Chicken Bak Kut Teh in a Rice Cooker

How to make this Singapore hawker centre classic, Bak Kut Teh, but with chicken and effortlessly in a rice cooker!

Bak kut teh is a popular Chinese hawker dish in Singapore and Malaysia. Roughly translated as “meat bone tea”, it is traditionally pork rib stewed in a herb infused broth. Herby, peppery, nutritious, this soup is perfect for the rainy weather we are experiencing recently in Singapore. This recipe is a fully chicken version of the dish.

The Rice Cooker

I made my Chicken Bak Kut Teh entirely in my Japanese rice cooker, which has a setting for soup! The setting basically lets the rice cooker slowly cook the soup for a total of 2 hours. I love this method since I don’t have to check on it at all and can work in peace while it simmers away in my rice cooker.

The brand I use is Himeji, but Zojirushi, Panasonic and Toshiba are extremely popular brands and more easily available. You do not need to look for these brands; plenty of global brands have adopted these settings in their own rice cooker such as Panasonic.

Japanese rice cookers tend to be more expensive, but I use mine so much more than my regular rice cooker. Besides having specific settings to cook white rice and brown rice (yes, they both cook differently!), Japanese rice cookers can be used to bake cakes, cook porridge, steam and of course, make soups. With the soup option, you can also use it to slow cook dishes like curries.

If your rice cooker do not have this setting, no worries. For most rice cookers, you can simply re-press the “cook” button so it continues to cook. It requires heating time, which is why this might not be ideal for most of us. No rice cookers at all? You can also easily make this on the stovetop.

If you love this rice cooker recipe, make sure you check out my ‘KFC Fried Chicken Rice’ recipe!

The Bak Kut Teh Herb Sachet

The main flavour of Bak Kut Teh comes from the complex myriad of herbs. The herbs can be a differ in blend, but the main herb present is the dong gui/dong quai (Angelica sinensis). Dong gui is a traditional chinese medicine also known as female ginseng. Apparently it relieves menopausal and pre-menstrual syndrome symptoms.

These days, bak kut teh herb sachets are easily available in supermarkets. My favourite go-to brand is A1. It is also Halal-certified. That said, technically all the herb sachets should be Halal as they should only contain plant-based and no meat substance at all. Read the ingredients list to be sure.

The A1 pack contains 2 herb sachets for 1.5 litres of Water. I used just 1 sachet for my soup.

Additional Aromatics and Herbs

The only additional ingredients you need are garlic, and white pepper.

However, I added what I call my lovely bowl of ‘scrap aromatics’, which are simply bits and pieces of ingredients that don’t quite make it in my daily cooking, but still too good to throw away. This would include things like that fiddly knob of ginger, cilantro roots, or the top halves of lemongrass. I always have a bowl in the fridge collecting these random aromatics and herbs. I typically use them for soups, such as Chicken Stock or this Chicken Bak Kut Teh.

Chicken Parts

Bone-in chicken is best used for this to extract the best chicken flavour.

However, in this recipe, I used chicken breast, and I was more than happy with the results. Do note that using boneless chicken will tend to result in a drier meat due to the long cooking time of the soup. I recommend using skin-on chicken breasts, and limiting the cooking time to just 1 hour.

To boost the chicken flavour of the soup, you can use chicken stock. I just used water, and simply enjoyed the herby taste of the soup.

Do you need to parboil chicken?

The traditional recipe with pork recommends parboiling the meat bones before stewing it in clean water.

You do not need to do this with chicken. Some chicken bones might produce scum or coagulated blood; simply skim the surface with a ladle to remove it.

The Vegetables

The typical vegetables used in this include dried Shiitake mushrooms and perhaps tofu puffs, but you can use whatever vegetables you like. In this recipe, I used broccoli, carrots and cauliflower, added at the last 20 minutes to prevent it from overcooking. Potatoes would also be delicious in this.

Take note of the size of your rice cooker, as you do not want to cause the soup to overflow when adding the extra vegetables.

How to make Chicken Bak Kut Teh in a Rice Cooker

Recipe by Sha

0.0 from 0 votes

Course: Recipes

Servings

2

servings

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

1

hour 

Ingredients

• 500g Chicken breast, skin-on

• 1 A1 Bak Kut Teh Herb Sachet

• 8 cloves garlic

• 1 tbsp dark soy sauce

• 1 tbsp light soy sauce

• 1 tbsp oyster sauce

• 1 tsp ground white pepper

• 1 litre water

• Vegetables

• Carrots

• Buttersquash Pumpkin

• Broccoli

• Aromatics (optional)

• 1 medium onion, cut in half

• 2 cilantro roots

• 1 tsp ginger

• 1 tsp galangal

• Garnish with cilantro

Directions

• In the rice cooker pot, add chicken, garlic, additional aromatics (if using), and the bak kut teh herb sachet. Pour water over the ingredients. Stir in dark soy sauce, light soy sauce and oyster sauce.
• Close rice cooker, and set to cook on “soup” setting if available, or time it to cook for 1 hour.
• Cut the vegetables equally. At the last 20 minute mark, open the rice cooker lid and add the chopped vegetables. Close lid and let it continue to cook.
• Once the timer sets off, bak kut teh is ready. Add ground white pepper and cilantro before serving.

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