A Chinese food blogger has introduced a bizarre twist to a beloved dish: transparent fried chicken. Cai Nan, a YouTuber, has crafted a translucent version of the classic meal that he claims tastes just like the real thing. The creation resembles a breakable glass sculpture rather than something edible, featuring transparent bones, meat, and even a crispy outer shell.
The Process Behind the Transparent Chicken
In his video, which has been viewed nearly a million times on YouTube, Mr Nan explains that he reconstructed fried chicken piece by piece. He began by cooking real chicken bones for an extended period to create a bone marrow soup. This soup was then mixed with collagen and cold gel before being set in bone-shaped moulds.
For the meat, he used a device to extract proteins and flavour from real chicken pieces, turning them into a liquid form. Spherification, a technique that shapes liquids into small, gel-coated spheres, was then employed to restore the structure of muscle fibres. The transparent meat and bones were placed in another mould to fuse them together.
The Signature Crunch
Mr Nan emphasised that the soul of fried chicken is its crunchy shell. To replicate this, he placed a piece of real fried chicken in silicone to create a replica mould of the batter. He then heated isomaltitol, a type of sweetener, to high temperatures to turn it into a liquid, which was poured into the mould. The translucent piece of chicken was added on top, and when the mixture cooled, it created a fried chicken-like texture.
"It's a transparent, brittle shell," he said. "The crust is very crispy. The chicken bones are looming inside. It's very delicious."
Reactions and Other Creations
Commenters on his video joked that "one day this man will make himself transparent," while another called for him to receive a Nobel Prize. This is just the latest of Mr Nan's translucent creations, which also include steak, cake, a burger, and salmon sashimi. Some viewers suggested he might open a "transparent restaurant" with transparent interior design and menus, while others proposed new items like squid skewers, tofu, curry fish balls, and waffles.
Lab-Grown Chicken: A Different Approach
In 2020, restaurants in Singapore became the first to serve lab-grown chicken after the slaughter-free meat received regulatory approval. US startup Eat Just revealed that its artificial meat was approved in Singapore as an ingredient for chicken nuggets. As the world seeks more environmentally friendly and ethical meat sources, this move was hailed as a breakthrough for the global food industry. Consumption of regular meat poses environmental threats, as cattle produce methane and logging forests for grazing destroys natural barriers against climate change. The cost of artificial meat is expected to drop below that of regular chicken in the coming years.
