Traditional Hainanese chicken rice: Singapore's poached chicken with rice cooked in chicken fat

Singapore's chicken rice came with immigrants from the island of Hainan, in southern China, in the early 20th century. There, the dish was made with a lean local chicken; in Singapore and Malaysia, it gained a fatter bird, the sauces and the care that turned it into the national dish, served in every hawker centre, the city's street-food markets.

It looks simple, poached chicken with rice, and that is exactly where the technique lives. The chicken is poached in broth below the boil, for a counted time, and plunged into ice water, which leaves the meat moist and the skin smooth and gelatinous. The rice is sautéed in the chicken's own fat with garlic and ginger and cooked in the broth, and comes out fragrant and glossy.

The three sauces complete it: red chili with garlic, lime and broth; grated ginger with hot oil; and sweetened dark soy. A bowl of the broth and cucumber slices close the plate. It is midday food, and it is impossible to eat it just once.

Recipe card

• Origin: Singapore, with roots in Hainan, China
• Category: Main course, chicken and rice
• Difficulty: Medium
• Preparation time: 30 minutes
• Cooking time: 1 hour
• Serves: 4

Ingredients — chicken and broth

• 1 whole chicken, 1.5 kg
• 1 piece of ginger, 6 cm, sliced
• 4 scallions
• 4 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 3 liters water
• Sesame oil for brushing
• Ice water with ice for the bath

Ingredients — rice

• 2 cups jasmine rice, rinsed and drained
• 2 tablespoons chicken fat (the skin and cavity fat, rendered) or oil
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 tablespoon chopped ginger
• 2 pandan leaves (optional)
• 2 1/2 cups of the chicken broth
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Ingredients — sauces and table

• Chili sauce: 6 red chilies, 3 garlic cloves, 2 cm ginger, juice of 1 lime, 1 teaspoon sugar, 3 tablespoons broth, salt, blended
• Ginger sauce: 4 tablespoons grated ginger, 2 tablespoons hot oil, salt
• Sweetened dark soy sauce (kecap manis or dark soy with sugar)
• 1 cucumber, sliced
• Cilantro to finish

Method

1. Remove the fat from the chicken cavity and set aside. Rub the chicken with salt inside and out and put the ginger and scallions inside.
2. Boil the water with the garlic in a pot large enough for the chicken to be covered. Lower the chicken in breast side down, wait for it to return to a boil, reduce to the lowest heat (no bubbling) and cook covered for 35 to 40 minutes.
3. Remove the chicken and plunge it immediately into the ice water for 10 minutes. Drain, dry and brush with sesame oil. Strain and reserve the broth.
4. Render the reserved fat in a pot on low heat until it turns to oil, remove the solids and sauté the garlic and ginger for 1 minute.
5. Add the rice and sauté for 2 minutes, until the grains shine.
6. Add the broth, pandan and salt and cook covered on low for 15 minutes. Let rest 10 minutes.
7. Prepare the sauces: blend the chili sauce ingredients; pour the hot oil over the grated ginger with salt.
8. Cut the chicken into bone-in pieces, Chinese style, and arrange over the cucumber. Serve with the rice, a bowl of hot broth, the sauces and cilantro.

Tips and variations

• The water must never boil with the chicken in it: the slow cooking gives the silky texture.
• A 1.5 kg chicken cooks in 40 minutes; check by piercing the thigh: the juice should run clear.
• The ice bath is mandatory: without it the skin wrinkles and the meat keeps cooking.
• Leftover broth becomes a noodle soup the next day.
• The Malaysian version serves roasted chicken alongside the poached.
• Without pandan, the rice is still fragrant from the garlic and ginger.
• Brushing the chicken with sesame oil gives the shine and aroma of the hawkers.

Tender chicken, rice fragrant with fat and garlic, and three sauces to alternate with every forkful: it is Singapore's most famous lunch, and a lesson in how a simple dish can be perfect.