Hainanese Chicken Rice
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In this article, we’re going to prepare a highly requested dish and this is how to prepare ‘Hainanese chicken rice‘ Hainanese chicken rice is made up of various parts First is the chicken, then we have the rice and also the soup that comes together Not to forget also, the different sauces that comes together with this dish This dish is very popular in Malaysia and also in Singapore I know many of you requested for this dish So,
finally the recipe is here Now, let’s move on to the ingredients so that we could quickly see how the chicken rice would look like The main ingredient of this dish is chicken I’m using a whole chicken because I will be serving 4 Depending on the size of the chicken, you have to gauge it yourself If you are alone or you’re cooking for 2, I would suggest you get some drumsticks that is attached to the thighs You may use that It’s also perfect So now, we move on to spring onions, ginger, some sauces here, soy sauce, sesame oil I have some chicken fats here because we will need the chicken fats to cook the rice later on and also salt The next part of it would be the rice Here:
I have some rice, a blade of pandan leaf just to make the rice really fragrant Then we move on to
shallot,
ginger,
garlic,
soy sauce and some sesame oil.
We’re first going to prepare the chicken To make it easier when we carve it later on, we have to remove the wishbone Now, this is an optional step If you don’t want to, skip it I like to do it because it really makes things easier when we want to cut it up later First, look for the breast It’s connected to the neck of the chicken Then, you’ll find this bone that is shaped like a ‘Y’ Reach up to the top of the connecting bones and you can just pull it off When you get it out, it will look like this, exactly like a ‘Y’ It is not called a wishbone for no reason because it is really a wishbone You can always take this and clean it up, of course and have a quick game What you do is to have 2 persons holding each bone on either side Then, make a wish Quickly pull it off See which side of the bone is longer So, the person who has the longer bone would actually have his/her wish granted That’s the story of the wishbone Remember to give the chicken a scrub with some salt I did this the night before So, after giving the chicken a scrub, the skin will appear smoother Remember also to remove the extra feathers Going to pour the sauce into the chicken Turn it over quickly Give it a few rubs I’m going to stuff in some ginger and also some spring onions Now that we have the stuffings in the chicken,
I’m just going to use a very simple thread, wound round a few times to make it thicker and I’m going to tie the legs of the chicken to ensure that the stuffings will not fall out during cooking The next step is to cook the chicken Over here, I have a big pot with some water in it It had been boiling With the breasts facing downwards, slowly put the chicken into the pot Another thing that you need to ensure is to have the water in the pot covers the chicken entirely As it is not fully covering the chicken, I’m going to add a bit of hot water As we wait for this to boil, we may always add more spring onions or you may add carrots, radish, different kinds of vegetables It’s actually the soup for the chicken rice We will also use this soup to cook the rice later on Take a look once the water starts boiling Carefully turn the chicken over so that we’ll have the back part of the chicken fully cooked as well Once we have the soup simmering together with the chicken, we can then cover the pot While waiting for the chicken to cook, we are going to prepare the rice So, I have a pot with 1 tablespoon of oil in it Then I’m going to add the chicken fats You can get the chicken fats while cleaning the chicken itself I have some chicken fats attached with some skin as well What we really want is the fragrance from the fats/oil Once you see the skin turns a little golden brown and we have enough of oil, Just going to remove the skin very quickly Then, in goes the garlic, ginger and also shallots We’re going to quickly toss them around until they are really fragrant Then, I’m going to put in the pandan leaf as well,
sesame oil and a bit of soy sauce You have to really cook this at low heat Quickly add in the rice Mix it evenly I’m just going to leave the rice aside now because the chicken is ready As I’ve mentioned previously, I have a bowl here filled with ice I’m going to put the chicken into this bowl We will leave the chicken in the cold bath for about 10 seconds to just immediately stop the cooking process Now, we can gloss the chicken with some sesame oil and a bit of salt just to add this beautiful glaze on the chicken and also to add some fragrance Remember we had the rice earlier Now it’s time to add some soup into the rice To cook the rice, you need to ensure that the soup does not only cover the rice but it has to be of the same height of the rice as well That means, it’s basically 2 to 1 ratio 1 is for the rice and 2 for the soup I’m just going to boil this in the pot Once it boils, I’m going to bring the heat to low Then, just cover the pot and let it cook To have a great chicken rice, you need to remember the accompanying sauces So, I have here some soy sauce, ‘shao xing’ wine, sesame oil and also sugar Another important sauce that goes really well with this dish is the chicken rice chilli sauce In my previous video, remember to see it here if you haven’t That’s the chilli garam recipe We need that as the chilli sauce Let’s move on to mixing the sauces We’ll begin with the sugar, sesame oil, soy sauce and ‘shao xing’ wine Mix them thoroughly As for the chilli sauce, I’m going to take 2 tablespoons of chilli garam Then, we’ll add the soup into the chilli sauce or else it will not be complete Give it a few quick stirs If you like, you may always add some salt and sugar just to enhance the taste Otherwise,
it’s good to go As for the soy sauce mix that we had earlier, we will also need to add the soup The sauces are ready, the soup is ready and the rice too So, now it’s all down to the chicken I’m just going to carve the chicken So, I’m just going to show you how it’s done Try to use a bigger knife Make sure it’s sharp Make sure the chicken breast is facing upwards Remove all the spring onions and ginger so that they will not be in the way when we cut the chicken So, once you have the chicken cut into half, take one half of it, lay it flat and we’re going to cut the chicken wing first As for the drumstick, the knife is going to go across to remove the drumstick We’re now left without the drumstick and the wing So, I’m just going to cut this into half again All you need to do is to cut them into slices Pour some soy sauce mixture over the chicken Garnish with some cilantro Scoop some soup into a bowl Finally, I have everything assembled I’ve placed the chicken on a plate I have drizzled a bit of soy sauce mixture on it Hmmm….
Hainanese Chicken Rice | Nasi Ayam Hainan | 海南鸡饭
Oh, so good… The chicken is moist, not dry at all The sauce makes everything so delicious So, those of you who had been requesting this recipe, I hope you would try it If you had never tried chicken rice, you’re really missing out a lot Another thing that is really core to this dish is the soup itself So, I’m going to try it now I’ve added a bit of salt just to taste and also some radish As I’ve mentioned earlier, feel free to add in some vegetables Try this recipe and tell me what you think Remember to subscribe to Nyonya Cooking, if you are new to us Stay tuned for new recipes I hope you enjoyed this video Till then, happy cooking!