Cooking with Sugarcookie #8: Hainan Chicken Rice

Hi Everyone,

Just a little update....recently, I have been thinking about creating another blog site just for fashion and makeup..... I will continue to keep this blog because I love to cook. It probably won't be for a while, but when it is up I will provide the link here so you can check it out.

Back to cooking, today I want to share with you on how to make home-cooked Hainanese chicken rice. This dish is originated from Hainan, China and then brought overseas to Singapore which became very popular. We are going to try to prepare this dish using the traditional Hainanese method that involves boiling the entire chicken and using the broth to make the rice. It's going to be very tasty!

Traditionally, they would use a certain type of chicken that is from the village, but I like to use pullet chicken. It's not just a regular pullet chicken, it is a 'Special' brown pullet because they have very little fat and the texture of the meat is not so dry. I bought my pullet from Ranch 99 for $8.99.... kinda expensive, but taste so good.

The pullet came with the head, feet, and everything else attached..... I will spare you that picture. So, the first thing you want to do is clean the chicken and remove any excess fat. By using salt you can scrub the the skin to make it smooth and soft.... like exfoliating your body..... making it smooth and soft.... go ahead and give that chicken a spa treatment before you start cooking it.

Look how nice and clean the chicken looks......

Now, you want to fill up the pot with water and let that baby boil. Also, don't forget to add more salt to the chicken.
While it is boiling, I will start preparing ginger, green onions, and garlic for flavoring. For the ginger I like to scrap the skin off and then chop it up into small pieces.

Feel free to add as much ginger, garlic, green onions as you like.... I usually use up the whole ginger like the one you see above, 4 cloves of garlic, 3 stalks of green onion. 

I also started to wash my rice while the chicken is still boiling. I have two cups of white Jasmine rice. Traditionally, they use long-grain white rice, but since short grain is what I have that is what I am going to use. 

Once the chicken is done boiling, you want to scoop out the scum that is on the top because remember we are using the broth to make the rice.

The tricky thing about this is scooping the chicken out of the pot without tearing the skin. The chicken is very fragile so you don't want to hold on to the drumstick. What I did was I use a set of chopstick on each end and lift it out of the broth.... it was so heavy..... but it works. Cut up the chicken into small pieces. Be careful the chicken is still hot.

Next, grease the pan with some vegetable and throw in your ginger and garlic.

 Wait until the ginger and the garlic starts to turn a bit brown and then pour in the rice that you just washed.

When you feel like the rice has absorbed some of the flavors from the ginger and garlic, add the broth that you made with the chicken into the pan.

Stir it for 4 minutes until it is glossy and fragrant. Transfer the rice into a rice cooker and add some more broth.... I like the rice to be soft.

Finally, when the rice is ALMOST cooked, toss in some of the chicken that you have cut into small pieces and let it continue to cook with the rice. Don't forget to add the green onions.

 Look at the softness of the rice and it is so flavorful that you can smell it throughout the whole house.

Let's plate this sucker up! The chicken is nice and salted.... very tender and the rice is just awesome.

Enjoy!

Bon Appetit!

<3 <3 <3