Chicken Adobo

update from April 2007

When I first made chicken adobo 4 years ago, I was a little apprehensive about the seemingly large amount of vinegar the recipe called for. However, the vinegar mellows with cooking and the sauce is amazing over freshly steamed rice. I prefer a 1:1 ratio of soy to vinegar. I reach for a milder vinegar like rice, white wine, or cider vinegar. I personally find plain white vinegar is too monotonous and abrasive. You can marinate the chicken as long as you want but this is rarely something I plan that far in advance. I usually throw all the ingredients together in a pot and let it sit for about an hour (sometimes I skip this part entirely if I feel particularly lazy).

Guest Post! Shanghai Drunken Chicken

Shanghai Drunken Chicken at Rasa Malaysia

Yes, I'm still here. No, I haven't forgotten about this blog. I know the crickets have been chirping here more than I've been posting. If only I have more free time because right now it's virtually non-existent.

I can't remember the last time I've been sick but a bug was bound to get me sooner or later. I woke up this morning with the whole nine yards--fever, sore throat, cough, and aches all over. I tried to catch up on my reading but that wasn't happening. I should have known reading about urine and kidneys gets nowhere when you're sleep-deprived and feverish. So, instead of studying, I resigned myself to spending the day in my pajamas with chicken noodle soup, catching up on food blogs and many issues of Bon Appetit (au revoir Gourmet, you will be missed!).

This is long overdue but check out my guest post on Rasa Malaysia! I was torn between drunken chicken or crab cakes; drunken chicken won but I did make some crab cakes after Bee got me thinking about them. This project was 3 months in the making due to a combination of my hectic schedule and perfectionism. The recipe was far more seasonally appropriate when I started it in July. Bee, thank you for being a great host and for being so understanding about my numerous delays in getting this done.

Chicken and Basil Stir Fry

I never understood why so many people like white meat over dark meat. White meat is so bland and boring and ridiculously easy to overcook. Dark meat on the other hand, is succulent and flavorful, nearly impossible to overcook, and actually tastes like chicken. Oh well, to each his own! It works out better for us dark meat lovers anyway because thighs and drumsticks are always cheaper than breasts. But no worries, this stir fry is delicious no matter what kind of chicken you like. Just be more careful about the chicken drying out if you're using a breast or tenderloin cut.

I'm trying to post more student-friendly, easy/quick to cook recipes. Do you guys think a recipe like this would qualify? The ingredient list isn't terribly long and most of them aren't hard to come by. Prep and cook time was maybe 30 minutes?


Chicken and Pepper Stir Fry with Basil
1 pound chicken thighs or breast sliced into strips or slivers
1 large red bell pepper sliced
1 large shallot, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp fish sauce
2 tsp brown sugar
1 - 3 Thai red chilies, seeds removed and thinly sliced or sub some jalapenos(to taste)
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 C fresh whole basil leaves (sweet or Thai varieties are both okay)
1 Tbsp vegetable oil for stir frying
Fresh lime juice (optional)

*Note: if you use a rice cooker, start cooking your rice first.

In a small bowl, mix the fish sauce, soy sauce, and brown sugar.

Heat 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil in a nonstick skillet over medium heat and add the shallots. Cook the shallots until they are translucent and soft, about 3 minutes. Turn the heat up to medium high and add the chicken, bell peppers, grated ginger, minced garlic, ground pepper, and sliced chilies. Continue to stir fry until the chicken is nearly cooked through, about 2 minutes, then add the sauce. Cook for another minute and the sauce will thicken. Add more soy sauce or salt if you need to. Stir in the fresh basil at the end. Squeeze a little lime juice on top if you have some limes on hand. Serve over steamed rice.

