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Big Plate Chicken
大盘鸡 · Dàpánjī
A large-portioned Xinjiang braised chicken dish with potatoes, peppers and thick hand-pulled belt noodles.
Dapanji (big plate chicken) is one of the signature dishes of Xinjiang, said to have originated in Shawan county along the Ili River. A whole chicken is jointed, flash-fried and then slow-braised in a sauce of soy, Sichuan peppercorn, cumin, dried chillies, tomato paste, garlic, ginger and sugar until the chicken is tender and the potato chunks (added partway through) have absorbed the aromatic broth. The final dish arrives on a large plate — as the name indicates — topped with a layer of wide, hand-pulled belt noodles (biángbiáng-style) that are placed on top of the chicken to soak up the remaining sauce. The combination of braised chicken with starchy noodles makes it a complete one-pot meal for two to three people. It is a truck-stop and highway restaurant staple across the Tianshan road corridor.
Where to try
Xinjiang: restaurants in Urumqi, Kashgar and along the Ili River road. Shawan county near Urumqi claims the original version. Xinjiang-cuisine restaurants in Beijing and Shanghai also serve it.
Dietary notes
Chicken, wheat (noodles), soy, potato. Contains chilli and cumin. Halal at Xinjiang establishments.
Cities to try Big Plate Chicken
Other northwest dishes
- Biangbiang Noodlesbiáng biáng 面
Wide, hand-pulled, belt-shaped Shaanxi noodles. The 'biang' character is the most complex in the Chinese language.
- Hand-Grasped Lamb手抓羊肉
Large bone-in lamb pieces boiled in spiced water and eaten by hand — a communal dish of Inner Mongolia and the northwest.
- Laghman (Hand-Pulled Noodles with Lamb)拉条子
Uyghur hand-pulled wheat noodles with a lamb-and-vegetable sauce of tomato, pepper and onion.
- Lagman Pulled Noodles拉条子
Thick hand-pulled wheat noodles served with a stew of lamb, peppers, tomatoes and cumin — a Central Asian staple.