Recipe: Simple and Easy Hainanese Chicken Rice

It has taken me more than 10 years to try making my own Chicken Rice ever since I was introduced to this popular dish while living in Singapore. Now I realize it is actually not as complicated as I thought it would be. Here's my simple and easy recipe for Hainanese Chicken Rice with three different sauces.

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken  (got an organic, free-range whole chicken from Trader Joe's)
kosher salt
4'' section of fresh ginger in 1/4'' slices
2 stalks green onions, cut into 1" sections (both the green and white parts) 

For the rice:
2 tbsp vegetable oil 
3 cloves garlic, finely minced 
1'' section of ginger, finely minced
2 cups long-grain uncooked rice, washed and soaked in cool water for 10 min or longer
2 cups reserved chicken poaching broth 
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil 
Directions:
1. Clean. Drain the water out from the chicken packaging and start cleaning the chicken with kosher salt. Rub all over and rinse the chicken. Don't forget the crevices. Season with salt inside and out.


2. Stuffing. Stuff the chicken with the ginger slices and green onion. I also added 3 cloves of garlic.
3. Boil. Place the chicken in a large stockpot and fill with water until the chicken is completely covered with water. Bring the pot to a boil, then simmer. Cook for more than 25-30 minutes or until chicken is cooked. Since I don't have a thermometer (should read 170F), I poked the thickest part with chopsticks to see that no more bloody juices come out.
4. Ice bath. Turn off the heat and remove the chicken from the pot. Set the broth aside since you'll be using it again. Put the chicken directly into an ice bath filled with ice cubes to stop the cooking process.

 

Cooking the rice: 
1.  In a medium heat saucepan, saute the minced garlic and ginger with the vegetable oil.
2. Add the rice and saute. 
3. Transfer rice into rice cooker or use the same saucepan. Add broth into the rice. And simply turn the rice cooker "on."

Making the sauces: 
Simply mix all ingredients together.

For the chili sauce:   
1 tablespoon lemon juice
 2 tablespoon reserved chicken broth
 2 teaspoon sugar 
4 tablespoon sriracha chili sauce
2 cloves garlic 
For the ginger sauce:  
2'' section of ginger, shredded
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

For the soy sauce:  
1/4 cup dark soy sauce
1 tablespoon sugar


To serve: 
Cut some pieces of cucumber, serve the hot broth on a bowl and scoop out some rice. The most difficult process is carving out the whole chicken. If you haven't done it before, there are many instructional videos on Youtube.
This dish took me back in Singapore.


Tip: 
If you are only cooking for yourself and don't want to have a lot of leftover, buy your favorite part of chicken, preferably with some bones. Marinate it in a Ziploc bag with green onions and ginger overnight.


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