Hawker Home Recipes: Chicken Rice
Can you get that layer of jelly under the skin?
I have been thinking about our poor friends from overseas who can only drool at the pictures in the blog but can't go to the nearest hawker centre to satisfy their cravings. So I am going to lessen the pain a bit by providing some recipes whereby our hawker food can be cooked at home.
However, it won't be much fun just publishing recipes which you can get from the internet or a cookbook. What would be more interesting would be to publish the recipes of famous hawker stall owners so that you can try to replicate their dishes at home.
They are willing to share their secrets because firstly, they are generous people. And secondly, they probably know that after trying to cook your own dishes at home, you'd probably appreciate just how much work goes into preparing the food that you would just head down to eat at their stalls instead!
Anyway, I thought we would start with what is probably the most ubiquitous hawker dish in Singapore, viz Chicken Rice. And to share with us his recipe with is the boss of Five Star Chicken Rice! Many thanks to Mr Li!
Five Star Boss's Homestyle Kampung Chicken Rice Recipe*:
Chicken
1 whole kampung chicken- 70 ml sesame oil
- 60 ml light soy sauce
- Pandan leaves
- 60 ml of concentrated chicken stock
- Sliced ginger
- Finely chopped Garlic
- Chicken bones
- Cooking oil
- Chicken fat
- Salt
- Shallot oil
- Pandan leaves
- 1/3 chilli padi
- 2/3 red chilli
- fresh lime
- chicken broth
- finely minced ginger.
Prepare chicken stock by boiling chicken bones in water for at least 1 hour (the longer you boil the better). Bring another pot of water to boil, making sure that there is enough water so that the entire chicken can be submerged. Once the water is boiling, put all the ingredients listed above into the boiling water. Next, dip the chicken into the boiling water and dip it a few times until the skin is cooked. Once the skin is cooked, leave the chicken under the water to cook. This is to ensure that the skin does not break. The cooking time is about 30 minutes for a 1.5kg chicken. Ensure that the water be kept just below the boiling point during the entire cooking process. Once chicken is cooked, put the chicken immediately into cool water for a few minutes. This will stop the cooking process and ensure that the meat will remain tender and the skin crunchy.
To cook the rice, combine the concentrated chicken stock and the other ingredients listed above with enough water from the chicken broth to cover the rice. The water level should be as per the normal levels for cooking white rice. Cook the rice as per the normal method.
To prepare chilli sauce, first squeeze the lime to obtain fresh lime juice. Next, blend the ingredients in a blender until it is fluid and smooth. Finally, add some salt and sugar to taste and mix thoroughly.
Enjoy your chicken rice! And do write back and tell us if the recipe works or what you did to tweak it!
*You'll have to use a bit of agarism (estimation) because that is how our hawkers cook!
Postscript:
The most important ingredient here is the chicken. If you get a normal chicken from NTUC use it to cook, don't expect to get a super chicken rice. The Five Star boss told me that Kampung Chicken is available at the Supermarket, so go for the biggest chicken you can get your hands on. The bigger the chicken the more flavour you get which is why traditional Hainanese chicken rice people go for mother hens (more specifically they must have laid 2 eggs - no more no less). So the key is to get your hands on a good chicken. I just called Chia from Butcher House and he confirms that they stock a very nice and fat >2kg chicken which are put on special feeds to enhance the flavour of the chicken. If you want super chicken rice, you might just want to spend a little more effort and money and get yourself a good chicken to start with!
Chia is from Butcher House. They are at 464 River Valley Road (opp Valley Point). 68873464 I am sure you can also procure a good chicken from the other specialised butcheries as well.
17 comments:
Interesting!
Thanks for de recipe... will head down to taste b4 i make my own to compare...
Cheers!
i think there is one really important step that is missing.. n its really glaring to a hainanese like me!
im not too sure if it was left it out on purpose tho... anyways.. the raw rice is supposed to be fried in oil with the garlic n shallots... before being cooked with the chicken stock
Yes, I asked this question in my previous blog post. But you know, have you cooked it without frying and compared it with frying before? What does the frying actually do to the rice? According to Mr Li, not much.
http://ieatishootipost.blogspot.com/2008/03/yeo-keng-nam-chicken-rice-should-rice.html
My friend who lives in the US tells me that the difference lies in the type of chicken we have here. They can never get chicken that's as tender and soft as those found in our chicken rice stalls.
Thank you!!! However, just some checking - although I understand agarism is necessary, how much rice are we talking about? That's appropriate for the 60ml stock?
Also, Perhaps the "concentrated chicken stock" belongs in the rice section rather than the chicken section?
But thanks so much for your work!
I asked the Five Star boss and he said that the concentrated chicken stock is needed because when you cook just one chicken, the flavour of the soup is not strong enough.
concentrated chicken stock can be easily done by getting the chicken bones.. aka kuay kak ( the section which is left when the chicken sellers remove the breast meat). my mum always get them to boil soup... this way, u get nice chix soup without havign incurring the cost of getting a whole chicken to boil for the soup.. use the concentrate for the rice... then the rest of the soup, dilute n ad abit of wolfberry.. serve with rice
but as mentioned by gerri... traditional hainanese will die die fry the rice before cooking it.. my gramps used to reject the chix rice if mum fails to fry it... somehow the rice is more fragrant..
only my 2 cents here
Thanks for the recipe! I frequent Five Stars Chicken Rice with my colleagues often and love their chicken rice, especially the chilli. Now I can ask my colleague to make her own chilli sauce! :D
as a singaporean studying in the USA, ur picture is making me DROOOL right now!
i noticed that there's "rice" listed in the chicken cooking ingredients list. do we need to add rice in when cooking the chicken? what's that rice for?
Hi, you are right. That is a mistake. Thanks!
Apologies if this is a stupid question.
Does the type of chicken determine the thickness of the skin or is it due to cooking methods?
Have tried making Chicken Rice many times and each time, the skin fails. Always end up with skin that is really thin and breaks in the pot. How to get the fat plump skin?
Adriane
Try this.
The water should be just below boiling point. Take the chicken and dip it in and out of the water to cook the skin first. Once the skin is cooked then leave the chicken in the water. Don't let the water bubble. After half an hour take the chicken out and immediately soak in cold water. If you wish to take the chicken out to rest make sure you rub some oil over the skin to prevent drying. Try it and let us know what happens!
When you said put chix in cold water, does that means ice cold water, chilled water or normal tap water. I recall reading somewhere that BTK put their cooked chix in ice cold water so as to get the jelly-like layer.
Use ice water for best results!
Tried it one verbatim, turned out nice.
I've been trying the rice part with garlic, tastes weird sometimes but I like it.
Thanks for sharing.
You take really good pictures. And that is one delicious looking shot of a piece of chicken.
Thanks!
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