The Hutong's Quarantine Cook-Off, Round III: Dapanji, Big Plate Chicken!

Anna Pellegrin Hartley | Apr 7, 2020 8:15 am | Add a comment | 382 reads

With all this extra time indoors, and with many of our favorite restaurants closed, our cooking game has been seriously leveling up. So now it's time to put those skills to the test.

Now in its third week, The Hutong has selected a new recipe for you to follow in their Quarantine Cook-Off. All you need to do is cook the dish, take a picture, post it on Instagram or WeChat, and let the likes roll in!

This week's dish: Dapanji

This week we're going far west with dapanji, literally 'big plate chicken,' a popular stew of potatoes, carrot, a thick and spiced tomato sauce, and of course, chicken, that is said to have been invented in Shawan, northern Xinjiang. The story goes that a migrant from Sichuan mixed chili peppers with chicken and potatoes in an attempt to reproduce the taste of Sichuan. Its rich flavor and hearty ingredients, however, soon made big plate chicken a favorite dish of the region and has since spread throughout China. You can easily swap out the chicken with assorted mushrooms or tofu (or both) to make it vegetarian. Click here for the full recipe and get started! 

How to enter

Depending on which social media you choose to post on, you should:

  • WeChat: Take a screenshot to show us that you posted your dish picture in your Moments and send it to The Hutong's WeChat (ID: TheHutongBeijing), or scan the QR code at the bottom of this post.
  • Instagram: Post your photo adding the hashtags: #TheHutong #TheHutongkitchen #TheBeijinger #quarantinecookoff #Dapanji

Entries should be submitted by midnight on Sunday, Apr 12 and the winner will be announced on Tuesday, Apr 14 at 2pm.

For your hard work sweating it out in the kitchen, you stand the chance to win culinary merchandise from The Hutong (plus plenty of kudos from your friends). A winner will be chosen each week by The Hutong’s in-house chef and dishes will be judged on creativity, plating, photography, and Instagram/WeChat likes.

Scan the QR code in the poster for details of this week's recipe or the code below for The Hutong's official WeChat, and be sure to follow the Beijinger (Instagram: @the_beijinger; WeChat ID: thebeijinger) and The Hutong (Instagram: @thehutong; WeChat ID: thehutong) on social media.

Need a hand to get the ingredients? 

Contact The Hutong via WeChat or mobile 159 0104 6127 to order a package containing all the ingredients you need to cook each week's recipe. They also offer other ingredients/recipe packs.

Happy cooking, Beijing! May the best dish win.

READ: How to Bake Your Own Rice Cooker Cake (the Right Way)

The Beijinger and beijingkids are proud media sponsors of The Hutong's Quarantine Cook-Off.

Images: thewoksoflife.com, courtesy of The Hutong