main ingredient of this delicacy is a small rooster. Roasted chicken made with roosters has a fuller appearance and a richer aroma. No matter it is hot or cold, it tastes delicious on the lips and teeth.

The roast chicken in the store has not started cooking yet, and a large pot of slaughtered roosters is still soaking in clear water, which can be used by Xu Zhuo to test the roast chicken recipe he got.

The method of roasting chicken is not difficult. Simply put, it is divided into four steps: cleaning, shaping, frying, and braising.

These four steps are not very difficult for many people.

The most difficult part of this delicacy is the use of stewed soup.

Xu Wenhai looked puzzled at Xu Zhuo, who was squatting by the basin to clean the rooster, and asked: "If you want to roast the chicken, add eight ingredients to the old soup. This is the usual formula for cooking chicken. You don't have old soup here." , can the roast chicken taste good?"

Chapter 1283 Plasticizing the Chicken

Xu Wenhai's question was also considered by Xu Zhuo before.

He was very curious about the skill of this Daokou Roasted Chicken, is it only considered as a C-level under the premise of Lao Tang, or does it not need to consider the role of Lao Tang?

The traditional chicken roasting method almost always advertises the year of the old soup.

In the beginning, everyone was relatively conservative, and generally promoted ten-year-old soups, 20-year-old soups and so on.

It’s all added up ten to ten years, and after adding it, I’ll wait and see for fear that someone will question and make fun of it. After all, people at that time were too simple.

However, with the improvement of people's material life, the publicity of roast chicken restaurants has become more and more exaggerated, jumping from decades to centuries-old soup.

Up to now, the century-old soup seems to be nothing, because some roast chicken restaurants have already played the banner of 300-year-old stew.

300 years, tsk tsk, if this old man is really 300 years old, Xu Zhuo really wants to ask how he survived the turbulent century of modern times.

After all, it is not enough to store the old brine well, but to boil it once a day, so that the old brine will not go bad and keep its fragrance.

It's okay in peaceful times, but in turbulent times, no one can do it at all.

So this kind of publicity is just like those 30-50-year-old rice wine.

Just look at it, don't take it seriously.

Today, Xu Zhuo intends to follow the systematic method, regardless of Laotang's factors, and see how the roast chicken is.

If it's good, then don't say anything, just start selling it.

If it doesn't work, then take advantage of the trend and ask Xu's Restaurant to supply Sifang Restaurant with roasted chicken, so as to save the unsold roasted chicken during the festival.

Because of this idea, Xu Zhuo didn't pay much attention to what Xu Wenhai said about Lao Tang.

He cleaned up the soaking rooster in the basin and said: "I always feel that the effect of the old soup is not as great as I imagined, and the roast chicken is delicious, and it needs more than eight kinds of spices, so I want to try it today.

If it works, it might change the future of the chicken industry.

Even if it doesn't work, it won't have a big impact. When the time comes, you can just ask Xu's restaurant to deliver roast chicken here. Even Zhao Ji's private kitchen can supply me, so I don't have to worry about selling it. "

With Xu Zhuo's appearance, Xu Wenhai didn't know what to say for a while.

The spices in the roast chicken are indeed more than eight flavors, and the people who left the jingle "If you want to roast chicken, add eight ingredients and old soup" were only limited by the material conditions at the time.

Coupled with the underdeveloped material circulation in the past, many spices were not found in the northern regions, and there were only eight kinds that could be bought normally, so there were eight ingredients and old soup.

But now, if you really only put eight kinds of spices in the roast chicken, the roast chicken will be absolutely unpalatable.

Without him, there are too few spices and the fragrance is too single.

In addition, after decades of development, people's tastes have become more and more serious and tricky.

Therefore, relying on only eight kinds of spices to make the taste of roast chicken meet the taste of modern people is undoubtedly whimsical.

In fact, today Xu Zhuo needs to prepare more than 20 kinds of spices, so as to fully bring out the aroma of the roast chicken and the deliciousness of the chicken.

When the old man came, Xu Zhuo was trimming the cleaned cocks.

Before frying these roosters, the shape needs to be changed. The specific method is to insert the chicken wings into the bloodletting opening of the neck, then put the wing tips in, and pull them out from the mouth of the chicken head.

