Hainanese Chicken Rice

This is one of our favourite meals. Hainan Chicken and Rice can be found at most Chinese, Singaporean and Malaysian restaurants but I find it expensive. Now that the kids are getting bigger and are pretty much sharing a whole meal between the two of them when we go out, this is definitely a money saving type of meal. You can feed a family of four for about $15, seeing as this dish for one when ordered out will cost you about the same.

Hainan Chicken and Rice

Ingredients

1 3lb whole chicken
6 stalks green onion
3 inch long piece of ginger sliced
3 cloves garlic smashed
1T sea salt

Rice

chicken fat
1T minced garlic
3 “rice cooker” cups rice washed (or  2 1/2c if using stovetop method)
chicken stock

Condiments

1/2 c green onion chopped (approx. 6 stalks)
3 inch long piece of ginger grated
1/4-1/2t kosher salt
2T canola oil

1T soy sauce
1T sesame oil

1 cucumber thinly sliced

8 sprigs of cilantro for garnish

Instructions

1. Fill a large stock pot halfway with water, add salt and bring to a boil. While the water is boiling, wash and dry the chicken and cut off any excess fat and set aside for the rice.

2. Stuff the cavity of the chicken with the green onion, ginger and garlic.

3. Once the water reaches a rolling boil, place the chicken, breast side up, into the pot. Lower the heat to low and cover. Do not let the water simmer. It should be still. Let chicken steep for 50-60 mins.

4. Meanwhile prepare the condiments. Put the green onion, ginger and salt in a heat proof bowl. Heat 2T canola oil in a wok and pour onto the green onion and ginger mixture and stir. I like the texture of the green onion and ginger but if you don’t care for the texture and want to speed up the process, you could just put the green onion, ginger and salt into a small chopper or food processor and blend until smooth. Transfer to a heatproof bowl and add the hot canola oil and stir.

5. In a separate bowl, mix the soy sauce and sesame oil together.

6. In the same wok, render the chicken fat on medium heat until you get about 1-2T of liquid fat. I know it sounds gross but it’ll make your rice tasty! If you don’t have 2T, you can add enough canola oil to reach approximately 2T.

7. Add the garlic and stir-fry for about 30 secs, until fragrant then add the washed rice and stir-fry for about 5 mins. Stirring occasionally, making sure it doesn’t burn. Remove the pieces of chicken fat, and transfer the rice to a rice cooker. When the chicken is done, add enough stock to cook the rice according to your rice cooker. I’m not sure how to cook rice on the stovetop. So, if you are using the stovetop method, add as much stock as you would normally use for 2 1/2 cups of rice.

8. Once the chicken is done, place in a large bowl of ice water for about 10 minutes. This will stop the cooking. Once the chicken is cool enough to handle, I like to cut the meat off the bones so that it’s easier to eat. But honestly the real reason is that I don’t know how to chop up a whole chicken with a cleaver like they do in the Chinese butcher shops. This way, I get to toss the bones back into the stock pot to boil some more. Then I will freeze the stock in 1L containers to use when a recipe calls for homemade stock or I will make a large pot of congee for the next day, especially when I’m making this in the winter months.

9. Lay the cucumber slices down on a large platter. Place the cut up chicken on top of the cucumbers. Pour the soy sauce and sesame oil mixture evenly over the chicken and garnish with cilantro sprigs. Serve with rice and green onion and ginger condiment.

Hope you enjoy this meal! Let me know how it goes. If you have any questions, please ask in the comment section below.