Hainanese Chicken Rice Recipe

Anyone knows the answer about Singapore's National Dish? Yes, Hainanese Chicken Rice! This recipe will bring you the great cuisine of this beautiful country.

Hainanese Chicken Rice, is actually came from Chinese mainland. It comes to Singapore from early Chinese immigrants from the Hainan province in southern China. This Hainanese Chicken Rice recipe is quite simple, but you can see the rich flavour combined by both delicate white chicken and the fragrant rice which need some effort to prepare this flavourful dish.

You can also served it with chili sauce which comes to raise your appetite, especially when you combine it with light or dark soy sauce for dipping.

Here you go, Hainanese Chicken Rice Recipe,

Ingredients:

• For Chicken preparation
• 1 whole chicken
• 3 teaspoons salt
• 4qt water
• 4 slices fresh ginger (about 1/8 inch thick), smashed

• For Chili sauce
• 6 (3 to 3,5 inch long) hot red Thai Chili, chopped (you can change this with other kind chili)
• 1 shallot, chopped ((you can change this with red garlic or similar)
• 2 tablespoons chopped and peeled fresh ginger
• 2 medium size garlic cloves, sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup fresh lime juice

• For Rice
• 2 cups jasmine rice
• 4 shallots, thinly sliced
• 2 large garlic cloves, minced
• 1 cucumber, slice it with your own preference
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil
• 1 bag watercress, coarse stems discarded
• Garnish: fresh cilantro leaves or sprigs

Preparation:

Prepare chicken and broth:

• Remove fat from the chicken and reserve for rice , rub chicken inside and out with 1 teaspoon salt
• Bring water with remaining 2 teaspoons salt and gignger to a boil in a 6- to 8-quart pot wide enough to hold the chicken. Put chicken inside the pot with breast down, in water and return it to boil, make sure its covered. 
• Simmer chicken partially covered, for around 20 minutes then remove it from the heat. Let chicken stand in hot broth, covered, and undisturbed, until it cooked through for around 15-20 minutes
• Let chicken broth drain into pot, put the chicken in a large bowl of cold water and keep the broth for rice and soup. dry and cool the chicken completely with paper towels and cut it into several pieces
• You can cut it as your preference and remove the bones, so it will be more easy to serve and eat

Prepare the chili sauce:

• Combine all the ingredients in a bowl, mix well and season with salt, then blend the chili sauce ingredients to a mini food processor or a blender

Prepare the rice:

• Cook reserved chicken fat in a 3-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, stirring, until rendered then discard solids. Add vegetable oil if you like it to make 2 tablespoons fat
• Wash rice under cold running water until water runs clear and drain well
• Cook shallots in fat over moderate heat, stir it until gets browned. Add garlic and stir it again for about 1 minute. Add rice and stir it gently for 1 minute
• Add 3 cups reserved broth and boil it, until the liquid evaporated and small bubbles appear from rice, around 3 to 4 minutes
• cover and cook on a very low heat until rice is tender and liquid is absorbed, 15 minutes more in process.
• Remove from heat and let it covered and undisturbed, for around 5 minutes

Assemble dishes:

• Put the sliced cucumber in a plate, or if you like add the chilli in the plate for the combination
• stir together soy sauce and sesame oil
• Bring 6 cups reserved broth and watercress to a boil in a 3-quart saucepan and simmer 1 minute
• Remove pan from heat and let stand until watercress is a shade darker, about 3 minutes
• Put the rice on a plate with the sliced cucumber than add the chicken on top of the rice
• Drizzle soy-sesame mixture over chicken. and there you go, everything is ready!

What do you think the results for this Hainan Chicken Rice recipe? We hope our instructions in this "how to make Hainanese Chicken Rice" is easy for you. And we hope this dish would brings you the tasty and colorful flavour of Singaporean National Food.