Hainanese Chicken Rice

I love chicken rice. So do my kids and family. Love the tender juicy chicken meat served with a bowl of irresistible fragrant chicken rice and chilli sauce. Hainanese chicken rice is a simple and fast dish to prepare, you will need only a few tricks and tips to have a perfect outcome!

You need a fresh kampung chicken. Kampung chicken is preferable as its meat is more solid and less fat. Clean and trim excess fat from the chicken. Keep the fat for later use. Tuck a bunch of spring onion and crushed ginger into chicken cavity. Boil a pot of water and lower the chicken into hot boiling water. Make sure whole chicken is immerse in the water. Cover the lid and boil for 15 minutes on high heat. Off the fire, and let the chicken soak in the pot for another 20 minutes. Take out the chicken and put in an ice bath for a minutes to stop the cooking process. The steps of soaking in hot water and cold, will turn the chicken meat tender and juicy, while the chicken skin is springy.

To prepare the rice, rinse the rice. Add in sufficient chicken stock from previous step, into a rice pot. Fry crushed onion, garlic and sliced ginger until fragrant in 2 tablespoons cooking oil. Transfer them include the oil into rice pot. Add a bit of salt and knot of pandan leaves into the rice. Place the pot in electric rice cooker and let it cook. Your whole kitchen will smell tremendous while the rice is cooking. After cooking, remove the onion, garlic, ginger and pandan leaves from the rice.

For the condiment which is vital when eating Hainanese chicken rice, is the chilli sauce. You will need equal amount of garlic and ginger, chilli padi, lime, oil from chicken fat, sugar and salt to taste. Put garlic, ginger and chilli padi into a blender, add some chicken stock to blend. Tranfer the blended item into a pan to heat up in small fire while stirring at the same time. Add little bit of salt and sugar until you get the taste that you desire.

Lastly add in the *chicken fat oil to the chilli sauce. Remove the pan from heat, and squeeze in lime juice according to your liking. Let the sauce cool completely in a container before storing in a fridge. Scoop some chilli sauce with a dry clean spoon, whenever you cook your favourite hainanese chicken rice dish.

* To get the chicken fat oil, fry the trimmed fat from the chicken until brown in a very little bit of cooking oil. Retain the oil and discard the chicken fat.

Chopped the cooked chicken into serving size after it cools down, and arrange on a plate with some sliced cucumber and tomato. To prepare the gravy, add dash of sesame oil, 2 tablespoons of light soya sauce, and bit of salt in a separate bowl. Mix well and pour evenly onto the chicken.

Reheat the chicken stock from cooking the chicken, add some greens or chinese cabbage to the chicken stock. Add some salt. This is the soup to be served with the dish later.

Its now ready to enjoy your home cooked Hainanese chicken rice. Nice tender chicken meat with a bowl of fragrant chicken rice, alongside with the chicken soup and chilli sauce. I start feeling famished again. Going to fix my growling stomach now.

Bye for now, and please try this simple dish and you will sure fall head over heels on Hainanese chicken rice.

BON APPETITE...