Today, we’re making perhaps the most mouthwatering Cantonese dish of all... Clay Pot Rice, a classic one pot dish that's actually much easier to make at home than you might think. There are many versions, but this one is a guaranteed winner, packed with chicken, Chinese sausage, shiitake mushrooms, and the signature crispy rice. My dad, a retired chef, will share all of his techniques, like how to properly use a clay pot and how to cook the juiciest meat, but first he’ll show us how to prepare the foundation of this dish, the rice. Let's start by washing the rice. Today, I'm using 10 oz of rice. When you wash rice, massage it like this. We’ll wash our rice 3 times, draining the water and using fresh water each time. Is short grain rice or long grain rice better? I've always used Thai jasmine rice. Long grain rice is better. That's what I think. Would it work if you used sushi rice? Sure! It would be softer. If you like it that way, it's great. All right, the rice is clean. Soak it in some hot water. Boiling water. Why? It will cook faster. Restaurants usually soak the rice. For how long? 10 minutes or so. Two links of Chinese sausage. This Chinese sausage is all pork. In case of debris, we'll soak it in hot water. It's sun-dried, so we'll soak it in boiling water. Then it'll be better. Later, we'll put the entire link in the rice. Next! We'll cut the chicken. Split it down the middle here. For the parts of the chicken with bones, we’ll cut them into smaller pieces each about 1-2 inches wide. They'll cook faster. It's okay for them to have bones? Yes! Some people like bone-in. Bone-in meat is better, son. The meat is more tender. This part is too thick. We’ll continue cutting into small pieces with the drumstick. Just cut it like this. These bones aren't hard. Cut the chicken breast into slices. With the chicken breast, we’ll cut it into thick slices about a 1/2” thick each. Some of our family prefer white meat, so we have some of each. We'll have a combination of both breast and thigh meat. After we chop up the chicken, rinse in some water. When we chopped it, we made some bone shards. That's why we have to rinse it. Inspect the pieces. If there are any shards of bone, they'll be at the bottom. The shards of bone will sink. What if you only use boneless chicken? Then you don't need to rinse it. We’ll put the cut chicken into a strainer, piece by piece, making sure we’ve washed off any pieces of bone. Now that our chicken is cut, we’ll move on to an important ingredient that adds a ton of umami flavor to the dish. All right, now we'll cut the shiitake mushrooms. About 1 oz. Rehydrated dried shiitake mushrooms. Take the stem off. These are big, so we'll cut into thirds. We’re using dried shiitake mushrooms here. To rehydrate them, just soak them in hot water for at least 10 minutes. Squeeze the water out. Why do you have to squeeze them? Squeeze the water out so it can absorb flavor. Put them together. We’ll set the mushrooms aside and prepare our aromatics for the chicken marinade. Shallot. We're going to mince it. We’ll cut the shallot very finely. First, slicing it, then rotating to mince. I like to mince the ginger and mix it into the chicken. Some people like to slice the ginger. We’ll slice the ginger the same way, then cut into strips, then rotating to mince. Now for our garnish: green onion. Dice them. Dice them. We’ll dice two pieces. No need to separate the whites from the greens here. Now back to the chicken that’s been draining. Now let's marinate the chicken. Pat the chicken dry with a paper towel. When the chicken is dry, it'll soak up flavor better. We’ll combine our bone-in chicken with the chicken breast and set aside. Then we’ll create our marinade with 1 tbsp of light soy sauce, 2 tbsp of oyster sauce, 1/2 tsp of salt, 1 tsp of sugar, 1 tbsp of corn starch, 3 tbsp of water, 1 tsp of cooking wine, and a 1/4 tsp of white pepper. Then we’ll mix. We have all of these ingredients listed on our blog at madewithlau.com along with step-by-step instructions and video clips to guide you as you make the recipe at home. Once the marinade is well-mixed, we’ll add the chicken. Pour all the chicken in. Then we’ll stir the chicken into the marinade until every piece is evenly coated. Add the ginger and shallots. Now, we’ll also add and mix in the shallots and ginger. Some people like to eat ginger slices. I prefer to mince the ginger. The flavor penetrates better. The chicken is ready. With the chicken prepared, we’ll also be marinating our mushrooms. Add some oyster sauce to the mushrooms. 1/2 tbsp is enough. We’ll follow the oyster sauce with 1 tsp of sugar and 1/2 a tsp of cornstarch. Then mix until the mushrooms are evenly coated. Now we can remove the Chinese sausage from the water it’s been soaking in for 10 minutes. The Chinese sausage we'll put it whole, on top of the rice and it'll steam. We'll cut it up at the table. And now we’ll make the delicious sauce that complements the rice perfectly. We'll mix up the sauce that we pour over the rice after it's cooked. 