Royal Kitchen's Best-Kept Secret: $55 Royal Crispy Shrimp with Chicken

Word began to spread about an elusive dish available at a Chinese restaurant in Plano, Royal Kitchen, that was really expensive and not widely known.  By “word” I mean my inquisitive food editor, who is always on the lookout for compelling food-related stories that would interest North Texas.

Royal Kitchen’s menu calls it Royal Crispy Shrimp with Chicken; there is no description and only a vague thumbnail photo that really doesn’t clear anything up. It's on the house seasonal dish submenu, and the cost is listed at a precise $55.20, a price point that at least suggests every penny is accounted for. Furthermore, the menu says this must be ordered 24 hours in advance, as is often the case with Peking duck (also available here for the same $55.20).

We found (and by “we” I mean me and my crack research assistant/wife) a tantalizing clue on a Facebook page that describes this dish as something that is very hard to find and provided a name of the dish that gave us something to work with: jiangnan baihau chicken.

Sometimes written as jiang nan bai hua, this dish originates from the Guangdong province of China. Baihua is a city in that province. Interestingly, the capital city of this province is Guangzhou, which at one time was called Canton by the West and Panyu before that, which is a long way of saying that this is a Cantonese dish and is indeed rare.

We only found a couple of other examples, most in Hong Kong, from chefs and restaurants bragging that they were serving this. We called and ordered it in advance, and when we arrived the next day we were seated at one of those big round tables with a central lazy Susan even though there were just two of us.

“Oh, but you ordered that big dish, so we seated you here!” we were told by the owner, who had a big smile.

When it arrived, it did make for a showy presentation: large and flat with crispy golden skin sliced into slim rectangles, two chicken wings placed where they’d be on the actual (non-flat) bird, and some sliced red tomatoes where the head would be (one of the pictures we found of this dish at a Hong Kong restaurant had the actual chicken head instead of the tomatoes).

The high price was more understandable once we saw this, and we asked how it was prepared. We were told it requires a free-range chicken because the skin is much healthier, making it easier to completely debone the chicken while leaving all the outer skin intact. This is then left to dry a while and then baked for a bit to get a solid structure and crispiness, at which point it is stuffed with a chopped-up shrimp paste and finally fried. That’s a lot of labor, and a lot of shrimp.
The result is a dish that is extremely tasty and different from the usual westernized fare found at Chinese restaurants here. The little squares of crispy flavorful chicken skin and shrimp almost resemble blond brownies, and like brownies (and lasagna, and thin-crust pizza …) the edge pieces, with their extra crispiness, are even better. Not greasy, not dry, not too fishy — it was really hard to stop eating these little treats, but when we did and asked for a box the owner told us to reheat them in an air fryer and not the microwave. I mean, of course. We’re not animals.

When the check arrived, we were surprised that it cost only $48, not $55.20, when ordered for sit-down service. At this bargain price you almost have to experience this rare dish and order a couple of hot and sour soups with your savings.

3100 Independence Parkway, No. 322, Plano; Monday, Wednesday – Friday, 10:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. and  4:30–9 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. and  4–9:30 p.m.; Sunday, 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. and  4–9 p.m.; closed Tuesday.