Thai Red Curry Chicken

When Steven said he didn't like curries, I suggested that he try a Thai curry. Unlike Indian curries that are spice based, Thai curries are made with a paste of aromatics and fresh ingredients and cooked in coconut milk. I made a chicken red curry and at first he was skeptical but after tasting it, he loved it! Hooray! He even told me he liked it more than his mom's curry. Score! +1 point for me. I'm usually not a competitive person, except with cooking, and it made me feel so special when he said that. :D

Thai curry paste contains a bunch of ingredients including: chilies, garlic, shallots, lemongrass, ginger, galangal, coriander root, etc. Red curries are made with red chilies, green curries are made with green chilies, and yellow curry are includes spices like turmeric and cumin. Although it seems counterintuitive, green curries are actually hotter than red curries. For convenience sake, I use a store-bought curry paste (Mae Ploy brand) because it's a lot of trouble making your own curry paste since some of the ingredients are difficult to find. Using a premade paste cuts down the ingredient list by half and makes things a whole lot easier. I like using dark meat so I can slowly simmer the curry without overcooking the chicken. The end result is delicious, flavorful, and reheats beautifully, in fact, it tastes even better the next day.

Thai Red Curry (Chicken)
3 pounds of chicken drumsticks
1 onion, chopped
1 14oz. can of coconut milk (my fav is Chaokoh)
1/4 C Thai red curry paste
Fish sauce (I like Three Crabs)
1 Tbsp palm sugar or brown sugar
Lime/Rice vinegar
Handful of Thai basil leaves

Optional step: Use a large cleaver and cut the chicken drumsticks in half, first cut through the flesh to the bone, then try your best to hit that spot with a strong whack. Sometimes you won't hit the first cut you made spot on, but it will be enough to break the bone. If you don't feel comfortable doing this, skip this step. Please don't hurt yourself doing this. After cutting the drumsticks in half, rinse the exposed bone area under some running water to loosen any bone shards. Do this over a sieve to catch the bone shards so they don't mess up your disposal. This step is completely optional, I just think it makes the curry more presentable and easier to eat.

Do not shake the can of coconut milk. Open the can and skim off the "cream" on top (roughly the top 1/3 of the can) and add it to a Dutch oven or large pan.

The first step is to "fry" the curry paste in the coconut cream. Add the paste to the coconut cream in the pan, stir and cook this over medium heat until the oils separate from the paste. First, the mixture will look soupy and very messy. Slowly, it will begin to cook down into a thick paste, then finally the aromatic oils will begin to separate from the paste. After you see the oil, add the chopped onion and cook the onion for about 1 minute.

Add the chicken and the remainder of the can of coconut milk. Bring this to a boil then lower to a bare simmer. Season with fish sauce to taste, a tablespoon at a time. Add a tablespoon of brown sugar. Cover the pot and simmer gently for about 40 min to an hour, or until the chicken is tender (the meat will start to retract from the bone). When the chicken has finished cooking, stir in the juice of half a lime to start with, taste, and if it needs more tang, add more lime juice. If you don't have a lime you can use rice vinegar. Add more brown sugar if it needs more sweetness (the sweetness should be subtle and not overwhelming). Stir in a big handful of Thai basil leaves that are torn in half. It's important to balance the salty, sour, sweet, and spicy with Thai food. Don't tear the leaves in advance or they will turn black.

Serve with rice.

Mizuna and Minced Chicken Stir Fry

Steven and I recently signed up for a local CSA. CSAs are growing increasingly popular and I bet many of you are already familiar with the concept but we just learned about them a few weeks ago (man I feel so behind the times). CSA or Community Supported Agriculture is a program where you establish a relationship with a local farm and you receive a weekly, biweekly, or monthly box of produce that the farm grows. It's a great way to 1. eat locally and support local farms, 2. eat seasonally, 3. eat more fruits and veggies (because okay, let's be honest, who gets their 5-a-day, not me...) and 4. try fruits and veggies that you've never tried before. The great thing about our CSA is the variety and flexibility. Everything in our box is organic. Some items come from the main farm, other items come from other farms in Washington State, and some come from outside of the region to give subscribers a little variety. We can make substitutions, pickup either weekly or biweekly, or cancel or put our subscription on hold at anytime.



Last week our box contained:
2 Russet potatoes
1 bunch Carrots
1 Leek
.75 lb Zucchini
.75 lb Shallots
2 Hass avocados
4 Valencia oranges
2 Tommy Atkins mangos
2 Lemons
1 Romaine lettuce
1 bunch Mizuna
.34 lb Spring Mix

Organic carrots taste so much better than the giant supermarket carrots and Bunny was happy that the carrots came with green leafy tops attached, which he quickly nommed away.

