In our recent post on how to poach a chicken, a reader mentioned Mark Bittman's version of Hainanese chicken with rice. It's a pure, simple meal: Chicken poached with garlic and ginger, then shredded. The light, ginger-scented chicken broth is used to cook rice, and then the chicken and rice are served with a sprinkle of scallions and cilantro, and a drizzle of sesame oil.
It sounded like heaven on a plate, a nourishing meal for spring. And you know what? It is.
Hainanese chicken and rice is a classic Singaporean or Malaysian dish that is now considered the national dish of Singapore. It's so simple and elemental: Cook a chicken in water and a few aromatics. Then shred the chicken of its cooked meat, and cook some rice in the leftover chicken stock. Serve the meat and rice together with a dipping sauce, vegetables, or other accompaniments. There are many regional and local versions, of course, and it seems that this is one of those comforting homestyle dishes that are served everywhere but really belong in the home kitchen.
There are many versions of this recipe, but the one I happened to see was Mark Bittman's from his Minimalist column.
• The Recipe: Hainanese Chicken With Rice at The New York Times
I had been craving this recipe ever since I looked it up, so when opportunity presented itself, I promptly bought a high-quality chicken and an enormous stalk of fresh ginger.
Process: This is not a difficult recipe, but it is relatively time-consuming, since you need to poach the chicken, then cook the rice and assemble the final dish. Overall, it took about 2 hours to poach the chicken, let it cool, cook the rice, and pull everything else together. But the time is absolutely worth it, and you get several different components of a meal left over for later eating. It's also very hands-off; I did most of the cooking in between some strenuous bouts of household spring cleaning!
Mark Bittman's version of this was quite easy to follow, although some of his instructions were a little sparse (what size skillet should we use for the rice, Mark?). It's OK though — this is a simple recipe, and very straightforward.
What you get, when you make this recipe, is the chicken itself, which is tender, mild, and very yummy. I shredded between 3 and 4 cups of meat off the chicken. Then there is the chicken broth, flavored with ginger and garlic. It's wonderfully spicy and delicious! You only use 4 cups in the rice, so you have some leftover broth for sipping or for soups. And finally you have this scrumptious rice — slippery with oil, and fragrant with shallots and garlic.
What I skipped: I did skip the dipping sauce, however, opting instead for a drizzle of soy sauce and sesame oil over a pile of chicken and rice. Oh, and a dab of chili-garlic sauce, too! I also skipped the tomatoes specified in the recipe, since decent tomatoes can't be had for love or money here in the Midwest right now. But I did slip in slices of crunchy, juicy cucumbers, and plenty of fresh cilantro and scallions.
End result: This is just a fabulous meal — it's a classic for a reason. It's simple, delicious, fresh, and easy. It's warm and homey enough for the chilly first weeks of spring, but the bright flavors of herbs, ginger, garlic, and chili paste bring this straight into the sunshine. It's light eating for springtime, and boy is it good.
It's such a great way to create good lunch leftovers, too; the rice, chicken, and broth can be combined with many other things for easy followup meals.
Do you ever cook chicken with rice? Have you tried this recipe? Or do you have other versions you recommend? I'm definitely hooked on this recipe; I'd love to try other variations!
Related: Jamie Oliver's Chicken in Milk Recipe
(Images: Faith Durand)
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That dab of chili-garlic sauce is what lured me into reading this! You know that stuff is nectar of the Gods.
Yay! I was "the reader" who originally suggested Bittman's version of this delicious chicken, and I'm so glad more people are trying it. The only variation I employ when making this dish is in the dipping sauce. I found the original sauce a bit too oily for my taste, so instead I blend equal amounts of sweet mirin, rice wine vinegar, and soy sauce and then top with a dash or two of sesame oil. One of my favorites.
This dish just looks so yummy!
@greenbayou, thanks so much for the recommendation - this was really good.
Just made hainanese chicken last week! Adapted a recipe from Steamy Kitchen. She has a killer red chili sauce recipe that cheats using Sriracha. I was skeptical at first but the taste was right on, and it only took a few minutes to whisk together!
The dipping sauces are my favorite part :)
On a work day, I prepare this in advance before I leave the house and by evening I've dinner ready: boil a big pot of water, when water is boiling, put a whole chicken (at room temperature and if possible rubbed with sesame oil, soy sauce and garlic powder inside and out the night before) into the pot. Turn off fire. Let the hot water work its magic for five to six hours. The chicken meat will fall off its bones - yums!
Oh this sounds so good. I can't wait to try it.
Interesting. The Hainanese Chicken Rice I grew up with was never shredded - always served on the bone.
I just adore the chicken flavoured broth and rice.
@greenbayou: Thanks so much! It was your comment that motivated me to give this a shot last week too.
Very delicious, though, as the post notes, tough for a weeknight because of the long stretches of time. Also, very little chicken made it to the end dish; it was so good, most of it was gone well before it even cooled off.
I do it all the time, it´s such a great dish. My favourite version is from the blog Chubby Hubby, from Singapore, but there´s a great cheat´s method in a recent column on cooking with chicken breasts in the NYT.
Shredded, seriously? :-/ Come on, the best part of Hainanese Chicken rice is a whole chicken quarter chopped into 4 parts with skin and bones. You can't have Hainanese chicken rice without the merriment of oil on your lips and chicken-y grease on your fingers! Heck, there are even rice balls dedicated to this.
Wow, what i'm mostly gonna take away from this is the poaching method from ICThomas and Bittman of boiling the water, with or without the chicken already in the pot, & then leaving the chicken in the hot water with the fire turned off to finish cooking. One thing I've always hated about poaching is having to constantly watch that the liquid stays just at the low simmer mark. This frees me up to leave the kitchen, even the house. thank you!
