FOODS FROM OTHER LANDS: Hainanese Chicken Rice

NOTE: The first post in my series, Veggies beyond Salads, was “Air-fryer Vegetable Tempura.” The dish is a favorite of mine and a classic from the lovely land of Japan. In this second post, I have decided to modify the series to “Foods from Other Lands” which expands the dish options to better suit a travel blog. I promise to err on the side of dishes where vegetables are key, not only by adding nutritional value but also by enhancing the overall taste of the dish. 

I have learned how to cook favorite dishes from 12 countries. This week, we move from Japan to China as the place of origin of what arguably is my favorite. However, Hainanese Chicken Rice is now more known and commonplace in Singapore and Malaysia.

Singapore skyline (with my book in the foreground)

I discovered Hainanese Chicken Rice in Hyatt Regency (now Grand Hyatt) Singapore in the early 1990s when I was still traveling the world for work. It is reported that the hotel chef has perfected the recipe over the past thirty years and that the Hyatt branch in Singapore remains the place to taste the best of this dish.

Fortunately, the dish is also widely available, for just a song, in the hawkers’ centers all over the city-state. In 2017 while I was on an overnight layover at the airport hotel in the KL International Airport 2, I found a branch of the much sought-after Malaysian chain The Chicken Rice Shop built around the dish. I had a treat!

my girlfriends and I enjoying Hainanese Chicken Rice at the KL International Airport 2

Yes, the dish is very popular all over Southeast Asia. It originated from Hainan, a region in southern China as the dish called Wenchang chicken. Immigrants from that part of the region brought with them the wonderful dish wherever they eventually settled. It became known as Hainanese Chicken Rice and has become Singapore’s unofficial national dish which Malaysia contests, having also adopted it as a culinary staple.

I just had to learn how to make it. There are many versions offered on the Internet but they all seem far too complicated. This is my simplified version, still in keeping with the three key secrets of the dish: how the chicken is cooked (poached slowly at low temperature), how the rice is cooked (steamed with the poaching broth), and the sauces with the poaching broth as the base (and I simplify to only two).

THE RECIPE

Note: This recipe is a serving for four and can be finished in an hour and a half.

 Ingredients: 

poaching the chicken thighs

Hainanese Chicken

4 medium chicken thighs (with skin and bone)

Salt and pepper to taste

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1tablespoon minced ginger

2 tablespoons chopped green onions

3 cups water

3 teaspoons “Better than Bouillon” chicken base 

cooking the rice

Hainanese Rice

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 cup Jasmine or long-grain rice

3 cups broth from the poached chicken

 Sweetened Soy Sauce

½ cup broth made from the poached chicken

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon brown sugar 

the chili sauce to the left and the sweetened soy sauce to the right

Chili Sauce

½ cup broth made from the poached chicken

1 teaspoon chili paste

Vegetable Sides:

1 cucumber, sliced into 1/8-inch circles

Bok choy leaves, steamed

 How to Prepare It: 

1. Make the Hainanese chicken:

a.     Dry the chicken thighs and apply salt and pepper all over.

b.     Make several slits on the chicken meat and insert minced garlic, minced ginger, and chopped green onions into the slits.

c.      Pour water into a pan. Mix Better than Bouillon chicken base into the water.  Put the chicken thighs into the water and bring it to a boil, then simmer in low heat for an hour.

garlic, green onion, and ginger

2. Make the chicken rice:

a.     Saute the minced garlic in the oil and medium heat

b.     Toast the rice in the garlic oil until all the oil is infused into the grains.

c.      Transfer the toasted rice into the rice cooker. Fill it with 2 cups of broth from the poached chicken. Reserve the other cup for the sauces. 

3. Prepare the sauces (while the rice is cooking):

a.     In a small bowl, mix the soy sauce and the brown sugar with ½ of the reserved broth made from the poached chicken.

b.     In another small bowl, mix the chili paste with the other half of the reserved broth made from the poached chicken.

steaming the leaves

4. Prepare the vegetables (while the rice is cooking).

a.     Slice the cucumber.

b.     Steam the bokchoy leaves. 

5. Serve the chicken with the hot steamed rice, the sauces, and the vegetables. 

Enjoy!

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