Singapore is most famous for its Hainanese Chicken Rice,
which is different from other countries. Many foreigners,
including celebrities travel to Singapore for a taste of
this world-renowned local dish. Besides learning the
techniques to master the skill of whipping up delicious
authentic Hainanese Chicken Rice, I will also share with you
some small tips of choosing and preparing ingredients. Let’s
start!
Utensils
To prepare a good dish, most people think that fresh
ingredients are the most essential. Well, it is true, but
they also tend to overlook another key element: the cooking
utensils.
Some of the common materials used for pots and woks are
stainless steel, aluminium and iron. Each material will
render the taste of the dish to be slightly different. For
instance, if the utensils are made of good quality stainless
steel, you will add less salt to your food compared to other
materials. The reason is all about chemistry: the
combination of water, salt, heat and steel will cause a
unique chemical reaction, rendering a slightly different
taste to your food.
Thus the art of cooking is flexible, creative and very
individual. You need to make adjustments to your cooking due
to factors such as the ingredients, the utensils used and
your own individual taste. A lot of trial and errors are
needed in order to achieve that taste due to these factors.
In this process, you are also free to add, reduce, omit or
include ingredients to create your own personal twist to the
dish.
Cooking is not a chemistry experiment where there is a fixed
amount to every single ingredient used. Thus I do not state
the exact amount for every single ingredient.
Ingredients (for 4 persons):
-
Chicken meat (1 whole chicken) 2.2 kg
-
Rice (amount depending on individual)
-
Ginger (24 slices)
-
Parsley seeds (1 levelled teaspoon)
-
Small onions (24) 8 for soup, 8 for rice cooking, 8 for
chilli making.
-
Garlic (24) 8 for soup, 8 for rice cooking, 8 for chilli
max.
-
Prepare the shatter max 8 slices, 8 garlics and 8 small
onions (grind it to milky form, like feel it as yogurt )
-
Pepper seeds - Grind it before use (1 levelled teaspoon)
-
Pandan leaf ( 5-8 )
-
Lemon leaf (2-3 )
-
Chilli padi or large chilli (15-20 for chilli padi; 7 for
large chilli)
Cucumbers -
Tomatoes
-
Parsley leaves
-
Oyster sauce
-
Light soy sauce
-
-
Sesame oil (2 -3 levelled teaspoon)
-
Sea Salt (2 -3 levelled teaspoon)
-
Sugar (2 -3 levelled teaspoon)
-
MSG (1-2 levelled teaspoon)
Tip 1: Chicken
The origin, the size and the way the chicken is breed
contribute to the taste of the chicken meat. But don’t
worry, no matter which country you are from, the chicken that
you can get from your local market can be used for the Hainanese Chicken Rice ( The fattest you can get will get
more tastiest it can be for making the chicken rice [ It is
not recommended to eat the chicken with too much fate very
often ] ). You can get anything mass breed or organic
chicken ( Kampong Chicken ). The main trick is to make the chicken tender and
juicy. But you need to make sure the chicken has no broken
skin. Choose a young chicken around 1.5 kg to 2 kg.
[ 2.2 kg for fate chicken ] Avoid old chickens unless you
want to give your jaws a good chewing exercise!
Tip 2: Pandan
Leafs
Choose leaves that are green and shiny, just like the way you
choose your green vegetables. Put it in to cook the rice.
Tip 3: Ginger
There are two types of ginger: the young and the
old. If you prefer a spicier taste to your chilli and add
more fragrance to your soup, old ginger should be your
choice. It will also add a yellowish colour to your rice,
making it look for delectable.
Tip 4: Parsley seeds
It would be good if you could get your hands on roasted
parsley seeds. They just simply add more fragrance to your
chicken rice! You will get to have very unusual fragrance to
the rice and soup when you use it to cook the chicken. It is
optional to use it, not everyone know to use it for chicken
rice cooking.
Preparation of ingredients:
1. Ginger
Sliced 12-16 slices of young ginger. Each slice should be about 3
-5 mm thick and 1 inche wide. 4 - 8 slices each for the
preparation of the rice, chicken soup and chilli.
2. Small onions
Peel and grind 10 - 16 small onions finely to a paste
consistency. Half of the onion paste will be for the chilli
while the other half is for the rice. The remaining 5-8
whole small onions are for the soup.
3. Garlic
Preparation same as small onions.
Or Grind the 16 slices of ginger, 16 onions, 16 garlic by the
machine to the maximum form – mix them in one container
and Half for rice and half for the chilli making.
4. Pandan leaves
Wash the leaves thoroughly and bundle into 2 bundles
separately with a pandan leaf. This is to be used for the
preparation of the rice and the soup.
5. Chilli padi /chilli
Depending on your tolerance for spicy foods, you could either
opt for the tongue-burning chilli padi or the milder large
chilli. Either way, grind the chilli finely into a paste
consistency.
6. Pepper seeds
The purpose of the pepper seeds is to remove the chicken
odour. You could either crush the pepper seeds before adding
it to the soup or use it as wholes. However, crushed pepper
seeds add more fragrance to the soup.
Now you are done with these ingredients, let’s move on to
cooking the Hainanese chicken rice.
Cooking Method:
There are 4 parts to the Hainanese Chicken Rice: Rice,
Chicken, Soup and Chilli.
1. Chicken and Soup
Place the chicken into a pot and add water to the pot so that
it covers completely the entire chicken. The purpose of
putting the chicken into the pot now is to determine the
correct amount of water needed, due to the different sizes
of the chicken and the pots used. My advice here is to cover
the water right to the brim because the chicken soup will be
used in the rice ( add more water if you pot is big enough
for more soup ), the chilli as well. Thus, more is better
than less!
