Hainanese Chicken Rice

I had to take a little break from posting recipes because I hurt my back and couldn’t move much. But it’s slowly getting better, and I thought it’s the perfect time to share this recipe for Hainanese Chicken Rice!

There’s something about chicken rice that feels like it soothes my soul whenever I feel slightly under the weather. It was really something I was craving for over the past week, so I’m super happy that I finally made it today!

As you can tell from its name, Hainanese Chicken Rice originates from Hainan, China. However, it’s an incredibly popular dish back in Malaysia, and also in Singapore.

You have so many components that make up the brilliance of this dish: the juicy chicken, the sauces, and the rice. “The rice?”, you might ask. Yes, indeed. You cook chicken rice not just with plain water, but with chicken stock and some chicken fat as well! That creates such a deep, flavorful taste that ties everything together. It’s SO delicious!!

I know, it seems like a lot of work but I promise, it’s fairly simple and so worth it.

This is a heart-warming dish that you’ll have to try. Enjoy!

Looking for more rice recipes? Here you go:

• Tom Yum Fried Rice
• Chili Oil Spam Fried Rice (15 minutes)
• Karaage Don
• Salmon Crab Stick Sushi Bake

RECIPE

Print Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Hainanese Chicken Rice

My take on the popular and classic Malaysian and Singaporean rice dish. The poached chicken is juicy and eaten with a flavorful rice cooked in chicken broth. Paired perfectly with the tastiest ginger scallion sauce and spicy sauce.

Prep Time15 mins

Cook Time45 mins

Total Time1 hr

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Asian, Malaysian, Singaporean

Servings: 4

Ingredients

Poached Chicken

• 3 lb chicken thigh see notes
• 2 green onions
• 3 slices ginger
• 5 cloves garlic smashed
• water
• 2 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp sesame oil

Chicken Soy Sauce Drizzle

• 1 cup chicken broth
• 3 tbsp light soy sauce

Ginger Scallion Sauce

• 2 green onions finely diced
• 5 cloves garlic minced
• 1 tbsp ginger minced
• 1/4 cup neutral oil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar

Spicy Sauce

• 4 tbsp chili garlic sauce
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp rice vinegar see notes

Rice

• 3 cups uncooked rice
• chicken fat trimming see notes
• chicken broth from poaching chicken

Others

• cucumber sliced

Instructions

Poaching Chicken

• Exfoliate the chicken skin gently with salt and rinse under water. Trim off some of the chicken skin/fats for the rice.
• Place chicken in a pot and add the green onions, ginger, garlic and salt. Cover the chicken with water. Bring to a boil with the pot lid on.
• Once boiling, skim as much of the scum as possible and turn down the heat to low. Cover the pot with the lid and let it simmer for 20 minutes.
• Once the 20 minutes are up, turn off heat and leave the chicken for another 10 minutes.
• Prepare an ice bath in the meantime and once the the 10 minutes are up, put the chicken in the ice bath to stop the cooking process. Leave for 10-15 minutes.
• Make the chicken soy sauce drizzle.
• Debone the chicken and slice the chicken into 1 inch slices. Drizzle over the chicken soy sauce and some sesame oil.

Chicken Rice

• Add the chicken skin and/or fat trimmings to a pan over medium heat. Let it cook for 4-5 minutes or until there's oil in the pan.
• Add the washed uncooked rice and lightly fry it for 3-5 minutes so that the flavor of the rendered chicken fat infuses the rice.
• Transfer to a rice cooker and remove the chicken skin and fats.
• Use the chicken broth from the poached chicken to cook the rice. If you use 3 cups of rice, add 6 cups of chicken broth.

Ginger Scallion Sauce

• Add the ginger, green onions, garlic, salt and sugar to a bowl.
• Heat up the oil in a sauce pan and once it's hot, turn off heat and pour over the the raw ingredients in the bowl. Mix well.

Spicy Sauce

• Add all the ingredients to a bowl and mix well.

Notes

*I prefer using chicken thighs because it’s juicy. This up to preference. You can use any part of the chicken/the whole chicken. If you are using chicken breast, make sure the water only covers half of the chicken breast so it doesn’t dry up during the cooking process.

*Apple Cider Vinegar or white vinegar are also great substitutes.

*If you prefer to not use the chicken skin/fat trimmings, substitute with 2-3 tbsp of butter.

*This is my version of the ginger scallion sauce. I added a lot of garlic because Iove garlic. Adjust to your preference.

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