Hainanese Chicken Rice

TIME1.5 hours MAKES5 servings

A Singaporean classic, this is the version of chicken rice that I grew up with in Singapore, with a few components inspired from Adam Liaw.

INGREDIENTS

Soup and poached chicken

  • 1 whole chicken (approximately 1.5-1.8kg)
  • 2 inches of ginger
  • 4-5 garlic cloves
  • 1 bunch spring onion
  • 3 lemongrass (white part only)
  • 1/2 tsp MSG

Rice

  • Basmati or jasmine rice1
  • 5-6 shallots
  • 2 pandan leaves
  • 4-5 garlic cloves
  • 1 inch ginger
  • 2 lemongrass
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp sesame oil
  • 3 tbsp chicken fat
  • 2 pandan leaves

Chilli sauce

A decent substitute is Singlong’s Chicken Rice Chilli sauce, or, in a pinch, Lee Kum Kee’s Chilli Garlic sauce.

  • 4-6 red chillies
  • 1 inch ginger
  • 6 garlic cloves
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup chicken rice soup
  • 2 tbsp calamansi juice

Ginger-garlic sauce

A decent substitute is Singlong’s Chicken Rice Ginger sauce. I like to mix in about 1 tbs chicken rice dressing.

  • 4 inch ginger
  • 1 lemongrass
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • 3 tbsp sesame oil
  • 1 tbsp chicken rice dressing
  • 2 tbsp rendered chicken fat
  • 1 tsp rice vinegar

To serve

  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp sesame oil
  • Coriander
  • Sliced spring onion
  • Kecap manis

STEPS

Soup and poached chicken

  1. Remove the fat deposits from inside the cavity of the chicken, near the tail and the neck. Roughly chop the fat and place in a small frying pan, just covered with water, over very low heat to render. Reserve the rendered chicken fat.

  2. Rub the chicken all over with kosher salt and leave it to dry brine for a minimum of 30 minutes at room temperature.

  3. Lightly pound the ginger, spring onion (white parts and top green parts, reserve and dice the middle), garlic, and lemongrass, and add to a heavy bottom pot. Add water, and bring to a boil.

  4. When the water is at a boil, reduce the heat to the lowest setting and dunk the chicken in the hot water three times. Then, submerge the chicken in the water, breast side down. Place the lid somewhat ajar, and leave the chicken to gently poach for 40 minutes (turning it breast side up at the 20 minute mark).

  5. Remove the chicken, and immediately place it in a tub of cold (preferably iced) water. This allows the skin to ‘set’ and achieve the correct jelly-like texture.2

  6. Taste the soup, and season it with salt and MSG to taste.

Rice

  1. Using a food processor, blend the shallots, garlic cloves, ginger, and lemon grass until you have a smooth paste. Add the chicken fat to a frying pan, and fry the paste for about 5 minutes. Season to taste with MSG and salt – you’ll need a lot more salt than you expect.

  2. Wash the rice and add it to your rice cooker. Add the required amount of soup as per the amount of rice you have. Add the pandan leaves (tied in a knot), soy sauce, chicken rice paste, and sesame oil, and cook until done. Discard the pandan leaves.

Serving

chicken rice serving

  1. Rub the chicken all over with a mixture of 1 tbsp light soya sauce, and 1 tbsp sesame oil.

  2. To make the seasoning sauce for the chicken, pour the dripping from step (1) into a small bowl, and add about a ladle-full of soup, a dash more soy sauce and sesame oil.

  3. To make the chilli sauce, blend all the ingredients together and add the soup and calamansi juice.

  4. To make the ginger garlic sauce, blend together the ingredients and let it sizzle in the hot chicken fat for a few seconds, then stir in the vinegar and chicken rice dressing.

  5. When the rice is ready, carve the chicken and place it on a serving plate, topped with coriander. Place individual bowl-shaped servings of rice on each plate. On the table, include individual sauce dishes with kecap manis, chilli sauce, and ginger sauce, as well as individual soup servings with the diced spring onion on top.

NOTES

  1. The traditional rice here is jasmine rice, but I’ve come to personally prefer using basmati, as I find it gives better grain separation. ↩︎
  2. Don’t overcook the chicken! A slow, gentle simmer for 40 minutes will produce chicken with a very pale pink blush to the meat and the inside of the thigh bones should be bright pink. If they are brown or grey the chicken is over cooked. That’s okay, but the texture will not be quite right. ↩︎