Learn how to make a yummy and easy salt baked chicken in a very traditional way. I have been thinking of making homemade salt baked chicken from last year, with the traditional way of course. Until two weeks ago, I am gifted with 5kg or coarse sea salt.

salt baked chicken| chinasichuanfood.com

Traditional Chinese salt baked chicken uses only chicken and coarse sea salt. The chicken is wrapped with a special type of oil paper and buried in warm sea salt. With the cooperation of time (4-6 hours) and the temperature (slow heat underneath), the salt brings a faint but interesting taste to the chicken while keep most of the original flavors inside. This is recommended in a the second season of a Chinese food film series called “A Bite of China“.

salt baked chicken| chinasichuanfood.com

Salt baked chicken has lots of transformers in China now. Among all the street stores that selling this type of chicken, only 1/4 of them use the traditional way by burring chicken in hot salt. Others choice to use a water soaking method (水浴法), steaming or oven roasting. In home-cooking, we can even cook salt baked chicken with a rice cooker or high pressure cooker.

But I feel I need to test the traditional way and give my result, just as a reference for those who are interested in trying traditional ways. If you only want to cook this once, you may feel it is quite unnecessary to use such a large amount of salt. The good news is the salt can be used repeatedly.

I use two spices in the recipe, sand ginger powder and turmeric powder. Sand ginger “山奈 or 沙姜” is a commonly used spice in Chinese cuisine. But it tastes very differently from common ginger. If there is no powder available, try to find sand ginger slices. Roast the slices on a pan until hot and then ground into powder after cooled down.  Turmeric powder “姜黄粉” is mainly used for coloring. It has a fainter taste than sand ginger and yield a great yellow skin.

salt baked chicken| chinasichuanfood.com

Ingredients

  • 1 organic small chicken (800g), remove the head and feet and save for a chicken stock.
  • 1 and 1/2 tsp. cooking salt
  • 2000g sea salt, the amount of salt is very depending on your container
  • 1/2 tbsp. sand ginger powder, I use freshly grounded
  • 1/2 tbsp. turmeric powder, work as coloring

Steps

Remove the head and feet from the chicken and then rinse under running water. Then set aside and drain completely.

Message the cooking salt over the chicken, so we can give it a very faint salty taste. Mix sand ginger powder with turmeric powder and rub the mixture over the chicken. Marinate for at least 30 minutes and set the chicken to slightly dry out.

salt baked chicken| chinasichuanfood.com

In the meantime, fry the sea salt in a wok for 10 minutes until the salt are hot and dried out.

salt baked chicken| chinasichuanfood.com

Wrap the chicken with large pieces of parchment paper. Make sure the chicken is 100% well packaged and then fix with a rope.

salt baked chicken| chinasichuanfood.com

Get a clay pot or casting iron and place 3 cups of salt on the bottom. Place the chicken in and cover the the rest of the salt.

salt baked chicken| chinasichuanfood.com

Heat over slow fire for 40 minutes, turn off fire and keep the chicken inside for another 30 to 40 minutes. Then dig the chicken out, remove the papers. Traditionally we have two ways of serving salt baked chicken, cutting into small chunks or hand shredding. I love the second method. Cut off the legs and wings, save the skins for topping. Shred the breast and meat from other part, place in the bottom of the plate and then cover with the skins.

salt baked chicken| chinasichuanfood.com

salt baked chicken| chinasichuanfood.com

The chicken itself is yummy enough, but my favorite serving way is to dip a small part of the chicken with a spice mixture. One bite, two flavors.

By the way, if you love to cook whole chicken, check Chinese cantonese roasted chicken (广式烧鸡) and Chinese style braised chicken with spices and soy sauce (脱骨卤鸡), and in summer time, you must try tender and milk white cut chicken and spicy Sichuan mouthwatering chicken.

Salt Baked Chicken

Traditional salt baked chicken
5 from 4 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Cantonese
Keyword: Baked, chicken
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 2 hours
Total Time: 2 hours 30 minutes
Servings: 2
Calories: 885kcal
Author: Elaine

Ingredients

  • 1 organic small chicken ,800g, remove the head and feet
  • 1.5 tsp. cooking salt
  • 2000 g sea salt ,the amount of salt is very depending on your container
  • 1/2 tbsp. sand ginger powder ,I use freshly grounded
  • 1/2 tbsp. turmeric powder ,work as coloring

Instructions

  • Remove the head and feet from the chicken and then rinse under running water. Then set aside and drain completely.
  • Message the cooking salt over the chicken, so we can give it a very faint salty taste. Mix sand ginger powder with turmeric powder and rub the mixture over the chicken. Marinate and set the chicken to slightly dry out.
  • In the meantime, fry the sea salt in a wok for 10 minutes until the salt are hot and dried out.
  • Wrap the chicken with large pieces of parchment paper. Make sure the chicken is 100% well packaged and then fix with a rope.
  • Get a clay pot or casting iron and place 3 cups of salt on the bottom. Place the chicken in and cover the the rest of the salt.
  • Heat over slow fire for 40 minutes, turn off fire and keep the chicken inside for another 30 to 40 minutes. Then dig the chicken out, remove the papers. Traditionally we have two ways of serving salt baked chicken, cutting into small chunks or hand shredding. I love the second method.
  • When the salt is cooled down, discard only dark colored ones at the bottom and save the rest for next time baking.

Video

Nutrition

Calories: 885kcal | Carbohydrates: 5g | Protein: 75g | Fat: 60g | Saturated Fat: 17g | Cholesterol: 300mg | Sodium: 389295mg | Potassium: 978mg | Fiber: 1g | Vitamin A: 560IU | Vitamin C: 7.3mg | Calcium: 291mg | Iron: 9.2mg

salt baked chicken| chinasichuanfood.com

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9 Comments

  1. 5 stars
    My mouth is watering, I mean, this just looks so good! At least from the photo it looks like the chicken gets really tender and I love it! Can’t wait to try it!

    1. Thanks Diana,

      I have never believed that those simple ingredients can bring such an impressive taste. I always thought that the store-bought salt baked chicken is cooked with other additives. But it wins!

  2. 5 stars
    I made this just just see what it would be like. All I can say is wow the taste of the chicken is so yummy. I know how I will be cooking my next chicken. I think I wI’ll put some Garlic cloves in side the chicken next time.

    1. Adding some garlic cloves is a smart idea. I am following very traditional way but this idea is creative and I can foresee it can bring a good result.

  3. I can’t wait to try this! I’m ordering coarse salt now. what spice mixture do you like to use for dipping the cooked chicken?