HAINANESE CHICKEN RICE or Chicken Rice (Updated Version)

Hainanese Chicken Rice is a dish of Chinese origin, a local specialty from the island of Hainan off the coast of China, most commonly associated with Singaporean or Malaysian cuisine, it is also commonly sold in neighboring Thailand. The version found in Singapore region combines elements of Hainanese and Cantonese cuisines. The dish was popularised in the 1950s by Moh Lee Twee.

This is one of the favorites of the family. I love this one dish meal, you have the chicken, rice and vegetable in one recipe, very light yet filling.  I happen to develop my own version of this dish because my husband loves this so much, one time when we were in Singapore, he was able to finish 2 orders of this dish in big bowls in one sitting.  And when my sister tasted this recipe, it became an instant favorite as well. Even my daughter has developed a deep love for the dish, she even uses the condiments, even the cilantro and chillies.  I hope you’ll enjoy preparing and eating this dish as much as we did. We consider this as one of our comfort foods. 

There are 4 components to this dish, the cooked Chicken, the flavored rice, the different condiments, dipping sauce and the soup (this is my addition to the dish),  I have added vegetables to it.  It may look intimidating, but believe me it's simple and worth all your effort,  specially if you like "Chicken Rice".  This recipe will not disappoint you :)  Enjoy!

You may want to watch the cooking video HERE

Ingredients:
1 to 1 ½ kilo Whole Chicken
1-2  heads Garlic, peeled & smashed
½ Tbsp. Whole Black Peppercorns
2 Large onions, diced
2 tbsps rock salt
2 tbsps of Ginger, sliced julienne

Pandan leaves, few leaves
Seasoning granules or 1 to 2 pcs Chicken broth cube
Enough water to boil the chicken

More salt (as needed)

Flavoured rice:

2-4 cups of rice

Enough chicken broth from the cooked chicken, to cook the rice

Dipping Sauce for the cooked chicken:
½ cup Soy Sauce
3-4 tbsps. Sugar
1 tbsp Finely Chopped Ginger
½ tsp of Sesame Oil
Red Chillies (optional) Chopped coarsely

For garnishing: 
Bunch of cilantro, coarsely chopped

Spring Onions, coarsely chopped

For the vegetable soup
Carrots, Pechay Baguio, portion of the Chicken broth around 4-6 cups of chicken broth (the broth from boiled chicken)

Directions:

Get the whole chicken, rub the skin of the whole chicken with rock salt. Wash it thoroughly with water, let it drip for a moment, and set aside. In a small bowl mix the stuffing - crushed Garlic, Whole Black Peppercorns, diced Onions, Rock salt and ginger,  salt, plus the pandan leaves and stuff it inside the whole chicken.

Put the whole chicken in a big casserole, fill it with water till the chicken is covered with water, you can still add onion, ginger, pepper corn and pandan leaves into the cooking chicken to add more flavor to your broth. Cook it on high heat till it starts to boil, let it simmer on medium heat, add the chicken cubes, simmer slowly till the chicken is fork tender, add salt and pepper in the broth if needed. 

Take out the cooked chicken from the broth, put in a separate container with lid so it will stay warm while you cook the rice.

On a separate cooking casserole, or you may use rice cooker if you like, wash the rice with water, drain all water from the rice. For every cup of rice, put 2 cups of the cooked broth from the chicken. Adjust the amount of the broth according to your prefence, if you find the 1:2 ratio too much.   Cook the rice on medium heat, stirring it once or twice for even cooking, when its beginning to dry up, turn the heat to low.  Cook it till its done.

Meanwhile, you may prepare the dipping sauce, combine all the ingredients, except the Chillies (optional). Mix it very well.  

Serving suggestion:

Put a big scoop of hot rice in a plate, cut up the chicken, and put sliced chicken beside the rice and serve together with the vegetable soup and the dipping sauce and the garnishings for the chicken (as shown in the picture).  Happy eating!

MORE COOKING TIPS:

For this dish, we really need a whole chicken and put the stuffing inside. I’ve tried using other parts and just put the flavoring in the cooking water, the chicken didn’t came out as tasty.

You may choose to use the Cilantro and Spring Onion as garnishing when serving the meal, or mix it with the dipping sauce (we prefer it mixed with the sauce, it has a very nice taste).

If you like more vegetables, you may add steamed Petchay Baguio or Bakchoy (whatever is available in your area), some carrots and other vegetables that you like. Sometimes, what I do, if ever there’s more broth than what I needed for  the rice, I cooked all the vegetable in it and this can serve as soup. Or you may put cut up vegetables on top of the almost cooked rice and let it steam there for awhile. 

As for the dipping sauce, it you don’t like it to be too sweet, you may adjust it according to your preference (but from our experience, the sweeter, the better the sauce will taste). Should you choose to use the chillies, just mix it with the dipping sauce.  Enjoy!