Banting Beggar's Chicken

Beggar's Chicken

There are so many folktales about the beggar's chicken but this is my favorite:

It happened in the Qing Dynasty. There was a beggar from the Jiangsu province who stole a chicken from a local farm. The farmer spotted the beggar and gave chase until the riverbank. Trying to save the chicken he had stole, the beggar buried the chicken in the river mud and ran away. That very night, the beggar came back for his chicken. As he was starving, he made a fire, dug up the chicken and put it over the fire, mud and all. The heat then hardened the mud into a tight clay. When the beggar knocked the clay off, even the feathers fell off the chicken. Chicken was soft and delicious.

The beggar began to sell his yummy chicken in the market. It was a hot seller and the Emperor got to know about the chicken. Got his hands on the chicken, loved the taste and added this recipe into the imperial court's menu!

The Banting Beggar's Chicken @ Restaurant Bukit Jugra started about 16 years ago and we only just found out about them. Of course we had to try the chicken out even though Banting is about an hour's drive away. Nevertheless, the impractical thing about eating here is that you have to pre-order your food THREE days in advance. You simply cannot drop by and start ordering.

The food that you need to pre-order are chicken, duck, pork knuckles, pig's stomach, mutton, fish and, sticky rice with mushroom and meat. You can order vegetables when you are seated at your table.

I learnt that they needed to let the charcoal burn a whole day first.  On the day that you have booked to dine in, they will start wrapping your meat up to be cooked in the charcoal as early as 7 AM. They will have to wrap the meat up with thin wax tracing paper and then a layer of a thick wax paper, then covered with a layer of mud and another layer of wax paper before cooking.  The cooking in the charcoal takes up to 4 hours. When you arrive on your chosen dine-in time, they will then dig out your meat and serve. Literally, fresh out from the oven!

Residence

The oven

The restaurant

We were the first to arrive at 1 PM. Because of the Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO), customers were not allowed to sit on every table and each table. We got the last table reserved for us.

Mud using for wrapping the meat

I call this the Charcoal stove!

Not sure why these 2 chickens were thrown at the side!

And.....there's our chicken!!!

   

Gotta hit it a few times to break the clay. Oooooh so hot!

Unwrapping our chicken

HOT

  

All layers cut opened

Chicken served!

It really did not look nice but it smelt wonderful.

The meat was tender and flavorful. The meat was falling off of the bone!

The herbs used to stuff the chicken before cooking

Pig stomach and white pepper soup

Very well done!

Our doggie friend

It was a fascinating lunch experience indeed. However, it is too much of a hassle to pre-book a meal and all. We did enjoy chatting with the people there to find out more about the cooking process. They were friendly and did not mind me taking photos here and there. They mentioned that this business is rather difficult to go on as resources are scarce. Whatever they decide, I am sure glad that we have tried their traditional recipe for beggar's chicken.

Do check out their Facebook page under Banting Beggar Chicken for phone numbers and the menu.