The Best Hainanese Chicken Rice

Singapore’s Hainanese Chicken Rice will definitely be listed in any legit collection of Singapore foods to try.

It is indeed one of Singapore’s favourite dishes, regardless of race or cultural background! Chicken rice is one of our comfort foods, enjoyed by little children, who grow into adults who continue feeding the next generation this Singapore classic. I remember going to the Geylang Serai wet market with my grandmother when I was probably 6 or 7 years old and she’d order me a plate from the hawker centre and leave me there to eat it while she did her shopping! Better that than dragging along a reluctant and whiny little brat into the market! That’s what growing up in the 80s was like! I can still remember how the plate of chicken rice tasted like, its accompanying fried chicken with its shiny golden skin and I remember devouring it slowly and splashing the slightly sweet chilli sauce ever so often. 

Everyone has their favourite versions, some prefer roasted chicken, some prefer steamed or poached, some prefer a sweeter chilli sauce, and some not so sweet. And there are versions of chicken rice across Malaysia and Thailand as well, though who serves the best? Well, depends on who you ask surely!

The origins of chicken rice started in the Wencheng District of Hainan China. In Singapore, many Hainanese immigrants settled down along the enclave of Middle Road, Purvis Street and Seah Street. Immigrants from Hainan, who settled in Singapore in the 1930s introduced their method of cooking chicken and the Singapore version of it was born! What makes a good plate of Chicken Rice? It is the  beautiful overall fragrance, with a strong gingery flavour that becomes almost floral and not at all pungent when slowly cooked with the chicken. Its well-seasoned chicken that is bouncy and juicy, licked with a sweetened soy and sesame dressing and of course the delicious condiments that elevates this dish into a masterpiece. 

You can easily find this delectable dish at almost every type of dining spot, from Singapore’s humble hawker centres to coffee shops in the heartlands to high-end restaurants and hotels down Orchard Road… 

Singapore’s fascination and obsession with chicken rice have resulted in chicken rice flavoured potato chips, there’s chicken rice ice cream and there’s even a chicken rice burger – nothing is too weird for the Singapore palette!

There’s just something about the combination of ginger, chilli, perfectly poached, well-seasoned chicken and the most important element of the dish, the RICE that is full of chicken flavour and slicked with congealed chicken fat! 🤤

To celebrate Singapore’s 57th birthday, I’d like to share a recipe for Singapore’s Hainanese Chicken Rice! Now before going into the recipe, just a heads up, the Hainanese Chicken Rice is a simple but somehow complex dish and would require more than a few steps but the results are well worth it! Give yourself about two hours to make this recipe. 

THE CHICKEN AND THE BROTH

First up, wash and soak 4 cups of jasmine white rice which we will cook later. Right now, all we want to do is soak them for 20 minutes after which we’ll sieve and drain the water off.

Now, starting off with the broth! It plays such a huge role in this entire dish so it is crucial to get it right and season it very well. The broth which we will get from poaching the chicken will be used as the soup, as the liquid to cook the rice in, as well as for the accompanying condiments, the chilli sauce and the soy dressing for this dish. Besides flavour from poaching the chicken, the broth will also be extremely fragrant from the aromatics that simmer with the chicken.

Give the chicken a little spa treatment by exfoliating the whole chicken all over with salt. Rinse and pat dry with kitchen towels. Remove the chicken fats with kitchen scissors. Try to do this without cutting into the chicken skin. I was working with a pretty lean, kampong chicken so I didn’t get much fat, only about 2 teaspoons but this is good enough! Place all the chicken fat into a small saucepan and set aside. 

Next up, the aromatics. We will be stuffing the chicken with the aromatics and will also add some to the broth. Cut up the ginger, and spring onion into manageable pieces before carefully stuffing them into the chicken. As for the garlic, we shall leave them whole. Doing this helps the flavours infuse better into the meat, which absorbs all the flavours giving you depth and aroma with every bite!

The pot that you’ll need for poaching the chicken must be large enough to completely submerge it. Use a tall or deep pot rather than a wide pot if you can. Boil 4L of water in the pot and season with salt. I cannot emphasise this step enough. You need to season the water well or you are going to end up with a pretty bland chicken. So for 4 litres of water, I will add 4 tbsp of sea salt. I know it seems a lot, but you will get the best-tasting chicken ever! Add to the water more pieces of ginger, pounded garlic and the green parts of the spring onion (set aside the white parts that are to be used for later).

And a useful tool to have for poaching the chicken is a meat hook or a large S hook. I’ve used the latter to hook the chicken near the neck. If you do not have an S hook, use a pair of silicone tongs together with a slotted spoon to assist. Be very careful when immersing the chicken because the water’s HOT! When the water has boiled, immerse the whole chicken by dipping it fully 3 times. The reason   we do it three times is so that we get the hot water flowing through the cavity of the chicken and by doing it three times, we ensure that the temperature inside the cavity quickly increases before fully submerging it into the water. Turn down the heat to barely simmering, close the lid to the pot and leave it to cook for 45 minutes.

While the chicken is slowly poaching, you can start prepping for the three dipping sauces and prepare the chicken fats for rendering too. Scroll further down and you will see the instructions.

