Easy Hainanese Chicken Rice

How to make easy Hainanese Chicken Rice.

Chicken Rice is probably the most classic hawker centre dish in Singapore and Malaysia! Perhaps even in Thailand. I absolutely love Hainanese Chicken Rice! One of my first recipes here is my cheat one-pan Chicken Rice recipe. This is not exactly one-pan, but I personally find it a lot easier to accomplish – and with guaranteed good results!

Why is this Hainanese Chicken Rice so Easy?

There are 4 components to a complete Hainanese Chicken Rice: the chicken, the chicken soup, the rice and the chilli sauce. In this recipe, they all come together very easily and with no effort!

1. No need for a whole chicken here!
2. It uses very minimal ingredients, and you can double or triple some ingredients as you are preparing.

The chicken and the chicken soup is a one-step process. The rice cooks easily in a rice cooker and uses the same ingredients as the soup. The chilli sauce comes together in a blender with zero cooking involved!

What Chicken Parts to Use for Hainanese Chicken Rice?

Hainanese Chicken Rice involve boiling the entire chicken. I don’t need that much chicken, so I opt for this instead.

The best chicken parts to use would be bone-in chicken. Chicken thighs would be best so it does not dry out as quickly, but you can use breast portion too. We will be simmering the chicken in the water for a while to draw out some chicken fat and essence so that you have a good chicken soup.

Boil the chicken until it is cooked, for about 25 to 30 minutes or so. Make sure the chicken is cooked through by slicing the thickest part of the chicken.

You do not want to boil it for too long either, as the chicken will lose its flavour and get dry and chalky.

I added chicken stock cube here, but it is optional. It helps boost the flavour of the soup, especially since I’m using smaller chicken pieces. If you are using boneless chicken parts, then I highly recommend using chicken stock.

Optional, but I like to rub the surface of the chicken with coarse salt. Rinse the salt off before boiling. This will smoothen out the chicken skin, giving you a glossy look.

The Base Aromatics for Hainanese Chicken Rice

You will notice three aromatics for the dish used in the soup and rice:

1. Ginger
2. Garlic
3. Spring Onion Root or Bottom White Portion

Ginger and garlic would be the most crucial ingredients. You will be using this in the chilli sauce as well, if you are making it!

I use spring onions a lot, so I always keep the roots for moments like this. Freeze them so they will last longer. Spring onion roots are more authentic, but I’ve also used coriander roots as a replacement!

The All-in-One Chicken Soup

The most important component of the dish is not the chicken – but the chicken soup! This forms the base of the chicken rice, as well as the chicken rice chilli sauce. Plus, I love having a bowl of the hearty chicken soup with my chicken rice! The chicken soup comes together SO easily.

1. Add chicken to a cold pot, along with the aromatics.
2. Add water, and turn the heat on on medium high. Allow this to come to a boil.
3. Remove any scum rising to the top of the stock for a clearer soup.
4. Once boiling, add light soy sauce and chicken stock cube. Turn the heat down to simmer until chicken is cooked.
5. Take chicken off the soup, and strain or take off the aromatic chunks.

I used light soy sauce here for some colour, but if you prefer a clear soup then simply use salt to season.

The Perfect Ginger-Garlic Chilli Sauce

I can’t have Chicken Rice without the spicy, tangy chilli sauce! I have a dedicated recipe right here for the chilli sauce.

More Recipes Like This:

• Claypot Chicken Rice in a Rice Cooker
• One-Pan Chicken Rice
• One-Pan Chicken Briyani

Easy Hainanese Chicken Rice

Recipe by Sha

4.5 from 4 votes

Course: Recipes

Servings

4

servings

Prep time

30

minutes

Cooking time

40

minutes

Ingredients

• Chicken and Chicken Soup

• 5-600g bone-in Chicken

• 1 inch Ginger, sliced in chunks

• 2-3 cloves Garlic, lightly crushed

• 3-4 Spring Onion Roots

• 1 tbsp Light Soy Sauce

• 1 Chicken Stock Cube (optional)

• 2 litres, or enough to submerge chicken

• Rice

• 1 cup Rice

• 1 tsp minced ginger or 1 inch Ginger, sliced in chunks

• 1 tsp minced garlic or 2-3 cloves Garlic, lightly crushed

• 3-4 Spring Onion Roots

• 1 tsp sesame oil

• 1 tsp light soy sauce

• 1 cup Chicken Soup (from cooking the chicken)
  

• Serve With:

• Chilli Sauce

• Cucumber Slices

• Coriander Leaves or Spring Onions

Directions

• Cooking the Chicken and Making the Chicken Soup
• Option to rub salt on chicken surface so it smoothens out and become glossy after it cooks. Rinse off salt completely.
• Arrange bone-in chicken pieces to a pot and add ginger, garlic, spring onion whites or roots. Add water to completely submerge chicken.
• Place pot over medium heat, and allow to come to a boil. Ladle scum off the surface as it appears. Once boiling, add light soy sauce, and optional chicken stock cube. Turn heat down for a gentle simmer. Allow chicken to cook for about 25 minutes, or until cooked through.
• Once chicken cooks through, remove the chicken from the broth and set aside for serving later on. Strain the broth so that you have a clearer soup to serve. Taste chicken soup and season with more soy sauce, as needed.
• Making the Chicken Rice
• Rinse rice until water runs clear. Add to rice cooker pot.
• Add ginger, garlic, spring onion roots, sesame oil and the chicken broth/soup from earlier. Turn on the rice cooker on the regular setting and let it cook.
• Once rice is cooked, add light soy sauce and gently flip rice to lightly combine. You can also add the light soy sauce at the previous step. Adding the soy sauce after the rice is cooked will give it that “speckled” look that you see for some chicken rice hawker stalls.
• Assembly
• Chop chicken before serving.
• Add rice to plate, top with chopped chicken, cucumbers on the side and serve with the chilli sauce. Add chicken soup to bowl, top with chopped coriander and white pepper. Done!

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