Geraldine Gan from Gerry's Chicken Rice was sharing her chicken rice recipe in Singapore Home Cooks, which inspired me to blog about my granny's chicken rice recipe.
I couldn't chopped the chicken as nicely as my granny's but I would like to share with you how it can be done at home. My grandparents sold Hainanese chicken rice four decades ago. I was only given the method of the recipe because the amount of ingredients was 'agar agar' or estimated. She said without MSG, the rice won't be as nice. However, I find that a generous amount of salt can be used to bring up the flavours of the rice. Apart from the aromatics, chicken fats is also crucial.
Ingredients
1 kampong chicken or spring chicken
For rice:
2 cups of rice
30 gm ginger
4 shallots
6 cloves of garlic
Half tsp of salt
For soup:
30 gm ginger
6 cloves of garlic
2 tsp salt
1 stalk of chinese parsley
Pepper to taste
Sauce for serving chicken:
Half cup of chicken stock
1 tbsp soya sauce1 tsp chinese wine
1 tsp Sesame oil
Chinese parsley for garnishing
Method
Add one stalk of chinese parsley, 6 cloves of garlic, 30gm ginger and 2 tsp of salt and bring the water to a simmer. Add a few dashes of pepper to taste.
Set aside neck and feet for cooking stock. Remove the fats, rinse and drain away water by placing it on a paper towel. Set aside for cooking the rice.
Discard the tail.
Remove and discard the offals and tissues around the back.
Massage a generous amount of salt all over the chicken and rinse off the salt.
Add the neck, feet and whole chicken into the simmering pot of water. Bring to boil, immediately switch off the fire and cover the pot. Leave it for 30 mins without lifting the lid.
Note: This is a kampong chicken which is small in size. If you are using bigger chicken, please increase cooking time. To check if you chicken is fully cooked after 30 mins, the skin of the drumsticks should puffed up. Else, bring to a slow simmer, cover and cooked until skin of the drumsticks puffed up.
Note: This is a kampong chicken which is small in size. If you are using bigger chicken, please increase cooking time. To check if you chicken is fully cooked after 30 mins, the skin of the drumsticks should puffed up. Else, bring to a slow simmer, cover and cooked until skin of the drumsticks puffed up.
After 30 mins, transfer the chicken onto a dish and let it cool down before chopping.
After removing the wings and legs, the breast and back are separated by running through the ribs with a sharp chopper. The breast meat is deboned. The wings, back and breast bones are added back into the soup for further simmering of the soup.
The breast meat are placed at the bottom. The thighs and drumsticks are chopped and separated. Thighs are chopped into smaller pieces.
Blend 6 cloves of garlic, 4 shallots and 30 gm ginger until finely chopped. Set aside.
Using small fire and 2 tbsp of oil, render the chicken fats into oil.
The fats will liquefy and left with a rubbery remain of the fats. Discard the remnant.
Using small fire and the chicken oil, fry the finely chopped garlic, ginger and shallots until fragrant.
Add washed rice grains and stir well until grains are coated with the aromatics.
Simmer half cup of chicken stock with 1 tbsp of soya sauce, 1 tsp of chinese wine and 1 tsp of sesame oil. Drizzle the sauce over the chicken. Garnish with chinese parsley.
Serve with garlic chilli sauce and caramel sauce.
My granny said blend equal amount of big red chilli and ginger, along with some salt and just enough water. Proportion of ingredients entirely up to your taste. If you like more spicy, replace with some chilli padi. If you like more ginger, just add more ginger. Just like that! This method of preparation does not keep well so please make small amount for immediate consumption.
