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In my last culinary trip to Singapore, you may have noticed the chicken rice. A seemingly simple recipe that is much more flavorful than it looks. It’s a healthy and truly original meal. I actually put a lot more chopped cilantro on the rice and chicken than in my photo. This dish is found in many Asian countries, but especially in Singapore where it was brought by the Chinese from the province/island of Hainan. With a little chilli sauce or the pandanus leaf chicken sauce, this delicious meal will take on a whole new dimension!
Recipe for 4 people:
For the chicken:
-1 whole chicken
-1 large piece of ginger root
-1 bunch of coriander
-5 Chinese onions or, failing that, spring onions
-friedail
-1 tablespoon of toasted sesame oil
-salt pepper
For rice:
-400g of rice
-700ml of chicken cooking broth.
-3 tablespoons of oil
-3 cloves of garlic
-2cm of grated fresh ginger
-a few coriander leaves
-salt pepper
To serve:
chilli sauce, sweet soy sauce (see the recipe in the chicken with pandanus leaves HERE), sauce with ginger…
Prepare the chicken: clean it well (unless it is a clean chicken from the supermarket) and put it in a pot that can hold it.
Cut the ginger (without peeling it) into slices.
Add chopped ginger and fried garlic (you can find ready-made jars in Asian grocery stores).
Cut the onions in getting rid of of the root.
Add everything to the pot, not forgetting the bouquet of coriander.
Add enough water to cover the chicken. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then keep simmering over low heat for 1 hour and 20 minutes.
At the end of this time the chicken must be cooked. Just prick it with a fork: plenty of juice should normally come out.
Remove the chicken from the pot (reserving the juices) and place the chicken in a large bowl of cold water, rinsing well to cool it under a cold stream. In this way, we will stop the cooking process and the chicken will keep all its softness and the skin will not crack.
Continue cooking the broth for a good hour, this time at a boil.
For the rice, it will be a pilaf cooking (which is a technique originating from South East Asia ). Put the oil in a saucepan and add the crushed garlic cloves.
Add the ginger.
When the garlic and ginger start to smell really good, add the rice.
Let the rice cook in the fat for one or two minutes, then add all the broth (from the chicken) at once.
Add a little coriander and salt.
Close the lid and let cook until the broth is completely absorbed by the rice.
Basically, after 15-20 minutes, there is almost no broth left and all the grains come off.
When ready to serve: bring the broth back to the boil (if it has cooled in the meantime) and add the chicken to heat everything up. Take the chicken out again (when you think everything is hot!) this time without rinsing it. Pour in a little toasted sesame oil.
Then massage it with the oil to perfume it well.
Cutting…
The pieces are ready to be served.
To eat: serve the chicken with chopped cilantro on top (more than in the photo!), the fragrant rice, a bowl of piping hot chicken broth, and sauces to complement it all: chili-garlic sauce, sriracha, sweet soy sauce. For the latter, just go my clone recipe of the delicious Thai sauce in the recipe of chicken with pandanus leaves HERE!
