The Perfect Hainanese Chicken Rice

Hainanese chicken rice is the dish i have always loved to cook the most there's just something fascinating about how basically a poached chicken can be so simple and yet so delicate and taste and now after finally having tasted the legendary Hainanese chicken rice at tent hens in Singapore as well as one Chiang chicken which is the grandfather of all Hainanese chicken rice over in Hainan Island I believe I've learned a thing or two about this dish and so here it is my updated and definitive nineteen step guides to Hainanese chicken rice perfection it should go without saying that everything starts with a good-quality chicken the original when Chiang chicken is actually a special breed of chicken raised in a special region and in a very specific way and unless you're in southeastern Asia the closest you will realistically come to this is a free-range chicken their meat will roughly have the texture that we're going for a key step is to then find some excess fat on your chicken and save that I usually go for the two fatty flaps below the breast and of course the butt of the chicken we'll get to these trimmings in a second don't worry before that it is time to give your chicken a peeling with coarse salt outside and inside as well just make sure not to tear the chicken skin I guess technically you could skip this step but what we're doing here is we're getting rid of some unwanted impurities and loose bits inside the chicken and after a quick rinse you will notice how the skin gets considerably smoother and this step also helps down the line by giving you a cleaner broth next we want to set our chicken skin up for success to get that classic texture Hainanese chicken rice is so famous for we need to first Scout the chicken before we actually cook it first we need to get a good grip of the bird and I just bent a metal skewer like this into a hook then I pierced my chicken under the wing went under the wishbone and came out like this with quite a lot of control now typically this chicken would get dipped into a huge stock pot full of boiling water like three times but that only really makes sense if you're doing like a big restaurant style batch no way are we dealing with this much boiling water instead I recommend just scalding the chicken with boiling water from a kettle or something like that go around a few times try to get all the parts of the chicken you should see the skin tighten up and that is exactly what we want now let's talk about flavor I mean pure chicken taste is all good but we want to add just a little bit of business I am stuffing my chicken with crushed ginger chunks and scallions by putting those in the cavity you'll gently perfume your chicken from the inside out some people also add whole garlic cloves shallots or even lemongrass but honestly I think the only thing that shouldn't be missing is the ginger but now let's work on our stock I'm using a relatively small pot you'll see how that works in a second and I am adding water but making sure to leave enough room for the chicken itself then I like adding around 2 percent salt which is pretty salty I know but that is actually useful down the line you'll see and the chicken it won't be too salty don't worry now I'm already hearing some of you guys screaming but there is no way I am NOT adding a healthy amount of MSG to this broth don't like it don't add it but you will be wrong once your water comes up to a boil add in your bird but don't do this ok a second attempt to gently gently lower your chicken into the water well I almost got it okay now do you see how the chicken breast still sticks out a little bit that is actually okay what we're gonna do is we're covering the stockpot and then this way the steam will gently cook those tender chicken breasts you see we could have used the bigger stockpot with a lot more water but hey that's Messier and the B we're gonna use that stock later on and this way we're gonna get a much more flavorful result bring your water up to a boil just once and then immediately turn it down to your stove slowest setting you want to very gently simmer the chicken for around 20 minutes and after that turn off your stove entirely but keep the lid closed for another 30 minutes your chicken wants to be perfect make it prompt and now while that chicken is poaching we are gonna use our time wisely and begin by washing our rice I am using Thai jasmine long-grain rice which is definitely the way to go here after it is somewhat cleared add fresh water and then soak it for 20 minutes when time's up discard the water and let your wet rice until we're ready to move ahead with it later you see Hainanese chicken rice is a very well timed process like every little bit of down time can be used to prep something else which is going to be important down the line I love that you know like right now chicken is still cooking no problem we're getting those bits of chicken fat from before adding them to a cold pan and slowly rendering out the fat on medium heat after around 10 minutes or so they should be nice and crispy and you can hopefully do a better job saving the chicken schmaltz 10 mean seriously what's up okay chickens ready but there's still a bit of technique here you want to carefully transfer the birds to a bowl of a very cold water and then even add some ice cubes on top of that and then let the chicken rest for at least 15 minutes this is a signature step from Singaporean or Malaysian Hainanese chicken rice they don't actually do that on Hainan Island itself this is the part of the process