There are many ways to close the chicken, and roast chicken is a distinctive one. When it comes to roast chicken, you have to say roast chicken at Daokou. Daokou roast chicken is a roast chicken product produced in Daokou Town, hua county City, Henan Province. High-quality and healthy live chickens are selected, and more than 20 kinds of precious medicinal materials are selected, supplemented by recycled soup stock, which is carefully preserved through slaughter, cleaning, shaping and frying. Daokou roast chicken is a famous local traditional food with unique shape, bright color, mellow taste and soft bones. According to the records of Huaxian County, Daokou Town in ancient times was located on the old course of the Yellow River, which was the ferry on the golden embankment on the left bank of the alluvial plain of the Yellow River. After the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the Yellow River changed its course and the crossing became an important wharf on the Weihe River. Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the crossroads have gradually developed into a local commercial center. During the period of 18, that is, 166 1, people engaged in roast chicken business there, which has a history of more than 340 years. In the fifty-second year of Qing Qianlong (1787), Zhang Bing, a local roast chicken merchant, met an old friend who used to be a cook in the imperial dining hall of Qing Palace, and obtained the cooking secret of "eight ingredients broth" for roast chicken in the court, and applied it to his own roast chicken production. Since then, his roast chicken has become famous. In order to thank Yiyou for his friendship, Zhang Bing changed his name to "LAY" roast chicken shop. And his descendants also inherited the cooking technology of roast chicken.

Nowadays, Daokou roast chicken has become a well-known brand of origin protection. In the local area, not only the descendants of "LAY" are cooking roast chicken, but many people have become rich by cooking roast chicken at the crossing. The production of Daokou roast chicken needs to be carried out in strict accordance with traditional technology and quality standards. In the production workshop of Daokou roast chicken, every operation link has specific technical requirements and operation specifications, so the roast chicken they produce has complete skin, uniform color and consistent shape and size, which is very attractive. From slaughter to finished products, there are more than ten processes, such as material selection, slaughter, shaping, fried chicken, stewed and so on. Selecting materials is the first step in making roast chicken at the crossing, and it is also the step that needs strict control. Next, we will introduce the production technology of Daokou roast chicken from the selection of chicken. Live chicken is the main raw material for making Daokou roast chicken, and it is also the carrier of flavor and quality of Daokou roast chicken. To cook cross roast chicken, you must choose healthy, disease-free and disabled chicks or fat hens with bright eyes, quick action and like to eat. Chickens are required to be more than half a year and less than two years, and the weight is between1~1.25kg.. Because the roast chicken with a good crossing pays attention to bright color, delicious taste, fragrant smell and handsome shape, to meet such standards, it is necessary to choose a good chicken. Never use listless, lifeless sick chickens, dead chickens or chickens with physical disabilities. In the subsequent production process, this inspection work should be carried out from time to time. If it is found that the color of the chicken is black or broken due to improper machinery or operation, it should also be picked out immediately to ensure that the finished roast chicken at the crossing is a handsome and delicious quality product. The selected chickens are generally shipped in cuboid iron cages with a width of 60 cm, a height of 30 cm and a length of about 1 m to avoid stuffy chickens during transportation. After the chicken is transported to the workshop, it is best to stop eating for one day before slaughter, so that the food in the chicken can be fully digested and some excess water is consumed, which not only reduces waste, but also makes the meat quality better.

Generally, selected chickens are shipped in cuboid iron cages with a width of 30cm, a height of 30cm and a length of about 1 m. When slaughtering, a series of processes such as drowning, slaughtering, scalding and unhairing can be completed by using special assembly lines when conditions permit. This can not only reduce the labor intensity of workers, but also greatly improve the quality and efficiency of work. When assembly line operation is adopted, firstly, the selected chickens are hung upside down on the moving hanging ring, with their breasts facing forward and their backs facing backward. When hanging, they should be hung firmly to avoid confusion caused by chickens leaving the hanging ring. Then let the chickens on the assembly line pass through a rectangular pool, which is about 1.2 meters long. A proper amount of water is put in the pool, and the water level can be adjusted as needed, so that the active chickens can suffocate when they pass through the pool because their heads are drowned in the water. Then you can kill the chicken. When slaughtering, the chicken's chin should be cut horizontally and a 2 cm long incision should be made. The incision should not be too big, but it is best to cut off the trachea and esophagus of the chicken, so that the trachea and esophagus can be easily pulled out when cleaning the internal organs. After being drenched for 7 to 8 meters on the assembly line, the chicken is sent to a rectangular hot water pool, which is deeper and longer than the sink. The temperature of the pool water is between 58 degrees Celsius and 60 degrees Celsius. When the assembly line is used, the scalded chicken will be directly transported to the automatic hair removal machine for comprehensive hair removal operation. It takes about 30 seconds for the chicken to leave the hot pool. When the chicken comes out of the automatic brushing machine, if there are still hair stubbles left on the neck or other places, you can carefully clean them with a knife. Then, the chicken is cut open, and a 7-8cm-long incision is respectively drawn on the inner thighs of the two chickens in the direction of the chicken tail, and the two incisions meet at the tip of the chicken breast. Cut two chicken feet from the joint of calf and thigh with a sharp knife. Use a sharp knife to vertically cut a hole about 5 cm long on the corresponding back of the chicken gizzard. Cutting the chicken gizzard in this place will not affect the beauty of the chicken after plastic surgery. In this step, the chickens should be further screened, and the chickens with black and damaged skin caused by machinery or other reasons should be picked out and put aside. Put the good, open-mouthed chicken into a big basin with running water, and clean the chicken while pulling out the chicken gizzards and internal organs. Chicken gizzards and internal organs must all be taken out, and the trachea and esophagus of the chicken should be pulled out together when taking internal organs. Clean chickens need plastic surgery.

Modeling is the characteristic of Daokou roast chicken, and it is one of the main signs that Daokou roast chicken is different from other roast chicken in appearance. When shaping the chicken, we should first prepare some small bamboo sticks, the length of which is about 15 cm. The two ends of the small bamboo stick are pointed, so it is not easy to fall off after being put into the abdominal cavity of the chicken. Cut off the skin and ribs connecting the thigh and abdomen of the chicken with a knife, grab two chicken legs with your hands and forcibly break the ribs and some vertebrae of the chicken, insert a bamboo stick into the tail and tip of the chicken breast, and support it in the abdomen to support the chicken into a flat semicircle. Cut a small mouth 2 cm long at the tip of chicken breast, and insert two chicken legs into the small hole together; Then, let the chicken's back face up and tail face forward, pull the chicken's two wings across the back to the front of the chicken's neck, and put the tips of the chicken's two wings into the chicken's mouth through the small opening cut during slaughter. The chicken after plastic surgery has the same shape and looks like an ingot. The lines and radians are beautiful and very beautiful. It is this seemingly simple and light action that embodies the ingenuity and wisdom of the roast chicken people at Daokou. After the chickens are formed, let them dry for a while and dry the water on the chicken surface. Then you can operate the fried chicken.

Fried chicken is another important link in the production of roast chicken at Daokou. The preparation work before fried chicken includes heating the vegetable oil, soybean oil or peanut oil for fried chicken to about 150 ~ 160℃, and removing the floating foam from the oil pan. Prepare a pot of honey water, which can be 1 kg of water or10g of honey. Then stir well. Put the air-dried white striped chicken into honey water one by one, and soak the whole chicken with a layer of honey water. Applying honey water to chicken can make fried chicken have the sweetness of honey and make its color golden yellow.