The chicken is cold
I could tell she was surprised. And a little disappointed. I explained that this is Singapore’s National dish, and before she jumps to conclusions, she should try it first.
When we first moved into the village, an old couple invited us for dinner at their home. The lady of the house was French and quite an excellent cook, as we discovered. Although I couldn’t remember what she served, it was impressive and delicious.
So, to return the hospitality, we invited them over a few weeks later for dinner. For Hainanese Chicken Rice. I will always remember her reaction when I served the platter of chicken.
“Oh. The chicken is cold,” she said.
It was dull. Almost boring and incomplete when I presented the pride of Singapore’s culinary culture. I assured her that it will taste better than it looks.
She was polite, and we sat down for dinner.
By the end of dinner, she was raving about how delicious it was and insisted that I give her the recipe for Hainanese Chicken Rice. (Which I included at the end of this article).
It’s not Hainanese Chicken Rice in Hainan
Hainanese Chicken Rice is as simple as it gets. It is boiled chicken. In Chinese tradition, it is often used as an offering for the gods on auspicious days and during important events.
Traditionally called Wenchang chicken, named after the Wenchang county of Hainan Island in the Southern tip of Mainland China (文昌市). During festivals, family gatherings, and other significant occasions, Wenchang chicken is prepared and presented as an offering to ancestors and deities.
The chicken is offered whole, with “head and tail” (有头有尾), symbolising completeness. And having sat on the altar for hours, it is also served at room temperature or cold.
I have only ever had it as a dish when my mother prepared it. Chicken in the 60s and early 70s was a luxury, and we only had it on festive occasions like Chinese New Year or birthdays.
It wasn’t until the mid 80s that I remember seeing it as a popular dish at hawker centres. Restaurants like Boon Tong Kee and Tien Tien Chicken Rice specialises in the dish, and made it to the Michelin Guide after the late Anthony Bourdain featured it in one of his episodes.
Army Days
Chicken Rice (we hardly called it Hainanese Chicken Rice) was a staple when I was in the army doing National Service. On weekend guard duties, someone would offer to go out and buy lunch for everyone, and the 2 dishes we could order were Chicken Rice and Roti Prata. These were easy to pack and it would make the volunteer’s job easy.
No variations. Just a packet of chicken rice or plain Prata.
If you ordered chicken rice, it would come wrapped in a brown paper packet. Inside, you will have a serve of cold rice with a sliver of cold chicken breast and a couple slices of cucumber. If you are lucky, you will have a small packet of chilli sauce.
All for $2.50 a pack.
It was ok. At least, it was something different from what they were serving at the cookhouse.
National Dish of Singapore
In his 1992 National Rally Speech, then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong praised Hainanese Chicken Rice as an iconic representation of Singapore culture, elevating its status to that of a national dish. I vaguely remember his call for Singaporeans to make this dish popular globally.
“If you want to find a national dish for Singapore,
it should be Hainanese Chicken Rice.”
Goh Chok Tong - Former PM of Singapore
Since then, I think the humble Hainanese Chicken Rice has made it to the world stage in culinary fame.
When we first arrived in Adelaide, there was no Hainanese Chicken Rice. So, like many of the dishes I shared in Food Stories, I had to learn how to cook it. It wasn’t until Adam Liaw, who won MasterChef Australia in 2010, cooked it in one episode that it started becoming popular in Adelaide.
Today, fine-dining restaurants and celebrity chefs each have their own version of the authentic Hainanese Chicken Rice. And there are at least several chicken rice stalls in Adelaide CBD serving just this dish.
How to prepare Chicken Rice (the Recipe)
I wish that chefs and restaurants would be a little more confident about the recipe they present. If you were to ask any chicken rice hawker in Singapore about their dish, they would never need to claim that it is “authentic” or “original”.
Chicken rice is just chicken rice. It is a humble dish prepared by those who wanted to make a living and send their children to university. Claiming authenticity and originality suggests that it isn’t.
Anyway, this is how I do it. It has passed the test of my Singapore friends and customers, including a French foodie who still craves it after 10 years. It tastes like the chicken rice I used to eat when I lived in Singapore. I think it is good enough.
Ingredients
1 or 2 chicken. I prefer those that are about 1.5 to 2 kg each,
Salt
Some Ginger
Some Garlic
Some spring Onion
Some Coriander
Some sliced cucumbers and tomatoes for garnish
Panda Leaves (difficult to find in Adelaide). We only get the frozen ones that have little fragrance so you can skip it if you like.
Preparation
I use free-range chicken because I feel good about it. I suspect there isn’t much difference, but if the chicken you are about to cook had a comfortable life, it is worth the extra few dollars.
Wash and use a generous amount of salt to give the chicken a good massage. A massage helps to loosen the muscles and also clean the surface of the skin. Rub a generous amount of salt inside and outside the chicken. Rinse and put aside.
Allow the chicken to come to room temperature. Otherwise, it takes more time and may not cook evenly. But this applies to most cooking.
