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Ga Kien (or kien chicken), a kind of pedigreed fighting cocks, sounds very small owning to its name “kien” (ant), but it brings fames Phu Yen province’s Song Cau district and Binh Dinh province’s Dieu Tri town and Tuy Phuoc district thanks to its delicious taste.
According to the elderly living in Phu Yen and Binh Dinh where this kind of rare chicken is raised, the fact that it is called kien locally implies its slow growth.
It takes about 1 year to bring up a 1.3 kg-1.5kg chicken. Maximum weight is usually about 3kg per each after being raised for around three years.
Kien chicken looks slim, tall and agile. Its muscles is as solid as fighting cocks in the south. The cock has purple feathers, long tail and spurs with yellow skin and saffron legs.
It is mainly fed by grains of maize and insects. Some people said that the kien chicken raised in the mountainous areas in Tuy Phuoc District is more delicious because it daily searches for food in mountains, gets wind from sea, eats insects, root, and bulds as well as sometimes drink mineral water flowing from the limestone hillside. By that way, day after day, the central severe soil creates delicious taste for kien chicken. Therefore, kien chicken partly makes the fame of Song Cau grilled-chicken and Dieu Tri sticky rice.
Also, it said that kien chicken is naturally raised in some neighboring provinces but the quantily is limited. Because of its slow growth and low profit, this kind of chicken has gradually been replaced by Tam Hoang mongrelized chicken. It also means that this kind of chicken is becoming rarer. What a pity!
Often, delicious chicken makes tasty dishes. Nguyen Phuc Ung Vien, who is living in Go Vap Distrist, Ho Chi Minh City and is very knowledgeable about food, medicine and cosmetic, took kien chicken to stew with thuoc bac (Chinese traditional medicine).
The chicken is stewed as long as possible, at least in 2 hours. Finally, the smoking chicken container is served with sweet-smelling. Stewing water has slight sour, sweet, bitter taste. Mr Nguyen Phuc makes careful recommendations to slurp all soup. He explains that sour and sweet taste stimulates appetite, supporting antipyretic and liver. The bitter taste supports heart and lung, helping thoroughly blood circulation and regularly breathing rate. Particularly, after 3 hours eating, diners remain sweet-smelling taste.
Aslo, you could simply take a 1.3kg-chicken to process grilled chicken with peppers and salt or chicken gruel with black beans that feeding for 4 to 5 people. Because kien chicken is hard, the cook should mix with spice in half an hour before it is grilled by coal.
Kien chicken is hard but soft. It is recommended that chicken and sticky rice should be eaten by using hands. Before eating, thus, you should clean your hands and enjoy chicken with peppers-and-salt. Nothing is happier than sipping at mouthfuls of wine while enjoying chicken.
The bean chicken gruel is also delicious with subtle of attar persicaria mixed with field mushroom and specific sweet-smelling chicken. Essence of black beans produces a sweet and greasy gruel. The more we eat, the more pleasant we feel. To harmonize bean and rice, take a 1 or 2 handful of each. The bean is boiled about 5-10 minute then rice is poured; therefore, the gruel will be greasier and chicken will be fresher.
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