Friday, October 12, 2007

Chicken rice

Chicken Rice
First, the rice:

Made from the same stock used to poach/cook the chicken(below), ginger and scallions were also added to the same stock while poaching the chicken. When cooking the rice with chicken stock, finely minced garlic was added as well. You will get aromatic chicken rice!

Then, comes the chicken:

I would say this is the most patience-testing part in making chicken rice. Refer back here.This method works perfect! Succulent moist juicy chicken. Basically, you should never allow the chicken to come to a boil - Bring a pot of water with ginger and scallions to boil. Then completely immerse the chicken into the pot, turn off heat immediately, cover the pot and leave to stand for about 1 hour(with an interim step at approx. the 30th minute). Since I used chicken drumsticks, I did not have the "cavity" problem as opposed to handling whole chicken. After about 30 minutes, the "water" or rather chicken stock, with the immersed chicken should be re-heated to almost boiling point, then again turn off the heat and left standing for the remaining 30 minutes of that 1 hour.

Of course, some say the MOST AUTHENTIC Hainanese Chicken Rice has to use 文昌鸡 (Wen Chang chicken) - from Wenchang City, Hainan Island. Wenchang is the source from where most overseas Hainanese migrated. Majority of Singapore's Hainanese population has ancestral roots in Wenchang. Maybe that's what made Hainanese chicken rice such a popular and national dish in Singapore.

Not forgetting the chili sauce:

The chicken rice chilli sauce is typically concocted from fresh chilli, garlic, ginger, vinegar, sugar and salt. Sometimes, the Hainanese has grated ginger as an additional condiment as well.

To add variety, color and some refreshing vegetables for my home-style chicken rice:

Broccolini was blanched and drizzled with some oyster sauce, and not forgetting tomatoes!



Though I have completely emptied everything on the plate into my stomach while I am writing this, I felt hungry again after looking at it :O


Don't you think chicken rice is not as unhealthy as it seems?
A wholesome, colorful, tasty meal of delicious aromatic chicken rice with that succulent tender chicken, just a spoonful away :)

1 comments:

shimarella said...

Chicken rice is what I miss the most. I make it for myself sometimes but its just not the same...