Exploring Ipoh's 90-Year Old Beggar Chicken Tradition

When Perak Tourist Guide Association President Roselyn Lim suggested our Masters of Malaysian Cuisine team visit Granny Beggar Chicken in Kampung Pasir Pinji on our Ipoh leg, we weren’t sure what to expect.

Having visited Ipoh many times, we were familiar with Ipoh Salt Baked Chicken, but we had never tried Beggar Chicken.

We dropped in at the Granny Beggar Chicken shop on Jalan Raja Muda, tucked into the residential streets of Pasir Pinji – a neighbourhood that, if you know Ipoh at all, you’ll recognise as one of the city’s most food-dense pockets. This is the same stretch of Ipoh that gives you legendary Chee Cheong Fun, Ah Peng’s fishballs, and some of the city’s best Hor Fun, not to mention Dai Shu Geok (Big Tree Foot) Yong Tau Foo. The beggar chicken feels right at home here.

Granny’s Beggar Chicken’s HQ in Pasir Pinji

Most experts agree the dish originated in Hangzhou, though virtually every region of China with a Chinese community has at some point claimed it as their own. The clay-wrapped method of slow cooking is thousands of years old.

The legend most people know goes like this: a beggar stole a chicken from a farm but, having no pot or utensils, wrapped the bird in lotus leaves, packed clay or mud around it, set it in a hole where he’d lit a fire, and buried it. When he dug the chicken up and cracked open the clay, the meat was tender and intensely aromatic.

The chicken encased in clay after it comes out of the oven

In another version, the dish caught the attention of Emperor Qianlong himself, who tasted it while travelling in disguise and was so taken with it that he praised it publicly – at which point the beggar, rather than keeping the recipe to himself, sold it to the locals and rose from poverty.

I don’t know how much of the legend is true; what matters is that the method – seal the bird in clay, trap every bit of moisture and herb perfume inside, and let heat do the slow work – produces something that no other cooking technique quite replicates.

During our visit, Chef Johari Edrus gamely joined the owner of Granny Beggar Chicken in their kitchen to make one himself.

Filming MOMC Chef Johari Edrus as he makes Beggar Chicken

The chicken used is kampung chicken – free-range, allowed to roam, typically at least 85 to 90 days old – it has the muscle density to hold together through three hours of high-heat baking. Commercial chickens, raised to slaughter weight in roughly 45 days, are just too soft to withstand the heat and the long cooking duration.

The chicken is marinated with herbs overnight, then basted with a soy-based sauce. There’s no wine used in this version – the owner confirmed to us that the chicken and duck used are halal-certified from the supplier. After wrapping the chicken, clay is worked over the outside like, as Chef Jo put it, icing a cake.

Then it’s baked for three hours at 300′ Celcius.

Once ready, the clay is cracked open with a hammer, revealing a succulently juicy chicken inside that’s infused with herbal fragrance.

The owner mentioned that this recipe has been in the family for around 90 years, passed down from her great-great-grandmother, although the business only started during Covid lockdowns. You can buy Beggar Chicken from their main store here in Pasir Pinji, or in Ipoh Town.

A variation called Doggy Duck, also available at Granny Beggar Chicken

Why Pasir Pinji

Ipoh has always possessed the qualities that make places like Penang so compelling to food travellers – a rich architectural, cultural, and culinary heritage – but without the same volume of crowds.

Pasir Pinji specifically punches well above its weight. Within walking or driving distance of Granny’s, you have Kai Si Hor Fun at Ah Tiong, the legendary Dai Shu Geok (Big Tree) Yong Tau Foo, Chee Cheong Fun and Rojak that have been made the same way for decades, and some of the city’s best roast meat.

Surrounded by imestone formations, Ipoh is also a gateway to caves and hot springs for those who want to work up an appetite before eating their way through the afternoon.

If you come to Ipoh purely to eat, make sure you add Pasir Pinji to your list, and aim to drop in at Granny’s Beggar Chicken.

Granny Beggar Chicken
573, Jalan Raja Muda, Jalan Pasir Pinji, 31650 Ipoh, Perak
Hours: 10:00am – 6:00pm (closed Tuesdays)
Halal-certified chicken and duck available.
Advance ordering recommended – the chicken bakes for three hours and quantities are limited daily.

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