Chapter 141 Song Mansion Baked Chicken

Wen Zhenyi was familiar with everyone, so without too many polite words, he went into the kitchen to check the ingredients he had bought, and they were all very fresh.

She took out two chickens and handed them to Cheng Lesheng, who was sitting with his legs crossed in the kitchen yard: "Go kill the chickens."

"Me?" Cheng Lesheng looked at the two chickens in her hands, not knowing where to start.

"Didn't you say you were going to do something?"

Cheng Lesheng looked at the two chickens in her hands, frowned, and stretched out his hand with difficulty to grab the wings of the two chickens.

Maybe it was because he was too nervous, but the two chickens started struggling violently in his hands.

Wen Zhenyi was just about to remind him to hold on tight when he saw two chickens break free from their sight and run happily in the yard.

There were two chicken feathers on Cheng Lesheng's head and some chicken droppings in his hands, and his face looked extremely ugly.

Wen Zhenyi tried hard to hold back his laughter: "Master Cheng, the chicken ran away."

"I know the chicken has run away, so what can I do?"

"Of course I caught it, otherwise we would be missing an important dish today."

Cheng Lesheng looked at her in disbelief: "You want me to catch chickens?"

"How about I go catch them and you cook?" Wen Zhenyi looked at him playfully.

Cheng Lesheng's face became even uglier: "I'll catch it then." He was about to roll up his sleeves, but when he saw the chicken shit on his hands, his face became as ugly as if he was constipated.

He gritted his teeth and ordered the people in the yard to start catching chickens.

Wen Zhenyi turned and walked towards the kitchen: "Remember to kill the chicken and give it to me when you catch it. I forgot to mention that you have to cut it from the back."

The cooks were watching the chaos outside from the kitchen, their faces filled with worry: "Miss Wen, why don't we go and help catch them?"

Wen Zhenyi looked outside and asked, "How come all of them can't catch two chickens?"

The cook stopped talking and focused on preparing the ingredients.

Wen Zhenyi looked at the ingredients she bought. One of the ingredients in the eight-treasure tofu was pig stomach. Since pig stomach was not available here, she used abalone instead.

Wash the baby corn, white fungus, squid, abalone, mushrooms, ham and tofu.

Slice the baby corn, tofu, and mushrooms, and cut the abalone and squid into cross shapes.

Cut the white fungus into florets and cut the ham into shreds for later use.

After preparing the ingredients for the Eight Treasure Tofu, she looked up at the yard. The chicken was caught, but Cheng Lesheng was also in a mess.

There were black and gray spots on the white satin clothes, and the original phoenix crown was tilted to one side, making him look nothing like a nobleman.

Cheng Lesheng asked his servants to teach him how to kill a chicken. The process was a bit difficult because he was afraid that he would not be able to catch the chicken's head and get chicken blood all over himself.

The next step was plucking the chicken feathers. He finally realized that eating was not such an easy task.

Wen Zhenyi put down what he was holding, walked over to him and squatted down: "Master Cheng, how do you feel?"

"I never want to eat chicken again."

"Are you sure?"

When Cheng Lesheng heard her words, he suddenly felt that it was too early to speak: "I'm thinking about it."

"And you're going back on your word?"

"I'm just angry."

Wen Zhen saw that he had plucked all the chicken feathers, and then pointed to him and said, "You have to peel off the skin on the chicken's feet too."

"The chicken feet still have skin?" Cheng Lesheng looked at the chicken feet with some confusion.

Wen Zhenyi wanted to roll his eyes at him: "Watch carefully." Then he took the chicken from his hand and deftly peeled off the skin on the chicken's feet, then the chicken's tongue, nose, ears, and butt.

Finally, I cut the chicken's back, took out the internal organs, rubbed the chicken body with salt, and rinsed it with clean water.

The set of movements was so smooth and flowing that Cheng Lesheng didn't even blink.

Wen Zhenyi didn't mind his slowness, he just didn't want to reach out: "Master Cheng, there's another one. Follow this. Remember to clean the chicken's internal organs, especially the intestines and gizzards."

Cheng Lesheng's face turned completely black. Looking at the internal organs in the water, he wanted to throw up his sleeves and quit.

Wen Zhenyi seemed to know what he was thinking and said calmly, "Someone said he wanted to do something for mother."

Cheng Lesheng just stood up halfway, then squatted back down and turned to look at the servant beside him: "How to do it?"

The servant swallowed hard, faced his murderous gaze, and taught him step by step.

Mr. Cheng and Butler Cheng hid outside the kitchen courtyard and watched what was happening inside, both of them with smiles on their faces.

"Master, this Miss Wen is really the young master's nemesis."

Master Cheng smiled and nodded: "That's right, only this girl can deal with this brat."

"Master, why don't you marry Miss Wen back home?"

It's not that Master Cheng hasn't thought about it, but some things still depend on the two children's willingness. After all, a forced melon is not sweet. He understands this truth: "Don't say that anymore. If the two children are destined to be together, I won't object. It's just that now is not the time."

Butler Cheng nodded. He actually hoped that his young master could pay more attention.

Wen Zhenyi watched Cheng Lesheng bring in another chicken and handed it to her: "Here."

She checked it up and down. "Well done."

Cheng Lesheng rolled his eyes, turned around and walked out of the kitchen.

"Where is Master Cheng going?"

Cheng Lesheng gritted his teeth and said, "Deal with the internal organs."

"Then Master Cheng, please hurry up. There are still many things waiting for you here."

Cheng Lesheng clenched his fists so tightly that the veins on them were exposed.

The cooks didn't dare to breathe, because this was the first time they had seen their young master lose his temper like this.

Wen Zhenyi completely ignored him, put the two chickens into the pot and boiled them briefly, then took them out and poured the prepared sauce on them so that they were coated inside and out.

She found a stove, skewered the chicken on sticks, and slowly roasted it over the fire, brushing it with sauce while it was roasting.

The heat should not be too high, and the meat should be roasted until the skin is crispy and the meat is flavorful.

The task of roasting the chicken was given to the cook, who roasted it slowly, turned it over while roasting, and brushed it with seasoning.

This job is delicate, but the roast chicken made from it has a unique flavor.

Wen Zhenyi watched Cheng Lesheng cleaning the chicken's internal organs, but did not make things difficult for him. Instead, she asked the servants to help kill the fish, as she was going to make lotus-wrapped fish.

The cook helped to pick off the lotus petals: "Miss Wen, do you want more petals?"

"Leave it for now. I see we bought a lot of tofu today. I'll see if I can make something else later."

"Okay. What are these lotus pods for?"

"Wash and drain these lotus pods. I'll tell you what to do later."

The cook nodded and put the petals neatly aside, preparing to take them out and wash them later.

Wen Zhenyi drained the water from the mandarin fish and prepared to remove the fish bones later.

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Tips:

Songfu Baked Chicken is a famous dish in the Ming Dynasty, recorded in "Zhuyushanfang Miscellaneous Works. Health Preservation Department" - Song Xu (xu).

In later generations, roast chicken is usually marinated and then roasted raw, but Song Xu’s roast chicken is made by double heating.