After looking at our produce list for the week, Steven asked me what mizuna was. I wouldn’t have had a clue if he had asked me the day before, but it just so happened that I had just read a post about mizuna on Susan's blog, Food Blogga. I felt pretty sharp when I replied, "Oh, it's a Japanese mustard green." So I knew what it was, but I was at a loss of how to prepare it. Google to the rescue! I found a recipe for a mizuna and chicken stir fry from Whole Foods, and while I liked the idea, that recipe called for all sorts of random ingredients. I just wanted a simple mizuna and chicken stir fry. Mizuna, I discovered, cooks down a lot. It’s like spinach, you start out with a huge bunch and 2 seconds later, poof, it shrinks down to nearly nothing. I kept a 1:1 ratio of mizuna to chicken in this recipe but feel free to use more or less chicken. The mizuna also cooks very quickly. I added it after I took the pan off the heat and the residual heat of the cooked chicken and hot pan was enough to gently wilt the mizuna. If it's cooked too long, the greens will be limp and lifeless.

Mizuna and Minced Chicken Stir Fry
Inspired by Whole Foods

3/4 lb chicken breast
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp Shao Xing rice wine
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp white pepper
3/4 lb mizuna
Salt to taste

Pulse the chicken breast in a food processor to mince it finely until there are no large pieces remaining but do not grind into a paste. Or alternatively mince it with a chef's knife. Mix the minced chicken with soy sauce, wine, cornstarch, sugar, and white pepper and set it aside to marinate.

Meanwhile, trim the ends off the mizuna. It's easiest to keep the mizuna in a bunch and trim the ends off all at once then untie the bunch to wash. My mizuna was pretty dirty, so wash it a few times to loosen and wash away any dirt on the stems and leaves.

Heat 2 tsp of oil in a wok or skillet over medium high heat. Add the chicken
and stir fry until it is fully cooked through, about 4 - 6 minutes. When the chicken is fully cooked, turn off the heat and add the mizuna. Toss the mizuna in the hot pan with the chicken and it will start to wilt and cook down, season to taste with salt.

Serve with rice.

More about CSAs:
If you live in the Pacific Northwest area, there are many different CSAs to choose from (we signed up with Full Circle Farms). To find a local CSA in your area go to this website: http://www.localharvest.org

Buffalo Wings

I am not the biggest fan of football but Super Bowl Sunday is almost like a national holiday so I can't let it go unmentioned. Did you know it's the second largest food consumption day of the year? (The first being Thanksgiving of course) So today and tomorrow, I'll be posting some Super Bowl favorites because even though I may not enjoy watching the game, I sure love the food that comes with it. And no sports party is complete without the required buffalo wings.

First created in Anchor Bar in Buffalo, NY, hence the name, authentic wings are deep fried then covered with a sauce made with butter/margarine and hot sauce. It's generally agreed that Frank's Red Hot is the most authentic sauce to use but stay away from the Frank's bottled buffalo sauce since that kind has weird margarine mixed in. The ratio of hot sauce to butter you use depends on how hot you want your wings. I like my wings pretty hot so I like to use a 2:1 ratio of Frank's to butter with a shakes of Tabasco. I chose to lightly flour then pan fry the wings slowly over moderate heat, the same method I used for the salt and pepper chicken wings. Purists will say that without the deep fryer, these can no longer be called buffalo wings but this method yields a nice crispy skin and uses much less fat.

Buffalo Wings

2 lbs. chicken wings, wingtips removed, cut into wingettes and drumettes
1/4 C flour
Frank's Red Hot Original (to taste; I used 4 Tbsp)
Melted butter (to taste; I used 2 Tbsp)

Serve with
Celery sticks and Blue Cheese Dressing

Lightly dredge the wings with some flour.

Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the wings and cook them slowly over medium heat until they are cooked through and golden brown on all sides. Turn them frequently in order to brown them on all sides and prop them next to each other so they don't roll around. Cook them until the juices run clear and the internal temperature is 180 degrees F, about 15 to 20 minutes.

Alternatively you can sear the wings over medium high heat and finish them in then oven (350 for roughly 15 minutes).

