- Janny de Moor - https://www.jannydemoor.nl/en -

Uyghur festive bread with spicy chicken

Ingrediënten

Baking tools:

Chicken (for 2 persons):

‘Bread’ (makes 2):

Bread from the Chinese province Xinjiang (‘New Border’) the domain of the Uyghurs, which they themselves call East Turkestan. Uyghur people are originally nomads, speaking a Turkish dialect. They settled in this region around 840, were converted to Islam in the 10th century, were occupied by the Chinese in the 18th century and annexed to that country in 1955 after al kinds of entanglement during the Sovjet regime. In 2010 their dalai lama Rebiya Kadeer was in the Netherlands to ask attention for the discrimination against this minority.

Uyghurs live very traditionally, reject the atheism of Chinese communism and do not like modernisation. And so even their food preparation is traditional. For Qatlima nan you do not need more tools than a rolling pin and a frying pan, after all nomads had to carry everything when travelling.

Spicy chicken (Da pan ji = chicken on a large plate) is a popular restaurant dish in Xinjiang. Obviously Chinese influence. Today the population of the province is 6 million Chinese against 8 million Uyghurs.