At the 40-minute mark, grab a very large bowl that can fit your whole chicken. We are going to use it to prepare an ice bath for the chicken. Fill about a third of the bowl with cold water and season with some salt. Stir to dissolve and add ice to fill the bowl till about ¾ full. You don’t want it to overflow when you add the chicken in. It is a good idea to have more ice on standby.

Once your 45-minute timer goes off, remove the cooked chicken from the pot using the ‘S’ hook again (or a pair of tongs and slotted spoon) Lift it above the broth and make sure that all the water is out of the cavity. Remember to be extra careful because you don’t want to be splashed with HOT chicken broth. Gently and carefully, immerse the chicken into the cold, ice bath. What we want is to stop the cooking process immediately so the water bath has to be cold. When you find that too much ice has melted, add more ice. We want to ensure that the temperature remains cold throughout. Let the chicken relax and submerge in the ice bath for 30 minutes. 

Once half and hour is up, remove the chicken from the ice bath and into a colander. Start removing all the stuffing from the cavity of the chicken and discard them. Do this gently and slowly as your chicken will be very, very lovely and tender and might fall apart. Dab the chicken dry with a kitchen towel and then rub sesame oil all over the chicken and set the chicken aside.

Discard all the aromatics leftover in the broth.

How to render chicken fat?

Now, chicken fat is KEY to good Hainanese chicken rice. The trick to getting this liquid gold is to render it in an equal amount of oil on medium-low heat until the fats crisps up. I do this slowly for about 30 mins, and I do this while the chicken is being poached. Cover the saucepan with a lid as it slowly renders. Make sure to check on it to ensure you don’t burn.

Once you see the fats have browned and crisped up, increase the heat to medium and add the white spring onion parts, chopped garlic and ginger. Cook until the aromatics are golden brown and see that the liquid has turned into LIQUID GOLD! Set aside until ready to use.

 

Rice

Chicken Rice is literally a star on its own! There’s so much deliciousness in the chicken-enriched rice and I’m using my trusted rice cooker for this! Transfer the strained rice into the rice cooker. Instead of water, use the chicken broth as the liquid to cook the rice. Add in pandan leaves that are tied in a knot, followed by an inch of ginger and ½ tsp of salt. Yes, more salt. Even though the broth is already salty, you still need more salt to max out the flavour of the rice! You gotta trust me on this! Last step before you press “COOK” is to strain in the flavoured and rendered chicken fat into the rice and stir it up.

Cover and press COOK!

Hainanese Chicken Rice Condiments 

There are 3 condiments that perfectly accompany the Hainanese Chicken Rice and they are chilli sauce, ginger-garlic sauce and a light soy dressing!

Chilli Sauce

Without this chilli sauce, I don’t think you can call it Singapore Hainanese Chicken Rice. It’s tangy, spicy, its garlicky, and lightly sweet and it goes perfectly with Chicken Rice ! We are going to use two different types of chillies. The large red chillies help with the colour and add a hint of spice, while the bird’s eye chillies or chilli padi give it its main spicy kick! Now, don’t be deceived by the chilli padi’s size, it may be small and thin but it holds a relatively high Scoville score, so be sure to adjust the number of chillies you use according to your spice tolerance.

Roughly chop up the two different chillies, ginger and garlic into pieces and toss them into a blender. Add some vinegar, a pinch of salt and some sugar. Add a ladleful of chicken broth to the blender. Blend till it becomes a smooth watery paste. The chicken rice chilli sauce is quite liquid and not very thick, so don’t be scared to add a little more broth. It should be the consistency of a partially melted frappuccino! Taste and adjust the seasoning. I always make extra chilli sauce because you can use it to dip everything!

Ginger-Garlic Sauce

So many components, so little time! OK don’t give up yet! I know there are quite a number of steps to this dish but you don’t want to skip ANY of these steps ok! 🙌 – you got this! Now onto the Ginger-garlic sauce, so fragrant and so simple but dip your perfectly cooked chicken in this and it’ll transport you to chicken rice heaven. Simply grate ginger and garlic in a 2:1 ratio into a mortar & pestle. Add salt and smoothen the paste by pounding all up together. Heat up some oil in a pan and wait for it to smoke, and quickly but carefully pour into the paste!

Be sure to not get too close when pouring as the hot oil might splatter out. You’ll get some charred bits in the mixture but just know that it’ll taste OH SO GOOD!

Soy Dressing

You are reaching the end! Now for the last bit before we start to finally plate everything! In a small saucepan, on medium heat, add about a quarter cup of chicken broth, some light soya sauce, and sugar and mix till you see the sugar has melted. Turn off the heat ,wait for it to cool down for about 5 minutes before whisking in the sesame oil. Mix and there you have it! A sweet and aromatic soy dressing for the chicken.

Plating (FINALLY!)

Chop your chicken into smaller pieces and place it on a large serving dish with sliced cucumber and tomatoes surrounding the chicken! Pour that delicious light sweet savoury soya sauce over the chicken and save some in a small bowl. Young children love this sweet sauce on their rice too! Garnish with coriander too.

Note about the broth. While it is flavourful and packs a punch, the broth is also a little too salty to be slurped on its own. Add some boiling water to your broth until it reaches a level where it tastes great as soup. Start by adding ½ cup of hot water and keep tasting until it’s just right.

I hope you enjoyed this recipe and have a great National Day holiday. Don’t forget to tune in and watch the National Day parade!