that really lets that chicken skin firm up build that gelatinous layer underneath and result in that tiny nice chicken skin texture everybody loves now I hope you didn't pour your stock away because that is of course a key component of chicken rice I'm straining it through a sift with some optional cheesecloth and I have no idea what's up with me and pouring liquids today but you get the idea this is what we worked so hard for our chicken II super umami stock now in a good Hainanese chicken rice the star is not actually the chicken sorry to burst your bubble it's the rice and how to achieve chicken rice perfection first we're adding our rendered chicken schmaltz into a large skillet we need quite a good amount here I didn't quite have enough so I added some peanut oil which is totally okay now throw in some crushed ginger chunks and garlic cloves into the pan and perfume your oil with them some recipes will call for minced garlic and minced ginger a lot of people say you have to add shallots to be honest I'm not a big fan of having a lot of like blue bits and pieces in the rice so I like to keep things really pure and simple here that's why I conveniently remove the big aromatics just before they burn and then slap in my drained rice you want to make sure to get a toasty and greasy before we transfer it into a rice cooker to get that super classic flavor of chicken rice in Southeast Asia there is no way to get around pandan leaves you can find them in most Asian grocery stores they give off a very rich slightly sweet fragrance and of course the key step you absolutely cannot miss is cooking your rice in chicken stock I like to go for a bit over a cup of stock for every cup of rice this is by the way where it's very useful that our stock is on the saltier side because with all that rice in there the saltiness level is actually pretty mild give everything a quick mix and just let your rice cooker do its magic you can also cook the rice in the pot of course but hey rice cookers are the best remember how I said making Hainanese chicken rice is a highly optimized process well there you go while our rice is cooking we're gonna whip up some sauces the original wen Qiang style sauce from Hainan is a very simple Irby dip coriander scallions garlic chicken stock a dash of soy sauce and a pinch of sugar old-school straightforward and delicious getting something that resembles the sweet chili sauce in Singapore is not quite as easy but this is what has kind of worked for me along with a few Tigers Eye Chili's I add minced garlic minced ginger a dash of sugar rice vinegar a glug of our stock and the juice of a Clementine so normally for that citrusy kick the juice of a calamansi would be used calamansi looks like this and no it does not taste like a lime in fact I think the closest you will get at home realistically is mixing a Clementine with a little bit of vinegar I gave everything a quick blitz but I was missing some color and intensity I tried to fix that by adding a bit of store-bought sambal and somehow that worked like a charm this is actually very close to the fruity chili sauce I had at Auntie Anne's another very typical sauce to go with Hainan chicken is ginger scallion oil very simple just drop minced ginger and scallions in a heatproof Bowl add a bit of salt and sugar and pour some sizzling hot oil over everything and you see that for me is the genius of Hainanese chicken rice because the chicken is so pure we basically get to turn it into a new dish with every sauce that we make for it now we're almost done but not quite veggies am i right very often you'll find that chicken rice comes with sliced cucumber it's cool and fresh flavor is perfect to cut through the richness of the chicken and the greasiness of the rice but I think it's very important to do the cucumber right I like to peel and de-seed the cucumber and then cut it into little batons bite-sized and chopstick friendly boom I can't believe you have stuck with me until the final step which is of course carving and deboning the chicken I've definitely not the best person to teach this to you but here it is in short I like to first remove the wings and legs then separate the breasts from the carcass I then twist out the big leg bones and get rid of all the smaller bits and then bring everything back in order under the skin protip you can actually grab the wings the bones the carcass everything roasted in an oven until it's nice and brown and make a second round of incredibly delicious stock out of this but these four big meaty parts that's what we want to chop up into bite-sized chunks and then serve alongside our sauces a steaming bowl of rice and of course some fresh cucumber hope you guys give this one a try let me know how it went and I'm gonna see you in the next video this video was brought to you by on dawns epic patreon supporters don't forget to subscribe and smash the bell for weekly food inspiration from all over the world

Channel: My Name Is Andong

Views: 259,740

Keywords: hainanese chicken rice, hainanese chicken rice (dish), hainanese chicken rice recipe, how to make hainanese chicken rice, how to make hainanese chicken rice chilli sauce, chicken rice, hainanese chicken, chicken rice recipe, hainanese chicken recipe, hainan chicken rice, hainan chicken rice recipe, how to make chicken rice, how to make hainanese chicken, how to make hainanese chicken ginger sauce, hainan chicken, how to make hainan chicken, my name is andong

Id: Vsv8JKI6SwE

Length: 10min 12sec (612 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 29 2019