You might be wondering what kind of water should be used.
Well, distilled or filtered water is the best. But any kind
of water is all right as long as there is no chlorine
present in the water. Otherwise, it will affect the taste if
the water is boil with chlorine.
Then, temporary remove the chicken from the pot and let bring
the water to boil. Add 4-6 slices or (add more if you like
the taste of ginger) of ginger, 8
small onions and 8 garlic into the
soup. Add pepper ( one tea spoon ) and { parsley seeds (
half to 1 tea spoon, Maximum not more than 2 tea spoon amount depending to individual’s
taste) it is optional to put the parsley seeds } to the
soup. Boil everything for 5 minutes. Add the chicken and
cook it for 15 minutes over high heat, followed by 15
minutes over low heat. Add in the 2 to 3 tea spoon sugar, salt 2 to 3 tea spoons. You could cook the chicken up to a
maximum of 45 minutes instead of 30 minutes for a stronger
boil or bigger chicken you are getting.
One important tip to take note: make sure extra care is taken
while cooking the chicken so that there is no broken skin.
Otherwise, succulent and tender chicken meat will not be
achieved!
Remove the chicken and get another pot filled with ice and
water. Do NOT pour away the chicken stock! Place the chicken
in the cold pot for 10-15 minutes only. The sudden exposure
to heat followed by cold will contract the chicken meat,
which is the trick to making it juicy and tender to your
taste buds! Remove the chicken and chop it into pieces.
2. Rice
Put ginger, garlic and onion paste into a wok (Mix the
ginger 8 slices and 8 onion and 8 garlic and shatter them
in milky form, grind them to the maximum you can get from
the marchine) . Add a little oil (olive/vegetable oil) and
stir-fry for 2 minutes. Add it to washed rice and stir
thoroughly. Pour some or all of the chicken stock made
earlier to the rice. For the health-conscious, you can
remove the layer of oil from the stock before adding. Add in
the Pandan leave
However personally, I feel that Hainanese Chicken Rice just
doesn’t taste as good with all that “essence” removed. The
amount of stock and the length of time needed to cook the
rice depend on the type of rice used. The rule of thumb is
to follow the usual amount and the cooking time of the rice
used. However, I personally prefer
Thailand rice. Hainanese Chicken Rice just tastes better
with higher grade fragrance Thai rice.
Lastly, add one bundle of the pandan leaves to the rice and
give it one good stir before cooking it.
3. Chilli
The magic of the Hainanese Chicken Rice is not complete with
its unique chilli sauce. Mix the rest of the ginger 8,
garlic 8 and onion 8 and the Lemon leaf (2-3 leafs)
pastes thoroughly ( grind it to the maximum like yogurt ).
To enhance its flavour, add 2-3 leaves of crushed lemon
leaves to the paste. Add a little of the chicken stock,
especially the oil, and mix it thoroughly. The consistency
lies with the individual. If you like it to be more watery
like what most Singaporeans prefer, add more stock.
4. Sauce
You may be thinking, isn’t the chilli sauce THE sauce? If you
had seen or eaten Hainanese Chicken Rice before in
Singapore, you will notice that the chicken meat has a shiny
appearance to it the light sauce. Well, the secret lies in
this sauce that gives an added “oomph” to the chicken meat.
It is totally difference from where you bought it in any
bottle from the store. It is too salty if you don’t mix in
soup or water, and add in a little of the sugar , add oyster
sauce a little to make it your own fragrance of sauce you like
which can totally match your taste or even better you can
get in the market.
When the chicken is prepared as mentioned earlier, it looks
rather plain and the taste is very light. To enhance both
the look and the taste, a sauce is used to drench onto the
chicken meat before serving.
Add ½ tablespoon of oyster sauce, ½ - 1 tablespoon (depends
on the salt level of different brands) of light soy sauce,
1-2 teaspoons of sesame oil, some chicken stock, sugar (1-3
teaspoons), some salt and MSG (optional for the
health-conscious). Mix this mixture thoroughly and warm the
sauce slightly. Taste it and tried to adjust the mixing for
this sauce to the taste that you like, let the sauce run
over the meat. The sugar will melt and balance out the salty
taste of the sauce.
If you like Chinese style Steam fish; this is the way to use
the same kind of sauce making for the steam fish. Light soy
sauce added with water or soup, sugar, oyster sauce, sesame
oil and cooking oil, from 1 tea spoon to 1 table spoon mix
as you like on each till you get the taste you want.
Serving
suggestions:
Add some chopped parsley leaves as garnishing to a bowl of
chicken soup. Place the sliced chicken meat on top of sliced
cucumber and tomatoes and pour (taste the sauce before you
pour it onto the meat) the desired amount of light sauce
that you had prepared earlier over the meat. Serve with a
bowl of rice and chilli sauce to go with the chicken meat.
Accompany with a bowl of soup if you like. Bon appetite!
I hope you will enjoy this dish. It’s a pretty long
description, however, as a perfectionist; I will be
disappointed if you are not able to taste the authentic
flavour due to a brief and unprofessional recipe. Hainanese
Chicken Rice has earned itself a name of being Singapore’s
national dish and you can find it almost in all food courts
and centers. But they all have their own unique taste and
twist to it as the preparation methods are all different. It
depends on the rice, the sauce and the chilli (especially
the chilli as this is one of the key differentiating factors
between competitors). Only the dedicated and perfectionist
cooks are able to bring out the true flavour of the
Hainanese Chicken Rice that people will also enjoy.
You may not be so successful with your first few tries but
don’t worry, just keep trying and vary the proportions of
different ingredients to find the perfect taste for your own
self.
