Hainanese Chicken Rice

Food of the Gods - or at least I think so. :)

There are actually a few other things that I want to talk about, but I promised my colleague my secret chicken rice recipe, so I'm going to do that first. On another note, a big shout out to Craig! Yay!

I'm finding it particularly difficult to write this recipe though because I can't include any measurements. I watched my mother cook this heaps of times so when I cook, I just do what looks and feels right. The funny thing about this is that my Mom always said to me that she didn't know how to make the chicken (which was always delicious anyway). So I didn't learn to make the chicken from her - that I learnt from Food Safari.

Luke always seems astounded by the amount of chicken rice I consume. I eat it by the platefuls. And when he gives me that "Another plate??" look, my defence each and every time is "I'm Hainanese! It's in my BLOOD". :) Plus, it was my father's favourite meal and he could eat this every day. I would hope that if I was ever lucky enough to have children, it would be something that I could pass on to them.

Anyway, enough rambling - here we go...

Hainanese Chicken Rice

Chicken stock

There are a few ways to make the chicken stock and you can use as many or as few ingredients as you want, depending on what you have in the kitchen. Usually when Luke and I have roast chicken at home, I debone the chicken and keep the roasted chicken frame to make stock. I would just store this in the freezer and use it when I have collected two or three of them. However, sometimes I just buy some chicken frames from the supermarket. This is good because you have the added bonus of using the chicken fat on the frames.

What you will need:

a) roast chicken bones or raw chicken frames from the supermarket, or even a mixture of both
b) water
c) onions (optional)
d) spring onions (optional)
e) ginger (optional)

How to:

• Cut the excess fat off the chicken and keep aside - you will need this for the rice
• Fill a stock pot with water and pop the chicken frames (and all the other optional things if you are going to use them) in and bring to the boil. Keep boiling for approximately two hours.
• Season well with salt (I don't usually bother with pepper)
• Leave overnight for the flavours to develop (I sometimes don't bother with this step because I'm too impatient and want to eat chicken rice NOW!)

Chicken stock.... DONE.

This is liquid gold - it doesn't look like much (a bit oily and scummy) BUT, it is the BEST stock I've made so far! 

Chicken rice rice

**I think that you will need a rice cooker to make the rice, but if you don't have one, the microwave is fine too.

Ingredients:

White rice - washed and sitting in a fine colander to drip dry (obviously you don't need it perfectly dry, but this method will ensure that it is dry enough)
1 or 2 onions chopped
3 cloves of garlic chopped (less or more depending what you like)
Chicken fat
Chicken stock

In a frying pan (or wok - whichever one you prefer to use - I like the frying pan in this instance), cook the chicken fat until the fat is rendered.
Once that happens, add the onions and garlic and cook til fragrant.

Add the rice and fry for approximately 5-10 minutes. Season with salt.

Put the mixture into the rice cooker and follow the instructions for cooking the rice. The only difference would be to replace the water with the chicken stock (does that make sense?)
Let the rice cooker do the rest.

Chicken rice chicken

You would think that this was the most difficult part of the ensemble, but it isn't.

All you need is:

a) a whole chicken
b) the prepared chicken stock

Bring the chicken stock to a boil.
Once the stock is boiling, put the whole chicken in and turn off the heat (but still leave the stock pot on the same hot plate) and leave to poach for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, bring the stock to boil again and turn it off again and leave it for another half hour.

After an hour in the stock, the chicken should be perfectly poached! :)

And there you have it, chicken rice! This is usually served with a few condiments - the most popular one being the homemade chili sauce (which I don't make - sorry to disappoint! ONly because I haven't been able to get cheap chilis since learning how to make this recipe. My mother also cooks minced ginger and soy sauce to eat with poached chicken. For those who are not used to eating chicken rice, the poached chicken may seem bland but this dish is meant to celebrate the delicate clean flavours of the chicken, and if you ask me, the rice is really the star of the dish.

Now tuck in and enjoy!!!

 A few notes to wrap up:

a) please forgive any typos - I have one eye on the football, as USUAL and
b) as I explained before, I always made this recipe by FEEL, so if you are confused and want to ask any questions, just comment below or send me an email!

Alrighty then - I'm done for the night - back to this match which looks like it's shaping up to be a ripper! Happy weekend!!!

x