In addition, the chicken legs and feet should also be folded and stuffed into the abdominal cavity of the chicken, so that the whole chicken becomes ingot-shaped with slightly upturned ends.

The reason why it is made like this is to make the appearance more beautiful. For Chinese people who like to win prizes, the ingot shape will naturally not be missed.

For example, the ingot shape of roast chicken has always been considered a symbol of auspiciousness from the past to the present.

The second is to keep the chicken body intact when the roast chicken is being made.

When making roast chicken, it is definitely not just one, but many of them together.

If you don’t change the shape of the chicken and then put it into the pot to marinate after frying, the chicken wings and chicken feet may fall off due to collision with each other during marinating.

Moreover, the meat on chicken wings and chicken feet is relatively thin. If it is marinated for a long time, it is estimated that the meat will have been separated from the bones, resulting in only the bones remaining when it comes out of the pan.

This kind of appearance is really hard to get, so these easy-to-cook parts are folded in, which can prevent these parts from falling or being incomplete and affecting the overall appearance.

Xu Zhuo deftly used a kitchen knife to first pull out the trachea in the chicken's neck, and then inserted the two chicken wings crosswise into the chicken's neck until the tip of the wing protruded a little from the chicken's mouth.

For a good-looking roast chicken, the tips of the chicken wings must protrude about one centimeter from the chicken mouth.

It is said that this is called mouth title Ruifu.

Xu Zhuo didn't know what Ruifu meant, but he always felt that it shouldn't be a bad word.

After galloping into the chicken's mouth, you have to use a kitchen knife to cut off the joint connecting the chicken legs and chicken feet, and then fold the chicken feet together with the chicken legs into the chicken's abdominal cavity.

In this way, the whole chicken becomes in the shape of ingots with both ends raised.

The old man looked at Xu Zhuo's operation, nodded slightly and said, "That's right, this technique is quite skillful, at first glance, it looks like a veteran who has worked in a chicken shop for several years."

Xu Zhuo's technique was indeed skillful, but no one doubted the reason.

After all, the talent is high, and the overall difficulty of roasting chicken is not high, so it doesn't seem too surprising to be able to do it.

After Xu Zhuo trimmed all the little cocks, he put them aside to control the water, and turned on the fan to dry the moisture on the surface of the chicken skin.

While blowing, Xu Zhuo was not idle, he first boiled some maltose water in a pot, and after the cooking was done, the water on the chickens was almost blown away.

Then he took the chickens and dipped them in maltose water one by one, so that the surface of the chickens was covered with maltose water.

In this way, when it is fried, the chicken skin will turn ruddy in color, which makes people greedy when they look at it.

After dipping them in maltose water, Xu Zhuo put the chickens in bamboo baskets to control the water, so as to prevent too much maltose water from causing the fryer to appear during frying.

While controlling the water, he set up an oil pan, poured oil into the pan, and then fired it.

When the oil in the pan was almost [-]% hot, Xu Zhuo hooked an iron hook around the chicken's neck, and then put the whole chicken into the oil pan.

The hot oil in the pan began to churn vigorously.

The chicken in the pan is quickly fried and colored, and dense air bubbles appear on the surface.

At this time, it can be out of the pan, and it should not be fried too hard, because if the frying time is long, the chicken skin will be broken, and at the same time, the chicken skin will lose its elasticity, which will cause it to be broken when it is marinated.

When Xu Zhuo took out the chickens from the pot one by one, it was the most critical step of making roasted chicken.

— marinated!

Chapter 1284 Set a small goal

Marinating is the most critical step in making roast chicken.

Whether or not this step is in place is related to whether the roast chicken tastes good, so we must treat it with caution.

There are two difficulties to pay attention to in marinating. The first is the ratio and use of spices, and the second is the use and control of the heat.

Both of these are essential points for making roast chicken, so we must pay attention to them.

The fried chicken needs to be cooled before it can be stewed in the pot, so that the skin of the chicken will not be cracked, so as to ensure the integrity of the appearance and bright color.

Taking advantage of this time, Xu Zhuo started to make stewed soup.