1 tbsp of oyster sauce. 1 tsp of light soy sauce. 1 tsp of sugar. 1 tsp of dark soy sauce. That's about it. Now, we’ll mix that together well. If you’re not familiar, clay pot rice or 煲仔飯 bou zai faan is a popular Cantonese comfort food in southern China and Southeast Asia. It is a centuries-old dish that features the ancient cooking method of claypot over a flame. The claypot is traditionally used because it retains heat evenly all around, which is perfect for slow-cooking everything together, with the water that cooks the rice simultaneously steaming the ingredients above, while the juices of the ingredients soak into the rice below. Another highlight of this dish is that the rice develops a crust similar to Korean stone pot bibimbap or Spanish paella which is called 飯焦 faan ziu in Cantonese or literally “rice scorched”. While the cooking method may take longer than your usual stir-fry dish, the tender ingredients with the flavorful rice paired with a perfect sauce makes it well worth the wait. So let’s break out the clay pot. Our ingredients are all ready. Let's start cooking! This is a clay pot. This is a new one, we just bought it. It's best to use a gas stove with this. On an electric stovetop, you have to somehow put some space between the stovetop and the clay pot. The clay is prone to cracking over direct heat. Especially if you're making clay pot rice, gas is better. Unless you're cooking in a metal pot, then it doesn't matter. Before cooking with a brand new clay pot, my dad has a special process to essentially season it: Wash it with dish soap. First, we’ll wash it normally with dish soap. You should only use dish soap with glazed pots and not on unglazed pots. Put the whole pot in here, like this. Fill it completely with water. Cover it and let it soak overnight. If not, one or two hours is okay. Then we’ll completely submerge the pot and lid in piping hot water, cover it, and let it sit for at least 1-2 hours, but my dad soaks it overnight. When you're hungry, rinse it clean and make congee! Plain congee. But the congee isn't edible? Sure, you can eat it! Or even noodles. Anything plain? Yes, anything plain. In the morning, we’ll wash it again and cook plain congee or some other plain starchy dish, which you can eat. When the pot is brand new, the surface is not smooth. There are tiny bumps on it, and also little empty spaces. Then because the congee is so sticky, it gets into the material. It's just like you're seasoning it. To reiterate what my mom said, the starchiness of the congee helps to seal the tiny pores in the clay pot, which helps create more of a non-stick surface and helps prevent the pot from cracking in the future. There are also lots of other ways to season and maintain a clay pot, especially across different cultures. I'm adding the rice. We’ll add in our rice that we soaked in hot water for 10 minutes then drained. Mix some oil in. 1 tsp. What does the oil do? Having oil on the bottom of the pot develops the scorched rice crust, it's more fragrant, and it loosens up the rice. We’ll mix in the oil with the rice thoroughly. Katie also had a question, Does the outside of a clay pot need to be dry before putting it over a fire? Yes, that's right. Do you risk the clay cracking if it's not dry? Yes, it may crack. If it's wet, and you suddenly heat it up on high heat, the clay may crack. It's about keeping the pot in good condition. So always dry the bottom before you cook. It shrinks when cold, and expands when hot. I'm starting with hot water to help it cook faster. We’re adding 11 fl oz of piping hot water to the rice. Some people mix salt into the rice. I don't need to, because this is flavorful enough. Now, put the lid on. Turn the heat on. When you turn the heat on, don't turn it all the way up with a clay pot. Turn it to medium heat. Christine and Alexander from Patreon asked, "What are some alternatives if you don't have a clay pot?" Normal pots are just fine. The clay pot makes the dish more aromatic. It's different from the other pots. Add some oil to the chicken. 1 tbsp. 1 tsp of sesame oil. We’ll add oil and sesame oil into our marinated chicken and mix. Take the lid off. It's slowly starting to boil. We’ll uncover the pot when the water is just about boiling. When the rice has just about absorbed all the water, it's time to add the chicken. It's boiling. As the water boils, we’ll first make sure the rice is spread out evenly in the pot, then we’re ready to add our ingredients. First, a link of Chinese sausage on each side. Chicken. Spread it out. Why don't you mix the chicken in? You just put it on top. You can't mix it in! It's not clay pot rice if you mix it in The signature feature of clay pot rice is a layer of ingredients over rice. The juices run down to the rice. The meat on top needs to be tender. If you mix it in to cook, it won't be tender. After the chicken, we’ll add the mushrooms. Add the mushrooms on top. Make sure to spread them around and not put them in a