Hainanese Chicken Rice

[zhemao]

This is a rice dish that involves cooking white rice in chicken broth instead of water. It is a simple but incredibly delicious dish. It can take multiple days to prepare, since you will need to make the broth and then refrigerate it before using it to make the rice. Therefore, it's best to plan ahead a bit.

As the name suggests, the recipe originates on Hainan Island in southern China. However, the dish is mostly associated with overseas Chinese communities in Singapore and Malaysia.

Making the Broth

Ingredients:

• Chicken (traditionally whole chicken is used, if that's too much, bone-in chicken thighs work well)


• Ginger


• Scallions


• Salt

Directions:

1. Prepare the chicken by rubbing salt onto the surface. Do this until you think the surface is evenly covered. If there is skin on the chicken, you should see the pores open up and become more visible.


2. Bring a pot of water to boil. If you have a steamer tray, you can steam the chicken, which will be slightly easier. Otherwise, you will have to boil it. If boiling, make sure there's enough water to completely cover the chicken.


3. Add the chicken to either the water or the steamer tray.


4. If boiling, wait for the water to come back up to boil. At this point, you should see some scum and clotted blood develop on the surface. Skim this off with a strainer.


5. Add 2-3 slices of ginger, turn the heat to low, and cover.


6. Steam or simmer for 30-45 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Add scallions towards the end of the cooking. There may be some more scum that comes out during the cooking, make sure to strain these out.


7. Remove the chicken and separate out the other solids from the liquid with a strainer.

Now you have some delicious bai zhan ji (plain steamed chicken) and chicken broth. To use it for making the rice, you will want to refrigerate it first, probably overnight. But you can also drink the broth with the chicken, or use it for making noodle soup.

Making the rice

After refrigerating overnight, you can make the rice pretty much as you would make normal white rice. Highly suggest using a rice cooker for this. If you don't have one, you can cook rice in a normal pot, but you will have to watch it carefully so that it doesn't burn. Follow this video to learn how to make rice without a rice cooker.

Ingredients:

• Chicken broth


• Garlic (minced or use garlic powder)


• Scallions (yes, more scallions)


• White rice (I use Calrose rice, but Jasmine rice would probably also work)

Directions:

1. When you take the chicken broth out of the fridge, you should see a layer of solidified fat on top.


2. Take this fat off the top with a spoon and save it.


3. Wash the rice until the water runs clear. This is important whenever you make rice. Drain the water in between washings and at the end.


4. Heat up a pan or pot and put in the chicken fat.


5. Once the fat has melted, add the garlic, scallions, and rice. Stir this mixture until the fat has been absorbed by the rice and the garlic and scallions become fragrant.


6. Transfer the rice to the cooker.


7. Add in the chicken broth. You will want the same volume of liquid as rice, plus about a cup more.


8. Set the rice cooker to cook normal white rice and wait until it's done.

That's pretty much it. In the end, you get very flavorful rice. The rice at the bottom might be a little burnt, but that's okay. Actually, I think the burnt parts are the most delicious. Enjoy your chicken rice along with the steamed chicken from before and some vegetable side dishes.

You may have some leftover broth after this. As mentioned previously, there are plenty of things you can do with it. I may post another recipe that uses it later.

Credit: mostly based off of this recipe with modification

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