Red-Cooked Pine-Nut Chicken

Pine nuts are particularly favored by the refined cuisine of eastern China. Here, mingled with ground pork as a covering for the chicken, they loosen the consistency of the ground meat and give each bite a remarkable fluffiness.

Involving boning, shallow-frying, and red-cooking, this is a “big affair” dish, ideal for entertaining, since even though the chicken is cut into small pieces, it is extremely rich, meant to be shared by up to 10 people in small quantities, with other dis