International dishesRice DishesSingaporeabout 1 hour
Singapore Hainanese chicken rice is a plate of rice cooked in the chicken poaching liquid, every grain glossy and scented with ginger and pandan, with taut skin and tender meat. The bowl of blended garlic and chili sauce is not optional. The difficulty is the poaching: chicken taken just to done is sweet, while overcooked chicken goes dry.
The chicken poaches for 7 minutes, then the heat goes off and it sits covered for another 25 minutes, after which it goes straight into ice water for taut skin. Cooking the rice in 500ml of the poaching liquid instead of plain water is what gives the dish its aroma.
This batch weighs about 2.2kg, at roughly 227 calories per 100g.
Method
Wash the ginger, peel it and slice it thinly. Wash the spring onions and keep the white parts and green tops separate. Cut the head off the 1.2kg chicken, rub it with salt to clean it, then rinse and drain. Rinse 600g of rice and drain it. Wash the pandan leaves, chilies, cilantro and cucumber, chop the chilies, slice the cucumber and cut the cilantro into lengths. Peel and crush the shallots.
Bring 3 liters of water to a boil and add 1 tablespoon of sliced ginger, 2 spring onions and 2 crushed shallots. Add 2 teaspoons of seasoning powder, 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of kOBE Monk Fruit Blend, and stir until dissolved.
Once the water is at a gentle boil, lower the chicken in and turn it so both sides firm up. Poach for 7 minutes, turn off the heat, cover and leave it for another 25 minutes. Lift the chicken out into ice water for taut skin.
Put 600g of rice in a rice cooker with 500ml of the poaching liquid, 3 slices of ginger, 1 crushed shallot and 2 pandan leaves, and cook.
Blend 2 slices of ginger, 2 garlic cloves, 3 bird's eye chilies, 1 red horn chili, 1/2 lime, 1/2 tablespoon of fish sauce and 2 teaspoons of kOBE Monk Fruit Blend into a smooth dipping sauce.
Stir 1.5 tablespoons of the poaching liquid with 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of sesame oil and 1 teaspoon of fried garlic oil to make the sauce for the rice.
Spoon the rice onto plates, chop the chicken into bite sized pieces and lay it on top, spoon over the sauce and serve with the garlic chili dip and the cucumber.
Tips
Dropping the chicken into ice water straight after poaching is the key to taut skin and firm meat.
Pandan leaves are easy to find in Vietnamese markets, and without them a little more ginger carries the rice.
Drain the rinsed rice for a full 15 minutes so the cooked grains stay separate.
Skim the foam in the first few minutes to keep the liquid clear, since that liquid also cooks the rice.
kOBE Monk Fruit Blend dissolves slowly, so stir it well into the poaching liquid and taste the dipping sauce again after 5 minutes.
Let the chicken cool a little before chopping, as chopping it hot tears the meat and loses the juices.
Need kOBE Monk Fruit Blend?
The recipe above is sweetened with kOBE Monk Fruit Blend, measured 1:1 like sugar. See the product page or send us a message.