Meanwhile, melt your butter and mix in the Frank's hot sauce. It's really a matter of taste so play around with how you like your sauce.

After the wings are cooked, put them in a bowl and toss them with the toss. Serve immediately with celery sticks and blue cheese dressing.

For something more substantial try Buffalo Chicken Drumsticks

Come back tomorrow for Super Bowl Chili.

Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings with Chilies, Garlic, and Thai Basil

Since I never deep fry at home, I love to order deep fried stuff when I go out. The dish that I almost always get at Chinese restaurants is salt and pepper pork chops, jiao yan pai gu. Small pieces of pork chops are flavored with salt and pepper, lightly dredged in flour, and deep fried until crispy. It gets even better when some restaurants top the dish with stir fried chopped chilies, thin slices of golden fried garlic, and deep fried thai basil leaves. I wanted to recreate this dish at home with chicken wings. By pan frying the chicken wings, I was able to get a nice crispy skin then I cooked the chilies, garlic slices, and basil leaves briefly in the hot oil and tossed that with the wings. The garlic isn't as fragrant and crispy as the deep fried stuff but the flavor is still there. In addition to black and white pepper, you add some ground szechuan peppercorns when seasoning the wings or finish the dish with a sprinkling of szechuan peppercorn salt for an interesting kick.

Quick Tip:
After purchasing a bunch of basil, snip the ends of the stems off as you would with cut flowers and store the basil in a glass of water by a bright window. I've been able to keep basil happy like this for over 2 weeks now.

Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings with Chilies, Garlic, and Thai Basil

2 lbs chicken wings, cut into wingettes and drumettes
1/4 C flour
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/4 tsp white pepper
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
3 jalapenos, seeds and pith removed and cut into a 1/4 in dice
3 cloves of garlic, cut into thin slices
Handful or two of thai basil leaves, larger leaves torn in half

Season the chicken wings with salt, white pepper, and black pepper (it's best if the black pepper is freshly ground). Lightly dredge in flour. If the wings aren't seasoned enough at this stage, you can season them more after cooking.

Heat 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the chicken wings and brown on all sides. Cover the pan and let the chicken wings cook over medium low to medium heat. If the pan gets too dry add a little water. Cook for about 15 minutes. Remove the cover and begin to crisp up the chicken again. The chicken wings are fully cooked when no blood coming out of the bones, juices are clear, and the internal temperature 180 degrees F. Remove the chicken wings to a rack to keep them crispy.

By now a lot of fat will have rendered from the skin. Drain the fat from the pan, reserving about 1 - 2 tablespoons. Return the pan to medium heat. Add the garlic slices and cook until they start to turn a little golden. Add the diced jalapenos and saute briefly. Off heat, add the thai basil leaves and toss the leaves with the rest of the hot ingredients. Toss the chicken wings with the chilies and basil leaves. Transfer to a platter and serve. Add more pepper and salt if it needs additional seasoning. I always like to add a little more freshly ground black pepper.

BBQ Chicken Quesadilla

The last few days have been unbearably hot, with yesterday being one of the top 10 hottest days ever recorded here in Seattle. I was too lethargic to do get up and do anything other than lay on the couch and complain about the heat. Pardon the silence on this blog, as I haven't been cooking much or blogging. But like Jaden, there are so many old recipes I still haven't gotten around to posting, so now is a good time to do so.

BBQ Chicken Quesadilla was a very popular menu item at my favorite lunch spot near the UW, Honeybee's Cafe (which sadly closed two years ago). It's been a long time since I've had a Honeybee's quesadilla, but from what I can remember, the original quesadilla had grilled chicken, tomatoes, Monterey Jack cheese, tomatoes, green onions, and BBQ sauce in a tomato flour tortilla. This quesadilla is very flexible the only constants are: tortilla, chicken, your favorite BBQ sauce (Cook's Illustrated likes Bull's Eye Original), and cheese. The rest of the ingredients depend on what you have on hand. So here rather than offering an exact recipe, it's just a few tips on making a yummy quesadilla, which I learned from watching America's Test Kitchen.

