🍽️ Steam-Pot Chicken

Chicken steamed in a steam-pot, pure broth.

Steam-Pot Chicken is a classic of Kunming, Yunnan, cooked in a special purple-clay steam pot from Jianshui. The pot has a central chimney; chicken pieces with ginger, scallion and salt are sealed inside and set over a wok of boiling water, so rising steam condenses back into soup — no extra water is added. The resulting broth is clear, golden and intensely chicken-flavoured, while the meat falls tender yet keeps its shape. Because the soup is all condensed steam, it is exceptionally pure and sweet, often enriched with Yunnan herbs such as pseudo-ginseng, cordyceps flower or gastrodia. It opens formal Yunnan banquets and is a home-style favourite in Kunming, best made with an old hen over gentle, long steaming.