Hainanese Chicken Rice

Updated 21 June 2012

Ok Zoe, the ingredients are all loaded up today:-p

As I had mentioned, I hadn't been able to post up using my office PC... (hope my boss doesn't see this, else she will knows that I have been blogging.... hahahaha)

I was just trying out my luck today to see if I was able to post the recipe up using my office PC. A couple of times when I had keyed in everything, and tried to publish my post, the whole screen just gone blank. I told it was just my office PC that I can't blog anymore... that puts me off, as I can only blog when I am in the office, otherwise back home, it is totally impossible to do so with my 3 kiddos... hahaha... that is where I can find PEACE when I am in the office... ooopsie... hehehehe.....

Here is the Hainanese Chicken Rice, a very long to-cook-dish... finally, tried, tested and tasted... Yummy indeed...

My mum made very delicious chicken rice too, but everytime when she cooked them, I had never really pay attention to what she was telling me, how to cook it, how to prepare and what were the ingredients... hahaha.. Lazy me, well thinking, after all mum makes the best chicken rice, so I won't need to know anyway... kekeke... Eventually, now at my own comfty nest, buying my small tiny oven, I had started to bake last year and started to cook eventually during the weekends when the mood comes...

OkOk, back to the chicken rice topic... I just trial & error on this chicken rice, getting back of what my mum had used when she cook hers and asking my friend of how she cooked. My mum used the steaming method while my friend used boiling method. So i have 2 options, but the options lies beneath my pots... hahahaha!!! As my pots aint too big, so I had opted for boiling method. It was a tough one too as I couldn't decide what size of chicken I should buy... gosh... typical blur aunty. :-p
So off I went to the market to buy a kampong chicken as it is supposed to be more tender and juicier, price range of course slightly more expensive than the normal chicken. Finally went back home with all the ingredients, ready to start my battle with the chicken...!!!

Here are the ingreients that I had used:

(Gathering all the ingredients from Peng's Kitchen, my mum's and my friend's)

Ingredient
Stock

3 liter water

1 large chicken

(I had forgotten to ask the chicken seller how heavy the kampong chicken was, but a big kampong chicken)

few stalks spring onion

1 large onion, sliced

1 head garlic, smashed
30-50gm ginger, sliced

2-3 leek, chopped
2 carrots, chopped

2-3 lemongrass, chopped & smashed

Method
1. In a large pot, bring water to boil. Add garlic, onion, leek, lemongrass and carrots. Boil about 20mins.

2. Add chicken (stuffed with ginger & spring onion-I will opt for more ginger & more spring onions). Bring to boil. Turn down heat to simmer for 35mins. Meanwhile prepare a large bowl of iced cold water. It must cover the whole chicken. This is to keep the meat tender and moist as it stops cooking immediately.

3. Remove chicken and drain excess water from cavity. Place the chicken into the cold water for 10 mins. Drain and rub some sesame oil over and let the chicken cool to room temperature.

4. Reserve stock to cook rice.

5. Cut chicken into pieces. Arrange with sliced cucumber and tomatoes on a plate. Mix together 2 tbsp light soya sauce and 1 tsp sesame oil. Drizzle over chicken.

Rice

500gm raw rice (abt 3 cups of rice)

3 tbsp oil

30-50gm shallots, finely chopped

6-10 cloves garlic
35-50gm ginger

pandan leaves, tied in a bunch (put more for the fragrant)

1-2 lemongrass, chopped & mashed

750ml chicken stock

1 tsp salt

Method1. Wash rice 2-3 times and drained dry.

2. Heat oil in wok, fry shallot, ginger, garlic & lemongrass, fry until ingredient turn light brown and fragrance. Add raw rice and stir-fry for 5 mins to bring out the fragrance.

3. Transfer fried rice into rice cooker. Add chicken stock, pandan leaves and salt to taste.

Balance stock can be used as soup or refreezed them for future used:)