Saturday 2 February 2008

Hainan Chicken Rice

Here is a dish I cook about twice a month. There is not that much work involved, but does consume a fair bit of time because of the lengthy cooking process of the chicken, hence there is a lot of waiting around. It is certainly not a dish you can do after a long day at work and you want to cook a quick dinner. Even here, I have taken some short cuts because of time constraints.

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To start with, the raw ingredients here are simple.. chicken, ginger, garlic and spring onions.

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Bring them all to boil, then I add the chicken. If I had more time, I'd fry the ginger and garlic first and include the oil in the pot.

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After 1 minute, including time to turn the chicken over as I did not have enough water so submerge the whole chicken (why? .. I'll explain later), the chicken has now gone white and I quickly put it under cold water to tighten up the skin.

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Then I boil it again in the same pot.

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After 15 mins, I turn off heat and leave it for another 30 mins. Then I give it another cold water bath!

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Now, I lay it aside to dry. I ensure I keep it suspended in the air so that the whole surface dries. Some people may prefer to use a hook and hang it up.

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Now, I boil down the stock. Earlier, I said I did not have enough water to submerge the whole chicken. That is because, the more water I use, the longer it takes to boil the stock down and I did not have the time. I also add a bit of Knorr's chicken stock here for additional flavour. Of course, I add salt, sugar and pepper to taste as well.

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With the stock ready, I add it to my rice, with a blade of screwpine (pandan) leaf.

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When the chicken is dry, I rub it with sesame oil, then chop it the Chinese way. The sauce is a mixture of sugar, stock, soy sauce, sesame oil, pepper and spring onions

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The first pic of this blog showed the dry version of the dish. I prefer mine soaked with sauce like this!!

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12 comments:

daphne said...

yum! and u cut the chicken the proper way.kekek.

Anonymous said...

Very professional looking! hehe. You've got me salivating!

HairyBerry said...

you have included all the right ingredients, not to mention the quenching technique too. if only you had a kampung chicken, it would have been even more flavourful. did you make the chilli sauce yourself, too?

wmw said...

Twice a month? Obviously you have a liking for this dish. I like the chicken rice but as for the chicken, it must not have any blood on it...that's one of the reasons why I prefer roast chicken.

Terri @ A Daily Obsession said...

OM! i am kicking the screen, esp tt last pic!!man, u r good!

Hazza said...

daphne,
Almost proper ... I have to debone the breast for my wife!

lemongrass,
professional is a "subjective" word, lol! Some pros in the UK makes bad tasting chicken!

nic,
does kampung chicken simply means "free range" or a specific breed? I have used corn fed chicken before but was told off for paying three times the price of a normal one! I'm afraid chillli is a bottle called "singapore Chilli Sauce", made in Liverpool!

wmv,
you must be "new school", lol ;). When I was young, my granny's chicken always has blood from its marrows, but we knew little about e-coli and salmonella back then. Today, I do my best to ensure blood is brown, not red, bit not to overcook it otherwise it will not taste smooth.

terri,
You like it full of sauce too, eh? Bad for health, but good at satisfying your cravings!

Unknown said...

That chicken looks so good! I have not seen the chicken rinsed in cool water before. I have also not seen the hanging trick with chopsticks, very smart of you! I must try that. And of course, I love the sauce :) Oh what a great blog post, you are making me hungry!

"Joe" who is constantly craving said...

omg what a good job!!..i wouldnt b bothered to be honest..haha just buy and put in ur mouth is the best way

ling239 said...

Happy CNY ~ Hazza ^_^

Unknown said...

Happy Chinese New Year Hazza! I can't wait for the New Year's Banquet I am going to.

I was curious about the focus/blur photo idea. I found out it is the "spot focus" option on my Elph manual focus setting. See my candy post where I was playing around with that setting, and made my first focus/blur photo. :)

HairyBerry said...

hazza, i think free range chicken will be a more appropriate term...but i guess geographical factor does create a certain diversity as the chicken are fed with different ingredients...never had experiences with corn-fed chicken though...

teckiee said...

OMG! Respect! *bows to hazza!*