Hainanese Boneless Chicken Rice: Who started deboning Chicken?
With Tag, carnineviand, iwatch_ueat, Bashful Hunter and iwatch_ueat
I wish I know just who it was that started this trend of deboning chicken? It was a brilliant move. Suddenly you have another type of chicken rice in the market. But then, like any other great idea, the copycats stepped in and usurped it for their own. Now we don't even know who started the trend. Perhaps some of our more informed foodies can enlighten us on this?
This chicken rice is NOT for those who consider themselves the religious guardians of the Chicken Rice Code. I am talking about people like my friend VB who insists that none of the Chicken Rice in Singapore is worth eating. According to Chicken Rice Purists, authentic 
Hainanese Chicken Rice Chicken is never put into cold water after cooking and never hung because it will drain out all the precious juices. Also the Chicken MUST be an Old Mother Hen who had laid eggs twice. No more, no less. The chicken must be served plain without the drizzling of sauce of any kind. To do it would be to violate the Hainanese Chicken Rice Code. So given all the commandments of the code, this stall does not qualify to call itself "Hainanese Chicken Rice" at all!
But for those heathen amongst us, the pariah of Chicken Rice eaters, this is one pretty shiok chicken rice. The timing of the chicken is perfect, so the flesh is still tender but the bone is cooked right through. Being scared of Salmonella food poisoning, I am always wary of eating chicken that is still pink. I tried the chicken by itself without the sauce and it was "Chickeny" enough but not overly so such that you feel like you are eating chicken that has just been running around you in a Kampung. (I find it hard to eat chicken that I have just been chasing!). Being a Hainanese Chicken Rice pariah, I actually like my chicken with the yummy savoury soy sauce that they drizzle over the chicken. And the sauce here is the BEST I have tasted so far. It has got the right balance of sweet, salty and umami that I find suited my tastebuds best.
To top off the list of transgressions, might I just add the final nail in the coffin. While speaking to the stall owner, I found out that he was not even Hainanese! He is Hokkien!
The rice on that day was unfortunately freshly cooked and was a little too soft to the bite. Tastewise it was fragrant enough though it was not any more memorable than others I have tasted. The chilli was good, but again not head above the rest, especially compared to the sample of chicken rice chilli that VB gave us to sample.
Conclusion
Let the true believers be forewarned, this is anything but a true Hainanese Chicken Rice. But for this Hainanese Chicken Rice Liberal, this is currently my favourite Chicken Rice stall! 4.6/5
Hainanese Boneless Chicken Rice
Blk 120 Bukit Merah Lane 1
Alexandra Village Hawker Centre
Stall 01-15
10am to 8pm
Closed on Sundays and Public Hols
18 comments:
No, not laid 2 eggs but laid eggs twice! And hung or not, doesn't matter. But old mother hen means that the meat is not the soft soft tender type (that u get fm the regular places) but has a bite that will not pull yr teeth off but very shiok to chew on and the skin is crunchy/succulent...very very shiok....but too bad, no more old mother hen allowed to be sold now in Singapore. And please, no (white) vinegar in the chilli sauce as what u usually get - they do it to dilute the chilli and gives it the sourish taste (chili expensive in SIngapore ok!). This is a Hainanese person whose family is a purist when it comes to H. Chicken Rice speaking.
Right on the money vb, exactly what my great grand aunt used to tell me too!
Anonymous, u mean u never got to eat old mother hen? What a shame!!!! My aunt says the old mother hen is now used for making canned chicken curry coz it keeps better...dunno if this is true or not though. And yes, we eat the chicken with the blood...very shiok to suck out the blood fm the bone......anyway, this is the good old ("disease-free") days I am talking abt.
Hi, just wondering if you meant "wary" and not "weary" of eating chicken that is still pink. The former has the meaning of being cautious, while the latter means to be tired or bored (with something). Just thought you'd like to know :) Apart from that, I have to say that I very much enjoy reading about and seeing pictures of all these yummy food. I know you live in the East but I hope you'll feature more food in the West, so poor university students like me know where to go for good, cheap eats :)
Vb, I did have the chance of eating the old mother hen type of chicken rice as a kid. But I think even then, I was too exposed to the soft succulent hawker centre variety to have appreciated the authenticity!! Sigh, you don't miss your water till the well runs dry...
I was mulling over the term 'boneless' as well.
How does one define 'boneless'? When a hawker de-bones the chicken, is he obliged to increase the price of his chicken rice for his extra effort? What if i find traces of chicken bone he 'neglected' to remove? Can i ask for a refund?
I think the term 'boneless'is defined very loosely here. As much as i love the hawker doing the dirty work so that consumers have a more pleasant dining experience, we have to accept that 'boneless' is unlikely 100%.
purists or not, everyone knows that the style of Hainanese chicken rice cooked in singapore is not found in hainan at all....
so its more accurate to call it singapore version of hainanese chicken rice. but thats a mouthful.
anyway food evolves, i think the cantonese style and the hainanese style has sort of merged into what we find in singapore today.
as for boneless chicken rice, i remember vaguely in the 80s, was a stall that first boasted of serving boneless chicken rice- but really cant remember which one already...
