Chicken and potatoes braised with chilli, Sichuan pepper and green peppers, served on one huge platter, with wide flat noodles tossed through the sauce at the end.
What makes it big-plate chicken
A whole chicken, chopped on the bone, braised with potatoes.
Dried chilli, Sichuan pepper and green peppers.
Wide flat noodles — belt noodles — added at the end.
Where it comes from
Dàpánjī is usually traced to Shawan, in northern Xinjiang, in the late 1980s or 1990s, when roadside restaurants cooked it for long-haul drivers. The story often told is that a cook from Sichuan made it, which would explain the Sichuan pepper and chilli meeting Xinjiang's potatoes.
It's a dish for sharing: a whole chicken on a platter, and when the meat's gone, the noodles go in to mop up the sauce.