Barbeque Chicken Quesadilla

Flour Tortillas
Chicken, cut up into large chunks (You can use grilled chicken, leftover roast chicken or bbq chicken, doesn't really matter)
Coarsley grated cheese (Cheddar, Monterey, Pepper Jack, or a combo)
Thinly sliced green onions or red onions
Fresh tomatoes or fresh tomato salsa, drained (if using this then omit the onions)
Corn (frozen is almost as good as fresh)
BBQ Sauce
Freshly ground black pepper
Few dashes of Tabasco if you like it hot
Lime juice, just a little bit (omit if using fresh tomato salsa)

- Toast your corn
Toasting the corn brings out a nice roasted, toasty flavor and evaporates the moisture so it doesn't leak into the quesadilla. This is an essential ingredient in all of my quesadilas now. (Frozen corn also doubles as a handy ice pack if you ever jam your finger in a door like Steven. :( Ouch!)

Heat a small nonstick skillet pan over high or medium high heat (no oil!) and add your corn. Shake the pan occasionally until you see the corn turn a dark brown in spots and pop out of your pan. Yes it will literally jump out of the skillet. Set aside for the filling.

- Make your quesadillas
There's a lot of flexibility here with what goes in so you can be the judge of that. Just don't make them too stuffed otherwise it'll be too hard to flip.

Also, rather than making the quesadilla with one tortilla on the bottom and one on the top and forming a sandwich (this is too hard to flip, stuff will fall out). Add your filling to only half the tortilla (leave a 1/2 in border around the edge) then you flip the other half over and make a half moon shape. This way, less yummy filling falls out. You can also cook two of these in a pan.

- Cooking the quesadilla
If you add the oil directly to the pan it won't evenly distribute to cover the entire quesadilla and sometimes you end up using too much oil leading to overly greasy quesadillas and oily fingers.

So instead, use a pastry brush and brush the tortilla a thin layer of vegetable oil. This ensures that the quesadilla will be evenly covered using the least amount of oil as possible. Optional step: sprinkle a little bit of salt over the oil so it will be even more crisp (I always forget to do this).

Cook the quesadilla over medium heat, oil side down, until the bottoms are crisp and golden brown, it'll will take a few minutes. Then brush the top of the quesadilla with some more oil and carefully flip them over. The second side will take less time because the pan will be hotter.

Slide them out and let it sit for 2 - 3 minutes for the cheese to set. Then cut into wedges and serve.

Links:
I'm not the only Seattleite who can't stand the heat, Pea made an absolutely drool-worthy ice cream.

Buffalo Chicken Drumsticks

I’ve heard that “true” buffalo wings only have 3 ingredients: chicken wings, butter/margarine, and Frank’s Hot Sauce. Well this recipe has more than 3 ingredients but I’m still going to call them buffalo drumsticks because honestly, I don’t know what else I can call them. The drumsticks are first baked in the oven then finished under the broiler to crisp up the skin. Before serving, they are coated with more Frank’s hot sauce for extra finger-lickin’ goodness. They may look spicy, but Frank's is fairly mild so you may wish to add some Tabasco too if you like things extra spicy.

Another way to bake these drumsticks is to cook them entirely under the broiler, 10 minutes a side on the middle rack. Keeping the chicken on the middle rack prevents them from browning too quickly but if the skin is getting too dark before the chicken is fully cooked, turn the temperature down (350ºF or so) so the insides can catch up and finish cooking. This method cuts the cooking time significantly but I haven’t tried it yet. It’s how Elise made her Spicy Chicken Drumsticks so I’m sure this method works well. You can also grill these drumsticks over medium high heat.

Buffalo Chicken Drumsticks

6 chicken drumsticks
6 Tbsp Frank’s Original Hot Sauce (and some more for coating the drumsticks later)
2 tsp Tabasco (and more to taste)
2 tsp brown sugar
2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1 tsp smoked paprika (I love the smokey flavor this gives)

Mix all the ingredients (except the chicken) in a bowl and pour the marinade over the chicken. Marinate for a few hours to overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350ºF, adjust the oven racks to the middle and top position. Add the chicken to a broiler safe pan, pour the remaining marinade over the chicken, and bake on the middle rack for 35 - 40 minutes. Then move the pan up to the top rack, turn on the broiler (500ºF), and broil until the skin is crisp, about 5 minutes for the first side. Then flip the drumstick over, and broil for another 5 minutes. Drumsticks can range in size so check to see if they're cooked through (no pink).

