The dish has a rather romantic name: “wind-dried chicken” – but its preparation method is heavily condemned.
Over thousands of years, human cuisine has steadily progressed, featuring countless dishes with diverse flavors. Some dishes even represent entire cultures – for example, Italy has pasta and pizza; Japan has sushi; and Vietnam has pho.
However, alongside these culinary delights, there are numerous dishes whose preparation methods spark controversy. Take, for example, the French culinary pride – foie gras – where ducks are subjected to a gruesome feeding process to produce their liver. Or the shark fin soup in China, which has drawn global condemnation due to excessive fishing practices and the indifference of fishermen.
Foie gras (left) and regular duck liver (right).
Today, we will explore a similarly controversial dish. This is “wind-dried chicken” – or Feng gan ji – from the Tibetan people in China. The dish has a rather… romantic name, yet it requires the chef to possess a heart of stone.
Wind-Dried Chicken – The “Iron-Willed” Dish of the Tibetan People
In the frigid highlands of Tibet, where the cold winds can easily drop below 0 degrees Celsius, the locals have a type of food that can be considered a “specialty” – wind-dried meat.
Essentially, Tibetan wind-dried meat is similar to Western smoked meat: the meat is dried in a cool, ventilated area, allowing the wind to naturally dry it out. This is a method of preserving meat for several months or even up to a year.
The meat used for wind drying can be goat or beef. However, with chicken, the preparation method takes a chilling turn.
Tibetan wind-dried chicken.
To make wind-dried chicken, the ingredients are simple: a live chicken, a sharp knife, herbal spices, and a highly skilled but ruthless chef.
Unlike typical chicken preparation methods, the chicken to be wind-dried is not plucked. Instead, it is eviscerated while still alive, with all its internal organs – intestines, liver, lungs, and stomach – removed in an instant. Next, the chef immediately rubs salt and herbs inside the chicken’s cavity, ensuring the meat absorbs the spices thoroughly.
This entire process must be carried out extremely swiftly to keep the chicken alive.
Once the marinating process is complete, the chicken is plucked and hung upside down in the wind. At this point, it is still alive, and the cold wind, combined with the immense pain, slowly gnaws at it until the unfortunate creature bids farewell to this sordid world. Its body will remain there until it dries out and… ends up on a plate.
This entire process must be executed with extreme speed to keep the chicken alive. And you know, chickens may not think, but they do know how to cry out in pain. Therefore, the plaintive cries of chickens in the late afternoon may not be unfamiliar if you visit Tibet during the end of the year.
The plaintive cries of the chickens in the late afternoon may not be unfamiliar if you visit Tibet during the end of the year.
According to local beliefs, keeping the chicken alive during the preparation process ensures the freshness of the meat, helps balance yin and yang, and can even be considered a “great tonic.”
The Condemned Preparation Method
In reality, wind-dried chicken is not exclusive to Tibet. Historically, this dish dates back to the Three Kingdoms period. It is a traditional and famous dish of the Han ethnic group. The advantage of this dish is that it is easy to preserve, retains its freshness and tenderness, and does not contain any oily substances, making it suitable for both the elderly and children.
According to legend, during the Three Kingdoms period, Sun Quan, wanting to ally with Liu Bei against Cao Cao, married his sister, Sun Shangxiang, to Liu Bei. The couple lived in Shili, near Jingzhou.
Since Liu Bei loved chicken, Sun Shangxiang, wanting to please her husband, devised various cooking methods for chicken, including this wind-dried chicken. Over time, it gradually became more popular and favored by many.
Liu Bei’s preference inadvertently led to the creation of this traditional chicken dish. (Illustrative image).
However, this method of preparation has been condemned for its cruelty. The painful cries of the chickens before they die cause many witnesses to cover their faces. Some people have even shared: “I feel like the chickens are crying out, questioning humanity why we commit such cruelty against them.”
As a result, nowadays, almost only Tibetans continue to “prepare chickens” this way. In large cities, wind-dried chicken is still popular, but the chickens are bled before processing, allowing them to pass quickly with less pain.
Yet, many argue that the current preparation method diminishes the dish’s original flavor. So what about you? Would you prefer to enjoy this dish in its traditional way, or the less cruel modern variant?
