Shocking! 'Crystal Clear Fried Chicken' Looks Like Glass—the Viral Creation of a Chinese Food Blogger

A Chinese food blogger named Chai Nan has gained widespread recognition for his unconventional cooking style and imaginative menu creations using molecular gastronomy techniques applied to food, resulting in remarkable and eye-catching dishes that have taken the online world by storm.

His latest viral sensation is "transparent fried chicken"—a dish with a glass-like, crystal appearance so striking that many viewers see it as artwork rather than ordinary food. This innovation quickly captured global attention.

Last month, Chai Nan uploaded a video to YouTube titled "I Wanted to Make Transparent Fried Chicken, But the Results Got Really Strange," which instantly went viral, garnering nearly a million views on the platform.

The concept of making "transparent" fried chicken sounds impossible, yet the actual result amazed countless viewers, appearing almost like tangible magic. Chai Nan provided detailed explanations of his creative process, starting by deconstructing the fried chicken piece by piece—from the skeletal structure to the meat—to rebuild the entire food structure from scratch.

For the bones, he used a mixture of bone marrow, collagen, and aspic gel, shaped in a mold resembling chicken bones and allowed to set into a firm, transparent structure. For the chicken meat, he processed it into a water-like liquid before using a technique called "spherification" to reconstruct the muscle fiber structure—a popular technique in molecular gastronomy.

Finally, he assembled the glass-like meat and bone pieces back together in a mold, creating the "transparent fried chicken" that is both striking and mesmerizing, becoming a much-discussed culinary artwork in the social media world.