Hainan Chicken Rice Recipe

 Hainanese chicken rice courtsey of Eliza Lim

For poaching chicken I just put vegies like carrot, leek, onion, garlic, ginger in to boil with white pepper, light soy sauce and Chinese wine in a large pot of water.

You just put enough water in pot with vegies and seasoning to cover whole chicken. Bring to boil, lower whole chicken, reduce to simmer on low for about 50 min and then switch off and let it sit for about 15 min. After you carve chicken up you can put bones back and keep simmering for tastier stock that you can freeze

For cooking rice

Place equal cup rice to stock in rice cooker.  Put in a bit of sesame oil, some ginger pieces, fried garlic, pinch of salt – stir through & hit the cook button.

For garlic chili dipping sauce

•   10 fresh red chilies

•   2 cm piece ginger

•   4 garlic cloves

•   1/4 teaspoon salt

•   1 teaspoon lime juice

•   2 tablespoons chicken stock (from the boiled chicken. This stock is essential for the chilli sauce)

Just add all ingredients into a blender or food processor, and give it a good whizz, until ingredients are well blended. Adjust the seasoning with more salt or sugar to taste. The chili garlic sauce can be kept in the refrigerator for about 2-3 days only.

If you are lazy, bottled Garlic Chili dipping sauce can be purchased from any Asian grocer.

Ginger sauce for dipping

•   75 g ginger

•   6 garlic cloves

•   1/2 teaspoon salt

•   1 teaspoon lime juice

•   2 tablespoons chicken stock (again stock from the boiled chicken)

To prepare the ginger sauce is the same as the Chili Garlic - give the ingredients a good whiz in the blender.  What gives the extra oomph for the sauces is the stock from the chicken broth -- so, do not omit this ingredient.

Sauce for chicken

•   1 tablespoon garlic oil

•   1 teaspoon sesame oil

•   5 tablespoons light soya sauce (adjust according to taste)

•   Dash of oyster sauce

•   1 1/2 tablespoons sugar (adjust according to taste)

•   3 tablespoons chicken broth  (use more if you want more sauce)

Lastly combine all the ingredients for the chicken sauce and pour it all over the cut up chicken. You can add more soya sauce and chicken broth to the chicken if you prefer. Just adjust the taste of the sauce with soya sauce and chicken broth.  If you do not have garlic oil,you can fry a few cloves of garlic in oil for few minutes then take out oil and garlic pour it into a jar, and let the garlic steep inside the oil.

Garnishing

•   fresh coriander leaves

•   sliced spring onion

•   sliced cucumber

Spread coriander & spring onion over chicken pieces.  Eat with chicken rice & sliced cucumber & dipping sauces. 

I like adding some oyster sauce to my garlic chili sauce when I am eating this dish.

Extras

Microwave some beanshoots for 1-2 mins, pour some of the sauce for the chicken and an extra dash or two of oyster sauce and stir through.  Eat together with the chicken rice.

HAINAN CHICKEN RIUCE CONTINUED

Ok so now you know i like this dish but I'm quite particular about it. The soup must be hot and flavoursome and the chicken must be succulent. When serving the dish, I like to place the rice in a soupbowl and pak it in then invert it on a dinner plate so it forms a nice round mound. On top of the rice, place slices of white chicken so that they slightly overlap. Place slices of fresh cucumber on either side of the mound. i also like to quickly cook baby bak choi in the chicken stock and add some to the plate. Before serving, I pour some of the chicken sauce over the centre of the chicken, not too much as to drown the chicken and discolour the rice, just enough to moisten both. The accompanying condiments are served separately. in teh next blog, i will divulge our recipe....

hainan chicken rice

Hainan Chicken rice, a popular dish in malaysia and Singapore - it can be considered Singapore's national dish - is a simple dish of poached chicken, steamed rice, and chicken soup, but there is a major difference between a good one and a version that is just so-so. The chicken should be juicy which often it is not, having sat on the counter all day. the soup needs to taste of chicken, not just hot water. The rice must be light and fluffy not dried-out glug from the bottom of the pan. And most importantly, the condiments that accompany this dish - the ginger dressing, and the ground fresh red chilli must be home-made and delicious and not just poured out of a bottle. Yuk, I hate cornflour! For teh above reasons, if you got to Maxwell Food market in Tajong Pagar, Singapore, you will see two Chicken rice stalls -  one is always busy with people and the other dead quiet. True, Singaporeans love to queue and so join a line because they want to do what everyone else is doing, but the plain fact of the matter is, one chicken rice is good and the other is not. In future blogs, i will reveal the secrets of Hainan Chicken rice. 

welcome to the first blog of eugenius cafe! we invite all manner of food and drink discussion here. as passionate foodies, mary and eugene have their own unique (and different) opinions on what constitutes a good meal, a good recipe, not to mention a good coffee - he says there is no such thing as strong coffee, whereas she has a more refined palate perhaps. When it comes to food, though, they both like spicy. At Eugenius, there are many different house-created concoctions of spice ranging from kasundi which is delicious on eggs and strong meats such as lamb, and a sriracha-style chilli sauce which makes an unbelievable bloody mary. recipes will be posted in coming weeks