Dinner Tonight: Hainanese Chicken Rice
Hainanese chicken rice dish from a recent Singaporean street food demo in New York.
I'll be very honest: Hainanese chicken rice looks like one of the most boring dishes on this fair Earth.
The white chicken pieces sit atop a blob of white rice. Looks more like a meal fit for the worst of diets, as opposed to a delicious Singaporean dish. While watching Anthony Bourdain in Singapore, I felt like everyone was raving about the national dish. Not only does the chicken have no color, the sucker is boiled in water. How good could this monochromatic dish be?
Awfully good, as it turns out, which we confirmed a couple weeks ago at a Singaporean street food demo in New York. The white chicken is slowly cooked and infused with garlic and ginger while the white rice cooks in the water leftover from the cooking chicken. Every ounce of this meal has a quiet, haunting flavor, which makes it the perfect foil for the ringing condiments. A garlic and ginger paste adds the zing, and a blazing hot red chili sauce, the fire. As Bourdain described on the show, how you mix the condiments with the "chicken rice" is almost as important as the dish itself. I like mine real spicy.
Since this was my first time trying the dish, my rave has to be qualified with ignorance. I found this version in Saveur. It does feel good to be completely shocked by a meal, kind of like I felt after making Batali's Chicken with Green Sauce. The total preparation takes a little over an hour, but its turning into a weekly exercise.
About the author: Nick Kindelsperger is a co-founder of The Paupered Chef, a blog dedicated to saving time and money while enjoying food in every way possible. He sells wine for a living and lives in Columbus, Ohio.
Hainanese Chicken Rice
- serves 4 -
Adapted from Saveur
Ingredients:
1 chicken
1 large piece of a ginger, peeled
12 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
1 scallion
1 1/2 cups jasmine rice
5 tablespoons canola oil
4 shallots, finely chopped
Salt
6 red chilies
1 lime
1/2 teaspoon rice vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
Procedure
1. Bring 5 quarts of water to a boil in a very large pot. Sprinkle the outside and inside of the chicken with salt. Tuck 2 cloves of garlic, one small thumb-sized piece of ginger, and the scallion into the cavity. Tie the legs together with kitchen string, keeping the cavity closed. When the water reaches a boil, add the chicken to the pot. Bring the water back to a boil, then reduce the heat to very low, cover the pot, and let cook for 30 minutes. Once done, remove the chicken and toss in enough ice water to completely cover the chicken. (At least 2 ice cube trays full should work.) The point is to cool down the chicken for 10 minutes, as much as possible. Drain and set aside.
2. Meanwhile, start making the sauces. Toss about 2 thumb-sized pieces of ginger, 2 teaspoons of salt, and 3 tablespoons of canola oil into a blender. Process until smooth. Set aside. Wash out the blender for the second sauce.
3. Add the serrano chilies, 1 shallot, 1 thumb sized piece of garlic, 3 cloves or garlic, juice of 1 lime, 1 tablespoon water, the rice vinegar, and the sugar. Process until blended. Set aside.
4. In another large pot, pour in two tablespoons of canola oil and turn the heat to medium-high. Add 3 of the chopped shallots, and 5 chopped garlic cloves. Cook for about 30 seconds, then dump in the rice and cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
5. Add three cups of the water leftover from cooking the chicken. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes.
6. Remove the skin from the chicken, and slice the meat into 1/2-inch thick strips. Pile the rice on a plate, top with the chicken, and stir in the condiments as you see fit.
View other entries from Dinner Tonight.
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.
8 Comments:
I thought the same thing, that it would be incredibly like a can of condensed chicken/rice soup with too much water added. But Bourdain did like it, and this recipe looks to be worth a try. Nick, thanks for posting this.
LunaPierCook at 4:54PM on 09/29/08
I just made this for dinner. Super tasty.
8ptstars at 1:37AM on 09/30/08
Chicken rice in Singapore is a staple dish, hence the boringness of it. Even as a Singaporean, I wouldn't say I find it an orgasmic culinary experience but it is a tasty, savoury treat once in awhile.
Yu Ming Lui at 3:24AM on 09/30/08
My brother also lives there. I really enjoyed the dish when I visited, granted I only ate it once as there were too many other delicious things to try!
gastronomeg at 12:11PM on 09/30/08
No way, you need to cook the rice in the rendered fat from the chicken, not canola oil! The best way to do it is to pull out the big lumps of fat from the cavity of the chicken before you start cooking it, and render that out. Top it up with extra oil only if you aren't able to render out enough fat to coat the rice grains well before cooking.
w at 12:56AM on 10/06/08
don't forget the chili sauce and lots of fresh cilantro!
lifesagasp at 9:39AM on 10/06/08
Thanks for the recipe, my friend who cooks the most delicious Hainanese chicken rice actually includes one secret ingredient: Pandan leaves are added to the braising liquid which gives the chicken and rice a characteristic favour.
sctonyling at 10:49AM on 10/07/08
I know I'm a little late to the party... but just made this last night, and even my Asian food hating boyfriend. (Yes, seriously. Every single kind. No matter what the spice profile or ingredients.) So I didn't tell him what it was before he ate it.)
terremotia at 1:04PM on 03/27/09