Lushi Tiger Head Chicken (Stewed grouse) originated in Wang Gao Town, Shouguang City, and has been widely spread abroad since the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China. However, it has not been included in the traditional cuisine of Shandong cuisine, and it is the private cuisine style of Shandong cuisine. The standard name is "grouse", commonly known as "tiger-headed chicken", which is homophonic for "confused chicken" in western Shandong. It is impossible to verify when and where grouse production originated, but the origin of Wang Gaohutou chicken has been more than 400 years. According to Wang Jiapu, it was written in the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, and the earliest written material was the twenty years of Qing Qianlong (1755). Shouguang County Chronicle, edited by Wang Chun, a magistrate of a county, continued: "The world lives on the edge of a mound fifteen miles north of the city ... Jiaolai merchants are convenient to come and go ... and they sell minced meat (good)." The minced meat inside is inferred to be today's Wang Gao Hu Tou chicken. The minced meat may be a mushroom, because there are many monks in the ancient temple in Wang Gaocheng. Although it looks like meatballs, it is actually a vegetarian and a monk.
By the end of the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, the tiger-headed chickens produced by restaurants such as Tongsheng, Fu You and Honglie were quite famous. At that time, General Zhu Panzao was stationed in Yantai, and Tiger Head Chicken was specially formulated as a necessary dish to entertain local celebrities in the county, which became a much-told story for a while. According to the proofreading of Shouguang County Records in the Republic of China, grouse made by local chef Wang Jingshun is famous in the county. During the Northern Warlords' period, Tianjin held the Sifang Food Art Competition, and Shouguang won the first prize with Wang Gaohutou's chicken dishes, which was awarded by the government at that time. At that time, a reporter from Ta Kung Pao interviewed Wang Jingshun, and Beiyang Pictorial also published a photo of him, which made him famous for a while.
In recent years, with the excavation and commercial packaging of traditional private kitchens, many manufacturers in Jiaodong, Tai 'an, Jinan, Jining and other places have registered the trademark of Tiger Head Chicken, and at the same time, they have fabricated stories under the pretext of historical celebrities such as Jia Sixie, Qin Shihuang and even Dayu, which are mostly far-fetched and absurd. The origin of Shandong Hutou chicken in Shouguang City has been recognized by contemporary Shandong cuisine researchers, among which the traditional grouse is the most famous. Therefore, in line with the attitude of respecting history, it is more important to clean up the original. The traditional making of grouse is now considered to have originated from Shandong cuisine, but there are different ways to make grouse everywhere. Obviously, stew is not a cooking method in western Shandong and the surrounding areas, but some improved grouse are influenced by the current popular catering, and most of them have a spicy flavor, which is very different from the cooking method of Wang Gaohutou chicken. Traditional Shandong cuisine is not good at soup dishes, which is characterized by salty, fragrant, su and greasy, and takes southern cuisine as the eye. Although Wang Gaohutou Chicken has always been a folk private kitchen (it was included in the Shandong cuisine standard in 2002), it is precisely because of this that it avoids grafting and transformation in various ways and can truly taste the essence of traditional Shandong cuisine.
Tiger-headed chicken is fat, tender, mellow and delicious. Folk wedding banquets are known as "one chicken, two fish and three cold dishes", ranking first among all dishes, which shows their popularity and can be described as delicious food. Tiger-headed chicken is golden in color, rich and mellow in taste and crisp and tender in taste. Its products include fried chicken nuggets and stew. It is easy to preserve for a long time after frying, and it is also convenient for travelers to carry and feed. After stewing, the greasy and angry chicken is removed and it is easier to digest. Suitable for the elderly and children. At the same time, mixing chicken with flour and eggs increases the compound taste, and it is more convenient to add seasoning according to the personal taste of consumers. It can be said that it is the crystallization of the wisdom of traditional working people. However, in the old society, ordinary people did not regard Tiger Head Chicken as a daily dish, because its ingredients, chicken and eggs, were of high value, and the pressing process was quite expensive, and it was not easy to stew for a long time. Therefore, Tiger-headed chicken is mostly used for weddings, funerals, weddings and other banquets, and it is also the main course of ancestor worship in the New Year.