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.
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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!
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RECIPE
Hainanese Chicken Rice
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.
So good!
Thank you so much! 🙂