Coat the chicken with more Frank's (and Tabasco if preferred) before serving. I skipped the butter because drumsticks have more fat than chicken wings.

Serve with blue cheese dressing and celery sticks

Chicken Provencal - WHB

The other day I was perusing the potted herbs selection looking for a thyme plant for my (future) herb garden but there were so many varieties, it was very confusing. Lemon thyme, lime thyme, caraway thyme, wooly thyme, garden thyme? For someone like me who knows nothing about plants or gardening, having so many options is just too overwhelming. I later found out that there are over 300 different species! Thyme originated in the Mediterranean and because it's indigenous to warmer climates, the major flavor components remain stable in heat and can stand up to the drying process. This allows dried thyme to retain much of its original flavor. Thyme is heavily used in French cooking and is also the main component of herbes de Provence.

Provence is a region in southeast France that borders Italy and the Mediterranean sea. The area is best known for culinary specialties that include bouillabaisse, ratatouille, and pissaladiere, and the herb mix, herbes de Provence. The cuisine is heavily influenced by Spanish, Mediterranean, and Italian flavors and features a prominent use of olive oil, herbs, and tomatoes. Chicken provencal is a French country dish of roasted (or braised in this case) chicken with garlic, tomatoes, and olives. Cook's Illustrated suggests cooking this in the oven, but I didn't feel like heating up the oven so I simmered it on the stovetop. If you wish to cook it in the oven, preheat it to 300ºF and adjust the oven rack to the lower-middle position.

Chicken Provencal - Poulet Provencal
Adapted from Cook's Illustrated

6 - 8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
1 tsp of olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
6 cloves of garlic, minced
1 anchovy fillet, minced
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1 C dry white wine
1 C chicken stock/broth
1 14 oz can of diced tomatoes, drained
2 1/2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 1/2 Tbsp fresh thyme leaves, chopped
1 bay leaf
1 tsp herbes de Provence (optional)
1/3 C nicoise olives, pitted and roughly chopped
Zest from 1 lemon
2 Tbsp fresh parsley

Heat 1 tsp of olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium high heat. Cook the chicken thighs in batches (4 at a time if you’re cooking 8, since I was cooking 6 small thighs, I squeezed them all in there). Add the thighs skin side down and cook until the skin is crisp and golden brown, about 5 minutes. At first the skin will stick to the pot but when they start to brown, they'll release easier from the pan. Turn the thighs over and brown the second side until golden brown, another 5 minutes. Remove the chicken thighs and set aside. Drain all but 2 tsp of fat from the pot.

Add the onions to the pot and cook over medium heat until browned, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic, anchovy, tomato paste, and cayenne and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds to 1 minute.

Add the wine and scrape up the brown bits and then add the chicken broth, tomatoes, thyme, bay leaf, and herbes de Provence (if using).

Remove the skins from the chicken thighs and nestle them into the pot with any accumulated juices. Bring to a simmer then either cook in the oven at 300ºF for about 1 hour or barely simmering over low heat for an hour.

Remove the chicken and set aside and discard the bay leaf. Cook the contents in the pot over high heat until thickened and reduced, about 5 minutes. Stir in olives and cook for 1 minute. Then off heat stir in the parsley and lemon zest and spoon the sauce over the chicken. Serve with crusty bread.

Serves 4

This will be my entry for Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted this week by Rinku from Cooking in Westchester. Weekend Herb Blogging is an event created by Kalyn of Kalyn’s Kitchen that encourages bloggers to share recipes and information about herbs and plants.

Hainanese Chicken Rice

Hainanese chicken rice is a dish that originated in Hainan, a tropical island off the southern coast of China. (It was there that I got picked up by an elephant and ate mangoes the size of footballs on the beach, but I digress...) Soon the dish made its way to Malaysia and Singapore. In fact, it is so popular in Singapore, some would consider it to be the national dish. Singaporeans take chicken rice very seriously and will heatedly debate about which stall has the best chicken rice.