"Do you want your dad to get you some old soup from Xu's restaurant? If there is no old soup, I'm afraid this roast chicken won't taste very good."

The old man looked at Xu Zhuo who was focused on packing spices, and couldn't help but say something.

Anyone who knows how to cook knows that it is impossible to make stewed meat dishes without old soup. Only when old soup is added, the stewed meat tastes better and tastes better.

But no one can tell how much the old soup plays in the stewed soup.

Xu Zhuo's operation today is just an experiment to see what kind of roast chicken he makes without Lao Tang's blessing.

However, although there is no old soup, the stewed soup is not sloppy at all.

Xu Zhuo put all the brine ingredients to be used in a basin, soaked them in warm water for a while and cleaned them, then took out the water, put all the brine ingredients into the pot, and poured half a pot of pork bone broth into the pot Start to boil.

After the broth in the pot boiled, Xu Zhuo first poured half a bottle of white wine into the pot to let the peculiar smell in the spices evaporate, then put a few pieces of pig fat into the pot, and continued to cook.

When cooking, do not cover the pot, which is conducive to the volatilization of the peculiar smell in the pot.

Soon, the pig fat in the pot will gradually melt into the soup. At this time, you have to turn down the heat to keep the stewed soup in the pot in a state of boiling.

And the fat that has been boiled out will be sealed on the stewed soup, so that the fragrance of the stewed soup will not disperse.

After continuously cooking for about two hours, Xu Zhuo took out all the dregs in the pot and threw it away, filtered the stewed soup and poured it back into the pot to boil.

Then he prepared some new marinade, put them into the basin according to the proportion, washed them again with warm water, then fished them out and put them in the marinade bag.

After putting everything in, wrap up the marinade and put it in the stewed soup.

Bring to a boil first, then turn to medium heat.

After skimming off the scum in the pot with a spoon, continue to cook for an hour, and then you can put the fried chicken into the pot.

When Xu Zhuo was doing this, the old man and Xu Wenhai were watching from the side without saying a word.

But when Xu Zhuo started to put the chicken in the pot, Xu Wenhai smacked his lips and said, "Use pig fat to increase the aroma and fat of the stewed soup, boil the broth into a stewed soup, and then add the stewed ingredients to start stewing... Isn't this equivalent to making Laotang in advance... I feel that this really works."

The old man nodded, and thought this method was very good.

He continued to reserve his opinion on the specific effect, but the proportion of spices that Xu Zhuo used just now gave the old man a feeling of enlightenment.

Because of this ratio, it seems to be the same as usual, but the amount of several flavors has increased or decreased, which makes the taste of the stewed soup more possible.

People who like to cook are no strangers to stewed soup, and even everyone has their own experience and experience in making stewed soup.

A chef of the old man's level must have a pot of old soup carefully prepared by himself at home.

Originally, he thought that his level of making red stew was good enough, but now after seeing Xu Zhuo's ratio, he realized that the pot of stewed soup at home could be improved a little bit.

At this moment, the old man has already begun to calculate what the taste of the stewed soup will be after the increase or decrease of the stewed ingredients.

But Xu Zhuo didn't know about this, so he put a bamboo grate on the bottom of the pot to prevent the roast chicken from sticking to the bottom of the pot, and then took the roast chicken and put them into the pot one by one.

When Xu Zhuo puts the roast chicken, he has to use a hook to hook the neck of the chicken and slowly put it into the pot. The roast chicken should be neatly stacked, and if it can be stacked, the roast chicken will be more complete and mature. The timing is also relatively consistent.

At this time, the fried chicken skin has completely softened and let it cool down, so that if it is put into the stewed soup for cooking, it will not easily break.

If you don't wait for it to soften, and put it into the stewed soup right after frying, then the skin of these roast chickens will most likely be broken.

After Xu Zhuo put the roast chicken into the pot, he covered the roast chicken with a bamboo grate, then found a clean stainless steel basin, poured half a basin of clean water into it, and placed it on top of the bamboo grate.

In this way, the roasted chicken can be pressed with the bamboo grate to prevent it from floating out, and the cold water in the basin can also be used to cool the stewed soup to prevent the temperature of the stewed soup from being too high and causing the chicken skin to crack.