When I was running our restaurant, I would use about 4-5 kg of chicken frames and some wings/drumsticks (whichever was cheaper), salt, ginger and spring onions to prepare the base stock. I would also add some rock sugar or chicken powder to taste.
Put everything in and bring it up to a boil. Let it simmer for 2-3 hours. Strain the stock into a pot large enough for the chicken to submerge completely.
Unlike chicken rice restaurants in Singapore, who poached hundreds or thousands of chickens a day, using just water will not give the depth of flavour needed for cooking the rice. I find this step quite necessary for flavouring both the chicken and the rice.
Poaching the chicken
Pour some boiling water over the chicken just before it goes into the pot of stock. This tightens the skin and helps improve the texture of the skin and the presentation when cut.
When the stock is boiling, slowly submerge the chicken into the stock, turning it to release air bubbles in the cavity. Ensure the chicken is fully submerged. Let the stock return to a slow boil for about 10-15 minutes, then turn off the fire and put a lid on. Leave the chicken in the pot for about 60 minutes.
Here is where I got it wrong so many times. It depends, really. On the volume of the pot, the size of the chicken, and how quickly the temperature drops.
The chemistry is to let the chicken sous vide at about 77°to 82° C for 60 minutes. At 71°C, the collagen in chicken starts to unwind, and at 77° to 82° C, it dissolves into gelatin. This makes the chicken tender and juicy.
Overcooking is when the chicken cooked at higher than 82°C for extended periods of time. This causes the protein fibres to contract, squeezing out the moisture, making it dry and tough. So it’s important to keep the temperatures at the correct range, and long enough.
Use a meat thermometer to ensure that the internal minimum temperature is 74°C. At 82°C, the internal temperature of the chicken will exceed the minimum safe temperature, ensuring the meat is safe to eat.
Ice Bath
When the chicken is ready, lift it out gently and place it in an ice bath. This will stop the cooking process immediately and lock in the gelatin between the skin and the meat. This is the magic process that makes Hainanese Chicken Rice unique. Let it soak in the ice bath for about 20 minutes, then lift it out and let it rest on a rack. In Singapore, you would see them hanging on the windows of the stalls or restaurants.
Serve on a plate
Cut the chicken into bite-size pieces and serve it on a plate of sliced cucumbers and tomatoes. Garnish with spring onions and coriander. Some stalls in Singapore will debone the chicken, making it such a pleasure to eat. You can practise doing this if you like.
Chicken-flavoured Soy Sauce
This is the diluted soy sauce that is drizzled over the rice and chicken to flavour the dish. It is a key component of the dish that ensures both the chicken and rice is not too dry.
Small bunch of coriander stem and roots
Small bunch of spring onion stem and roots
2 tbsp of sesame oil
2 tbsp of light soy sauce
2 tbsp of fish sauce
1 tbsp of oyster sauce
1 tbsp of sugar
1 cup of chicken stock (poaching liquid)
In a saucepan, heat the sesame oil and fry the coriander and spring onion roots until fragrant. Add everything else into the pan and bring to a simmer. Strain and use this to drizzle over the chicken and rice.
Chili Sauce
10 pieces of red chillies
2-inch piece of ginger
8-10 cloves of garlic
2 tbsp of sugar
½ tsp salt
½ cup of chicken stock from poaching the chicken
2 tbsp lime juice (we use calamansi in Singapore but almost impossible to find here in Adelaide)
I use a Nutribullet to blend everything into a paste. Taste and adjust accordingly.
Ginger Sauce
2-inch piece of ginger
5-6 cloves of garlic
½ tsp of salt
2 stalks of spring onions
½ cup of cooking oil (not olive oil)
I use a Nutribullet to blend ginger and garlic, except the oil, into a paste. Top with sliced spring onions. Transfer to a heatproof bowl. Then, heat the oil in a saucepan to a smoking point and pour into the ginger and garlic paste. Taste and adjust accordingly.
Chicken Rice
I recommend a rice cooker. It’s easy to use and almost no chance of going wrong.
4 cups of jasmine rice
4 cups of chicken stock
Chicken fat from the cavity of the chicken
2-inch ginger
5-6 cloves of garlic
In the pot where you will cook the rice, render fat from the chicken. You can add some oil if not enough. You should have about ¼ cup of oil, eventually.
Blend ginger and garlic, or minced it up with a cleaver. Saute in the pan with oil until fragrant. Then add rice into the pot and stir-fry it a little. When the rice is well coated, add the chicken stock 1:1.
Cook the rice in the rice cooker, or over a stove. If you use a rice cooker, then just relax and let it do its work.
If over a stove, then bring to a boil, and turn the fire low to a simmer. Cover and when the stock is absorbed into the rice and the rice is cooked, turn off the heat, cover and let it rest for 10-15 minutes.
Serve. Enjoy.
Have you had chicken rice before?
If you have never tried Hainanese chicken rice before, you should. It appears to be a simple dish but is clean and complex at the same time. There isn’t another dish that I can think of that is remotely close to this.
The combination of cold, juicy poached chicken on hot steaming savoury rice, with a bit of the chilli and ginger sauce, is simply incredible.
It is indeed a dish fit for the gods.