I also heard no H.C. Rice in Hainan (fm my relatives who visited) but I spoke with one taxi driver and he told me that he lived in Hainan for a couple of years and he said that there is good H. C. Rice there if u know where to go and that the chicken is kampong chicken and freshly slaughtered so tastes fantastic. I hv never been to Hainan so cannot verify this info.
"Bonesless" does not taste as good as the regular way of chopping it, I think.
I think the best boneless chicken rice I have tried is in the bedok reservior food market. Been there for many years.
Few years before SARS, my family sneaked 2 chicken(famously known as Wen Chang Ji among Chinese Food Critic) from Hainan Island. I must admit they are totally different. Anyway, there is Hainanese Chicken Rice in Hainan Island but served differently-Rice balls dipped in Chicken Soup(not drink up like our HCR version here), no chilli.
Wen Chang Ji can be easily bought in supermarket in HK and yes, it's good.
Chicken Rice in SG has developed to such high standard. Sometime trying to rate the good ones is like splitting hair.
This one I find the rice a bit soggy. The meat is like as if pressed too much while cutting.
tak mentioned the Bedok Reservoir Road mkt. I believe it is Blk 630. It is not bad as well. I like the Mee Pok (next door) Black Carrot Cake (2 rows away) too.
Just visited the place today after hearing all the hype.
Two things stand out: the rice is definitely pre-fried, which explains the fragrance and taste. Also the chicken sauce is unusually similar to the Wee Naam Kee Chicken rice opp Novena Church.
Other than that, the chicken is excellent and the boneless factor does not do any harm to the stall. For half a chicken, it was surprisingly $8.60 (even Chicken house serving Kampung chicken at thomson rd charged 11 bucks)...either that or he may have misinterpreted me when i said rice for two...
The chilli was excellent too, spicy and hot. Definitely a top draw overall.
just went there again couple weeks back, brought some malaysian foodie friends there.
in fact, they said it was one of the best chicken rice stalls in sg. Even when i brought them to the famous tian tian at maxwell markt, they preferred this stall and found tian tian lacking.
i must say tian tian's standard has dropped, esp ever since anthony bourdain endorsed it. no doubt their chicken rice is still competent, but lacks that X shiokness factor, no doubt a result of having to rush out in high volume, too many chickens and plates of rice for the snaking queue (45min wait, at 1.30pm on a Sun afternoon!)
FOR the quality and the waiting time, its not worth waiting for anymore.
must say the standard of this alex village stall is currently one of the best around....
Love your blog!
Tried the bl chix rice at alexandra for the 2nd time today. Overall I would say it's not bad, it's more or less normal chix rice (your regular chix rice vendor will debone your order if you ask nicely and they're not too busy). The rice is nice the first few spoonfuls, but the texture pulls it down as you go about clearing your plate, too mushy. The meat is decent, a little overcooked, which renders away the fat layers within. The 'dressing' is a nice balance, and with the chilli are the only things holding the meal together.
I would highly recommend you try the boneless chicken rice at marine parade food centre! I don't recall the name of the stall, there are some newspaper cuttings on the storefront. It's along the same row as some banana leaf fried hokkien mee stall, facing away from the food centre, a dessert stall in the same row too. I believe it's the only stall there selling dedicated bl chix rice.
The chicken there is done just right, with a little of the gelatinous chicken juices inbetween. What I love is that, with the drumstick that I requested, I also got bits of tendon and cartiledge, which I adore. The 'dressing' here is quite excellent, unctuous and savoury with the right amount of sweet. There's almost a demi-glace quality to it. Chilli and rice are normal I guess, not standouts here but definitely on the good side of average.
The lady who took my order pissed me off by forgetting my order after making so much noise in the process of taking it (although to her credit she did apologise repeatedly after). Even so, after digging in I knew I would have to come back at some point in the future.
Dear Hungrihippo, Actually I was at Marine Parade FC.for lunch today. I had the mixed rice from Xin Long n Selegie Soya Bean. There are many chicken rice stalls n I dont notice this stall as it is along Selegie Soya Bean.Next time you are there pls advise us the stall name n nos.Tks.
Hi smart, will try to catch the name. I'm not in the east so I don't go there often. The mixed rice stall is the one in the corner, sort of near the MacDonald's right? The Boneless Chicken Rice is at the opposite end across the food centre. You can see all the chicken head and spines hanging in the window as opposed to the normal chix rice stalls. Did a bit of searching, I believe it's next to the Ah Liang Fried Hokkien Mee.
http://ieatishootipost.blogspot.com/2007/06/ah-liang-fried-hokkien-mee-does-tar.html
The mee stall is in the corner, boneless chicken rice is a couple stalls to the right. Hope this helps!
I have eaten about 3 times.This chicken is quite good,the rice is very decent. But if you consider the price this has be around the best there is.$8.00 for half a chicken.Even in wet market the stall that sell cha siew,roast duck,sio bak sell their chicken around $7.00-$8.00 for half chicken.
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