Saturday, April 29, 2006

Hainanese Chicken n Rice

Hainanese Chicken Rice is very popular in Malaysia and Singapore. The set comes with chicken, rice, soup and chilli sauce. The chicken is cooked by boiling in water flavoured with ginger, with the resulting stock used in the preparation of the rice and also in the accompanying soup and chilli sauce. This is a simplified easy version adapted from reading all the recipes I could get my hands on.

hainan chicken rice set

Hainanese Chicken & Rice......

hainanese chicken

Hainanese chicken....

Ingredients for Hainanese Chicken
1 chicken (about 1.5kg)
1 inch young ginger
1 tsp mince garlic
enough boiling water to cover the chicken
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp soy sauce

Method
1. Clean, wash the chicken. Do not cut off the neck.
2. Tie a string to the neck. Set aside. (The purpose of the string is to avoid damage to the skin. An alternative would be to use a hook).
3. Boil a large pot of water, add ginger. The water has to be sufficient to cover the whole chicken.
4. Put the whole chicken into the boiling water.
5. Cook over low heat for 20 mins with cover off.
6. After 20 mins, turn off the fire. Leave the chicken inside the pot for another 10 mins with cover on.
7. Then remove the chicken immediately.
8. Transfer the chicken to a pot of iced water with ice for 5 minutes (This is to arrest the cooking and will make the chicken skin crisp)
9. Remove. Drained and put the chicken back into the boiling stock.
10. Do not turn on the fire. Let it soak for 10 minutes.
11. Remove the chicken and let it cool completely.
12. Once cooled, rub sesame oil over the chicken.
13. Cut chicken to bite size pieces.
14. Before serving drizzle 2 tbsp of chicken stock and soy sauce over chicken.

Notes
After cutting, if the chicken is not cook through, bathe the chicken with the boiling stock. Repeat 3 to 4 times.


chicken rice

Chicken Rice....

Ingredients for the Chicken Rice
2 cups uncooked jasmine rice
1 Tbsp chicken fat oil or cooking oil
½" ginger bruised
½ tsp salt
1 clove mashed garlic
chicken stock

Method
1. Heat wok with chicken oil. Add the uncooked rice.
2. Keep frying until the rice turns slightly yellow.
3. Scoop the rice into the rice cooker. Add chicken stock (water that was used to boil the chicken), salt, garlic and ginger. The liquid should cover the rice by about 1/2 an inch.
4. Cook the rice.


Ingredients for Chilli Sauce

2 tbsp chilli sauce (see pic below)
1 tsp lime juice
1 tbsp chicken stock
1 tsp ginger juice

Method
1. Combine all the ingredients together.



Tip

I find it just as easy to use chilli sauce from a bottle than try and blend my own.

This particular type has all the essentials : vinegar, ginger, sugar and salt.


9 Comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello Sinner, nice recipe you hv, but why must the neck part used? mostly chicken I bought already got the neck cut off :S and I usually throw it away ( didn't think it'll be useful, hmmph )

Sinner said...

cenni

The chicken they sell here have no neck as well but just a short stub where I can just manage to tie a string to. If the neck is too short, try to use a hook which will hook inside the chicken.

Without a string to the neck, you will need a pair of tongs to try and take the chicken out of the pot. The tong might break the soft chicken skin.

A broken skin does not affect the flavour of the chicken, just that it does not look so pretty when serving.

Anonymous said...

Hi there sinner,

I am tempted to try this recipe. Is it possible that I cook only half a chicken for this recipe? If can, do I have to half the ingredients?

Sinner said...

Hi Favbabe,

Not necessary to half the ginger and garlic in the boiling water. But you might have to play around with the timing as a half chicken might cook faster.

As for the sesame oil and soy sauce - rub enough to cover your chicken.

Amy Goh said...

Hi,

I enjoyed all ur wonderful recipes. May I share with u this tip that was taught by a restaurant chef, when u boil ur chicken, do add ice cubes together with d chicken stock, once d water is boiled switch off the gas immediately and allow the chicken to cook further. The result u will get is a QQ textured chicken, super yummy!
As for the rice, u might like to consider adding blue ginger(galangal) and pandan leaves taste very good!

U need not publish this comment, try it, and only if u like the results then fee;l free to share with ur readers in d future.

Warm Regards,

Amy

Sinner said...

Hi Amy,

Thanks for sharing your tip from the chef. I will publish this as good tips are meant to be shared. Interesting about adding ice cube to the chicken stock prior to boiling. I can smell the galangal and pandan leaves in the rice already. Pity we can't grow pandan leaves here.

Anonymous said...

Hi Sinner,
Have you tried this tip yet? The one about the ice cubes?

Amy, how many ice cubes do you put in? It's added in when we put the chicken back into the boiling stock after the ice bath, right?

Thanks.
Alannia

Sinner said...

Hi Alannia,

No I haven't tried the tip but why not give it a go and you can tell us how it went.

Alannia said...

Hi Sinner,

Would give it a try soon but I won't be using the whole chicken as there is only 2 of us and DH is not a big meat eater. He will only take 1 small drummette together with rice and lots of vege. It's good for health but a nightmare for cooking.

Do you think I have assume correctly thatb the ice cubes are added in when when we put the chicken back into the boiling stock after the ice bath?

Regards,
Alannia

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