Hainanese Chicken Rice

Description:
I cook this dish for this year's mother day. Vitri... your post was very infectious. ;-p This dish is definitely easy to make. You can prepare other things if need to while waiting.

This chicken rice recipe is a combination of 2 recipes. The chicken is adapted from Simple Chinese Cooking by Kylie Kwong. The fragrant rice and the dipping sauces are adapted from Kuali of The Star Online by Amy Beh.

This recipe is made by omitting the chicken fat in the rice and sauce so you can serve it to the vegetarian guests.




Ingredients:
Pak Cham Kai (Chicken Steep in Stock)
2 whole small chickens (total weight 1.7kg), trim excess fat

5 L cold water
3 cups shao hsing wine
8 spring onion, trimmed and cut into two
1 bulb (about 14 cloves) garlic, skin removed and smashed
1 large red onion, quartered
1.25 cups ginger slices
0.25 cup coarse sea salt


Fragrant Rice
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
3 cloves garlic, lightly smashed
(reserve garlic oil - 0.75 Tbsp for making soya sauce dipping and 0.5 tsp for chilli sauce)

600 g Thai long grain rice, washed and drained
2 cm ginger, lightly smashed
2 tsp chicken style stock powder, Massel
0.25 tsp salt
3.5 cups water or enough quantity
3 pandan leaves, knotted


Chilli Ginger Sauce
2 Tbsp garlic chilli sauce, Lee Kum Kee
1 Tbsp dried chilli flakes
2 cm young ginger, chopped
0.5 tsp garlic powder
0.5 tsp garlic oil
Juice from 1 lime
100 mL (less than half a cup) hot water or more depending how thin or thick you want


Dipping Soy Sauce
5 Tbsp light soy sauce, Kikoman
3 Tbsp hot water
1.5 Tbsp caster sugar
0.75 Tbsp garlic oil
1 tsp sesame oil


Garnishing
Sliced cucumber
Sliced tomato



Directions:
Chicken:
Put all ingredients except the chickens in a big cooking pot and bring the water to boil. Then, reduce the heat and simmer for 40 minutes. Put the chicken into the simmering stock and gently simmer for 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and remove the pot from the stove. Leave the chicken in the stock for 3 hours.

Take the chicken out from the stock, drain and let it cool. Cut into pieces.


Rice
Saute the garlic in warm oil until garlic turns yellow. Reserve some of the oil for the dipping sauces.

Put all ingredients in the rice cooker. Cook till done.


Chilli Ginger Sauce
Put all ingredients in a blender. Blitz for 1 minute or until all ingredients blend well and ginger is cut into small pieces. Pour into a small bowl


Dipping Soy Sauce
Mix soy sauce, water and sugar until sugar dissolves. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well.



Cook's Note:
- The remaining stock can be used as base for chicken soup, vegetable soup, stock for stir frying etc.
- The rice will be tastier if using chicken oil, rendered from chicken fat.