.: BRINGING SINGAPORE INTO YOUR PLATE: HAWKER CENTRE IN TOA PAYOH LORONG 8

HAINANESE CHICKEN RICE

To continue my food adventure in Hawker Centre, I will present to you my version of Hainanese Chicken Rice. I may not be able to get the exact taste but capturing the beauty and flavors of this dish is really an adventure of a lifetime. It is about time to open up our horizon and broaden up our knowledge when it comes to experimenting food from other culture. From my studies, most of all our dishes has a pattern. It came from one basic concept and the only difference is the preparation, availability of ingredients and preference. Like for example, Singapore's Bah Kuh Teh is our Pork Nilaga's humble counterpart, Satay for our pork and chicken barbeque and there's a whole lot more. Even during the medieval times, we already shared our culture when it comes to food especially those of our neighboring region. Hainanese Chicken is no difference as this dish is an original Chinese descent. Singapore has pave the way and becomes it's landmark dish and being enjoyed by almost all tourists and visitors all over the world. Let me bring into your plate another dish called Hainanese Chicken rice so check out the ingredients.

Chicken steamed over with lemon grass

INGREDIENTS:

1 Whole Chicken

1 bunch of Lemongrass

5-8 Panda leaves

Salt and pepper to taste

Sesame Oil

Fish Sauce

For garnishing:

Cilantro or celery

Tomatoes

Boiled eggs

For Rice:

Chicken Stock

Salt and pepper

Green Onions for garnishing

For condiments and dipping sauce

Oyster sauce

Dark thick shoyu

Fried garlic

Red Chilies

Pickled Jalapeno

PROCEDURE:

In a large cooking pan, pour about 2 liters of water, season with salt and pepper add the lemon grass and pandan leaves and then the chicken.
Bring to a boil until the chicken is cooked and tender about 20-30 minutes.
Once its cooked, put the chicken on a colander and set aside.
On another pan, put some rice and wash it thoroughly. Using the chicken stock, measure and adjust the stock as you normally do when steaming rice. Add in the lemon grass and pandan leaves onto the rice for cooking.
If you are using a rice cooker, it normally comes with another layer of pan for steaming, you can use this to put the chicken on top while the rice below is cooking. This will allow more flavors of chicken to infuse and the rice will absorb every bit of flavors of chicken pandan and lemon grass.
Once the rice is cooked. You can start serving it and garnish the chicken as shown in my images.

Enjoy cooking!!!