A whole chicken is slowly poached in chicken stock and the rice is cooked in rendered chicken fat and stock. Finally, the chicken is chopped up and served cold with cucumber slices, chicken rice, a bowl of stock, and dipping sauces.

*this is the first time I made this recipe so if you have any special tips, let me know :)

Hainanese Chicken Rice
For the chicken:
1 whole chicken, around 3 1/2 lbs
3 1/4in slices of fresh ginger
3 green onions
Salt
Lots of chicken stock (making chicken stock)

For the rice:
3 C long grain rice, washed and drained
3 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed
2 tsp of freshly grated ginger
1 green onion, white part only, thinly sliced (save the green top for garnish later)
3 1/2 C chicken stock from boiling the chicken

*I made the sauces to taste so the quantities are estimations
Chili Ginger Dipping Sauce
8 red chilis, or hot sauce like Sambal Oelek
2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1 tsp freshly grated ginger
2 tsp freshly squeezed lime juice
2 Tbsp chicken stock
Salt

Soy Dipping Sauce
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp Sesame oil
2 Tbsp chicken stock

Other:
1 cucumber

For this recipe, you’ll need lots of chicken stock and a deep, thick walled (to retain heat) pot that can fit a whole chicken.

I can't say for sure how much stock you’ll need. It depends on the size of the pot you use and the size of your chicken but you need enough stock to fully submerge the chicken.

One way to tell how much stock you'll need is to add the chicken to the empty pot then add enough tap water to cover the chicken by an inch or two. Then remove the chicken. Make a mental note of the water level without the chicken. Dump out the water and add your chicken stock to the appropriate level. If you don’t have enough stock, you can add more water so you have enough. You don’t want to boil the chicken in only water because it will leech out too much flavor from the chicken.

Cooking the chicken:
Wash chicken, remove and save the excess fat, you’ll need it for the rice. Rub the entire chicken with salt. Set aside at room temp for about 30 minutes. Stuff the cavity with 3 green onions and ginger slices.

Bring enough stock to cover the chicken to a boil. Add the chicken breast side down and turn the heat down to the lowest setting so it’s barely (only a few bubbles) simmering. You don’t want to boil the chicken but you don’t want the stock to cool down too much either. After 25 minutes, gently lift the chicken out of the pot, let the stock from the cavity drain back into the pot, and set aside temporarily.

Quickly bring the stock back up to a boil, add the chicken, this time breast-side up, then turn back down to low heat, barely simmering, and cook for another 20 – 25 minutes.

Meanwhile in a wok or skillet, heat the reserved chicken fat over medium low heat to render out the oil. You’ll want about 2 tbsp for the rice.

Have a big bowl of ice water ready for the chicken. The chicken is done when juices from the thigh runs clear. When it’s done, submerge it in the bowl of ice water to stop the cooking. This helps tighten the skin and makes it jelly-like and taste really, really good. Let it cool in the ice bath for 10 - 15 minutes, then take it out and cool to room temperature.

Bring the chicken stock up to a boil and skim off the excess fat and scum. Continue to boil and reduce the stock for a more flavorful soup.

Cooking the rice:
Heat the chicken fat in a skillet over medium heat and add the chopped white part of the green onion and rice. Toast the rice until each grain is evenly coated with fat and looks golden.

Stir in the ginger and minced garlic and cook for 30 seconds until fragrant.

Add 3 1/2 cups of chicken stock and transfer this mixture to a rice cooker. I have to admit I always let my rice cooker do all the work and consequently, I don’t know how to cook rice on the stovetop. But Chubby Hubby has some stovetop chicken rice instructions. After some research it seems like the gist is you bring the rice and stock up to a boil in a saucepan over medium or medium-high heat, let it boil until the water level gets down to the level of the rice. Decrease the heat to low, cover the rice and let it cook for 30 - 40 minutes.

While the rice cooks, chop the chicken into bite size pieces and slice the cucumber. Whisk together the dipping sauces. Ladle the stock into bowls and garnish with some sliced green part of the reserved green onion.

Serve the chicken with cucumbers, chicken rice, soup, and the 2 dipping sauces.