Recipe: Hainanese Chicken Rice

Please bear with us (join us!) as we flesh out the flavour and identity of this Blog. Meanwhile, here’s a Recipe for Hainanese Chicken Rice, courtesy of friend JT (with appreciation for the recipe and the hands-on lessons!)

Feeds 2 (greedy people) or 4 (skinny Ah Lian types)

Chicken
1. Whole chicken – Rub with salt, sesame oil and soya sauce; season with flattened (two handfuls for one chicken) garlic, onions (small purple shallots), sliced ginger.
2. Boil water in wok. Steam chicken 15 mins (medium size chicken) – use a shallow pan to collect juices (steaming juices are more concentrated). Put a bit of sesame oil on chicken after steaming.
Soup
Boil chicken bones (and breast, optional) with cabbage, carrots, onions, etc. No chicken skin* here (unless you fancy that top layer of oil on your soup)! Boil 15 – 20 mins.
*save this for the main chicken dish!
Rice
1. Take juices from steamed chicken (or stock from boiling), add to rice in rice cooker.
2. Add more sliced ginger, garlic, onions, add knotted pandan leaves, top up with water (add water to remaining juice on steaming pan, don’t waste it!!).
3. Cook rice – stir once.
Chilli Sauce
(pound together, then add 2t chicken stock): 6 Fresh red chilies (seeded), 1 clove Garlic, 2 cm Ginger, 1 tsp Salt, 2 tsp Sugar, 1 tsp Vinegar / Lime juice

Enjoy!