What if you made the chicken in a crockpot? Then you could make the rice part of the meal when you got home. I know this isn't technically poaching, but it would make it possible for a weeknight meal.
I just saw A. Bourdain's Singapore edition last night--he was booed once for admitting he'd never had chicken and rice when in Singapore. They showed the chicken being chopped into quarters; many fun condiments. I guess it's deceptively simple, with many variations.
@ICThomas ... I am concerned by this method of cooking, and the fact that you are letting the chicken cook in water that will only stay at a decent heat for a short time. I am struggling to NOT think of this boil and turn off the heat method as a factory for Bacteria.... hmmm does anyone know the science behind this method ??
@ ChristopherAlan: I guess at where I am (the tropics) the water stays hot longer than if you were in a colder country. I've had no problems so far - the chicken is always cooked. Trick is to make sure that the chicken is at room temperature when you put it in the pot.
In fact, there's another way that the Chinese cook their poultry where they are merely repeatedly dunked into boiling water but not poached in it. The typical end result is smooth succulent meat!
spent ten years in singapore and hainanese chicken rice is one of my "favorite things".. i say without the dipping sauces, it's a no-go
Actually, the correct term is not poaching but rather, "steeping". The chicken is placed into a pot of boiling water (with aromatics) and allowed to boil once and then the stove/fire is turned off. Don't remove the lid. The chicken should be ready after being steeped for about 30 - 60 more minutes. My family owns several chinese restaurants and it's prepared this way all the time.
True hainanese chicken rice should never have shredded chicken as previously mentioned. One other thing that I have not seen mentioned is the silkiness of the chicken. It is essential that the chicken is not overcooked, resulting in dry meat. Apart from the different poaching techniques one of the secrets is to immerse the whole chicken at the end of cooking in iced water for 10 minutes. You heard me! Try it, it makes a HUGE difference in the texture of the chicken, even the breast meat (usually disdained by the chinese as inferior meat, because of its tendency to dryness) gains in humidity and silkiness. The chicken is then quartered and chopped bone-in with a cleaver and served with cucumber, the rice and of paramount importance, hainanese chicken rice chilli sauce (which is a world of its own and could be the topic of an entire post).
My time and tested method:
Once the water boils, turn off the fire and put the chicken in. Cover. 30 mins later, remove the chicken, bring the water to a boil, turn it off, then put the chicken back in for another 30 minutes. Don't cook it for more than an hour (true Hainanese chicken is ever so slightly undercooked). After an hour, dunk it in ice water. Chop up the chicken, drizzle equal parts soy sauce and sesame oil. Serve with sliced cucumber.
The most important thing is to buy the best chicken you can. I get mine from Healthy Family Farm at the Hollywood Farmers' Market.
That's so funny - I have Chinese and Singaporean friends who insist that the "true" recipe ALWAYS has shredded meat! I guess that it's one of those recipes, like lasagna or other homestyle foods, that will always have ardent supporters of different styles!
i like the idea of the double dipped stock method! (much more than i would ever consider leaving a chicken in post-boiled water.... ) By no means am I questioning its effectiveness by the way, so I hope no-one is offended by my questions on bacteria.. i would just never leave a chicken to cook like that here in Sydney. :D
I am going to make a variation on this one tonight methinks! I just love the freshness of the Hainanese flavours.
I made this last week & have snacked on the leftovers for the last few days. I am in love. The chicken was tender, the rice fragrant, and the ginger/ cilantro topping with sesame oil & Siracha is amazing. One of my new favorite meals for Spring & Fall.
This was great; thank you for sharing. The rice is so tasty! I took Greenbayou's sauce suggestion and made my own with rice vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce, scallions, and ginger. We'll be eating this for a few days!
Just made this, it's very tasty! I served it with Momofuku's scallion sauce and sriracha (plus soy sauce and toasted sesame oil). Very comforting!
I love all the "true" hainese chicken methods out there :) I grew up in Malaysia and looooved eating "nasi ayam" translated to chicken with rice and this seems like very much the same thing. I'm not Malay though so I never really knew how to cook it as it wasn't made in my home. So excited to try this dish!
This is the first time I had ever come across a shredded-chicken version. I suppose it might appeal to parents with kids, or those squeamish about eating chopped-up chicken meat -- complete with bones, cartilage & even pinkish streaks of blood -- that's typically found in Hainanese Chicken Rice.
The below links lead to photos showing how Hainanese Chicken Rice typically looks like in Singapore & Malaysia.
1) Rice in the form of loose grains: http://bit.ly/XWToDJ
The standard dish consists of chopped chicken meat (with or without skin*), fragrant oily rice, sliced cucumber, & sprigs of Chinese parsley (occasionally substituted with spring onion). More luxurious versions might include tomato slices, shredded lettuce, & a separate bowl of chicken stock soup.
* The health-conscious can opt for chicken with the skin removed. At a hawker stall, if you don't explicitly indicate your preference, the default is chicken meat with the skin intact.
The savory garlic-chilli sauce is always served separately in a small saucer, instead of being sprinkled onto the main dish.
2) Rice in the form of balls: http://bit.ly/10jtngq
The original version of Hainanese Chicken Rice actually comes with the fragrant oily rice pre-rolled into balls. These are usually slightly larger than the size of golf balls. However, this traditional version is less commonly sold, because of the extra time & skill required to roll & pack the steaming-hot oily rice into balls. Experienced cooks usually do this with bare hands !
3) KFC's modern spin on Hainanese chicken rice: http://www.kfc.com.sg/menu.php?category_id=238
KFC's crispy chicken & zinger chicken versions might appeal to youngsters but probably not traditionalists, as the taste is quite different.