Hainanese Chicken Rice

Published by Harriet on August 3, 2021August 3, 2021

The best Hainanese Chicken Rice I’ve had is probably from a hawker center in Singapore, somehow, they have managed to make the chicken ultra tender, fragrant oil rice, paired with just the best chili sauce.  Even though I can’t manage to achieve that level of perfection, but I can still manage tasty, tender chicken, pretty fragrant oil rice, paired with some pretty fantastic chili sauce.  Surprisingly, it’s not even that hard.  I sous vide the chicken, so that takes away some of the uncertainty of how well I can cook the chicken.  The rice cooker can get the rice cooked well.  Plus a electric chopper to get the sauce in a blitz.

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Hainanese Chicken Rice

Take the guessing out of the game by using sous-vide to make Hainanese Chicken Rice

Prep Time40 minutes mins

Cook Time1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Total Time2 hours hrs 10 minutes mins

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Asian, Singaporean

Equipment

• Sous Vide
• Rice Cooker
• Electric chopper

Ingredients

Hainanese Chicjen

• 3 Chicken Thigh (Skin on, bone in)
• 2 finger Ginger (sliced)
• 2 stalks Scallions (cut to 2 inches)
• salt
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine

Oil Rice

• Chicken fat
• 6 cloves Garlic (skin on)
• 1 thumb Ginger (sliced)
• 2 cups Jasmine Rice (washed, drained)
• 2 cups Chicken Stock
• 2 Bay leaves
• 2 Pandan leaves

Chili Sauce

• 6 cloves Garlic
• 1 thumb Ginger (roughly chopped)
• 3 Birds eye chili (Remove seeds to reduce the heat)
• 3 tbsp Lime Juice
• 4 tbsp Chicken stock (bring to a light boil)
• salt
• sugar

Instructions

Hainanese Chicken

• Cut off excess chicken skin and fat, set aside
• Soak chick in a salt water solution for 30 minutes
• Pat dry the chicken, generously salt to marinate
• Put chicken, sliced ginger, scallions, veg oil, and Shaoxing wine into a vacuum bag, seal
• Sous vide at 165F for 90 minutes
• Rest, debone. Smack with the flat of the knife to further tenderize the chicken before cutting.

Oil Rice

• Heat a little oil in a pan, add the chicken skin to render off some of the chicken fat
• Add garlic and sliced ginger, fry until fragrant, infusing the oil
• Add the drained jasmine rice, stir fry for 3 minutes to make sure every grain is coated with the infused oil
• Add chicken stock, bay leaves and pandan leaves, cook until it comes it a boil
• Remove the chicken skin, garlic cloves, ginger, pour everything else into the rice cooker and cook in normal mode

Chili Sauce

• Put everything into an electric chopper, blitz until everything is finely chopped and well mixed, adjust the salt and sugar according to taste