Bowl chicken is a traditional snack originating from the Sichuan region during the Qing Dynasty. It belongs to the Sichuan cuisine and is characterized by the use of pottery bowls to hold boneless chicken slices and spicy seasonings. It has the characteristics of crispy skin and tender meat. Its name originates from the container “bowl”. When eating, the ingredients made of bamboo sticks are dipped into rattan pepper oil soup or red oil soup, and often used with milk soup noodles to form a unique flavor. This snack was first created by Ye Chunlan in 1980 in Jianwei County, Leshan. In the early days, it was sold in chunks in the form of “spicy chicken”. In 1997, it was changed to bamboo skewers and renamed “skewered chicken”. In 2014, it was officially named “bowl chicken”.
This snack is characterized by cold soaking for flavor, and the ingredients need to be soaked in red oil or bell pepper oil soup for 20-30 minutes. The core seasonings include commercial red oil, bell pepper oil, and compound soup. In 1990, it won the Chengdu Individual Famous Snack Quality Award. In 1991, it was named a high-quality famous snack by the Chengdu Municipal People’s Government. In February 2022, it was included in the national “Landmark Food List”. The modern sales model has evolved from clay pot cold skewers to supermarket weighing sales. In 2023, Hai Di Lao launched a night market bowl chicken stall.