pile, so they can cook evenly. Emily from Patreon asked, "What are the best toppings to use?" Either chicken or pork spare ribs, usually one of those two. There are many kinds of clay pot rice. Yes, you also have beef, and seafood. Put the lid on. With all the ingredients in, we’ll cover the pot. Turn the heat to low. Then turn the heat to low. Cook for another 5-10 minutes, you'll hear the crackling. Then we need to rotate the clay pot. Help scorch the sides. This kind of pot retains heat? Yes, because it's thick-walled. It's better at retaining heat than metal pots. The heat doesn't dissipate as quickly as it does in metal pots. That's why restaurants use clay pots. It retains heat better. From Winnie, Clara, and Frank on Patreon, Oh, thank you! "How do you choose a good clay pot?" You really don't get many choices to pick from here. More choices online. You may be able to find one at a physical store but this is the exact clay pot we bought from Amazon, which you can find in our description. Knock on it when you're picking it out. A good one sounds like this. A cracked one wouldn't sound like this. You can't cook with a cracked one? You can't cook with a cracked one, it'll leak. Is there a certain way you wash it, or take care of it? Make sure you wash it clean, wash it with detergent and put it away. Can you put this in a dishwasher? Yes, you can. There's nothing crashing into it in the dishwasher, it's just some rushing water. You need to leave the lid kind of open when you store it in the closet. Like this. Why? Let the air circulate inside. And when you cook, never cook at a very high temperature. After 10 minutes of cooking on low, we’ll turn the heat back up to medium and my dad will show you exactly how he gets the perfectly crispy scorched rice. All right, I'm going to start scorching the sides. Turn it up to medium heat. The handles will be hot, so use a towel to grab it. You can also use oven mitts or pot holders here. Watch, it's like this. Oh, you're scorching that side! Heat this side, and then the other side. If you want a beautifully scorched rice crust, you have to do this. An electric stovetop is fine too, if you don't want any crust on the sides. Hear that crackling? We’ll spend about 2 minutes heating this side of the pot. Make sure to move and tilt the pot so that it scorches the rice evenly. Now this side. Now, we’ll turn the pot around and repeat the process. Is a dry cloth better? Yes, it's better! It won't burn you. A wet cloth will transfer the heat, and burn your hand. You won't be able to hold it. To avoid burning your hand, always use a dry towel or mitt to hold the pot, but be very careful not to get too close to the open flame. After heating this side for 2 minutes, we’ll move on to our next step. I'm turning the heat down and adding some oil. We’ll turn the heat to low and add oil around the edge of the lid. Do you absolutely have to keep the lid on? Yes, don't uncover it. Not until it's completely cooked. Pour the oil here. We’ll carefully pour in 2 tbsp of oil evenly around the whole edge of the pot without opening the lid. That's done. Some people use lard. I'm not using lard, just this cooking oil. We’ll let it cook on low for 2 minutes, or until you hear the sizzling sound. I also wanted to make a special shoutout to thank all of our wonderful Patreon supporters for helping bring this video to life. If you enjoy our videos and are interested in supporting us directly, head on over to patreon.com/madewithlau to learn more! Hear that? The crackling sound. Rotate it again. Turn the heat up just a bit. Now we’ll turn the heat back up to medium and repeat our rice scorching process. "How do you prevent the rice from burning or sticking to the pot?" Just keep an eye on it, and don't cook on too high heat. When you hear the crackling, it's ready. But you can't see it the whole time. No, you can't see inside. You can hear it, it'll make a crackling, sizzling sound. If it were to burn, you would smell it burning. Hear the crackling? We’ll heat each side of the pot like before, 2 minutes on each side. We just have to scorch this side. What's the best way to reheat this? It's okay if it gets cold, just reheat it in the microwave. Add a little oil along the side slowly reheat the scorched rice crust. Do you still keep it covered in the microwave? Yeah! Keep the lid on. After 2 minutes on each side, my dad does an extra minute on each side to ensure the rice is extra crispy. And now we’re ready to see the final product. We’ll add the green onions for garnish. With clay pot rice, the point is to eat the scorched rice crust. You have to get the crust right. Oh my god, look at that crumb! The crumb, the crumb, the crumb! That looks so good! Get some sauce. Mm! Is it good? Wow! I have to put some sauce on it. Chicken Clay Pot Rice is complete! I hope you all enjoy it! Hong Doy, time to eat! Cheers! Did you do your puzzle? I like puzzles, huh? Yay! YouTube thinks you’ll like this recipe next. Let's see if they're right.
