Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Singapore Chicken Rice


Singapore is very well known for their diverse culture, from Chinese, Indians, Malaysians and many others. From the diverse culture, automatically, it will also play a huge effect towards their culinary substance. I spent a small part of my life in Singapore and every time I go on holiday, I try my best to visit Singapore as often as I could. One of my favorite dishes, has got to be their Chicken Rice. Other than the Chicken Rice, Rojak, Char Teow Kway, Sambal Pari, Mee Pok and Laksa are the food that will make me drool nonstop. I just miss those kind of humble food, that you can have anytime of the day, without feeling bloated. I don't think I have ever eaten a horrendous food in Singapore. It has always been either good or great.

Tonight for dinner, I've decided to cook Singapore Chicken Rice because I've been craving for this since last week and cooking it has just got to happen! It took me a good year to figure out how to make my perfect Chicken Rice. When I say my perfect Chicken rice, it has to bring that sense of eating it like you are in Singapore. Trying to replicate Wee Nam Kee or Novena Chicken rice, one of the best Chicken Rice in Singapore, is a tall order. Trying to get the skin to the right consistency is probably the hardest bit to do. But, I've figured it out and I wish you guys would try this recipe out and tell me what you think! Yes this recipe has a lot of ingredients but I think it would be worth it! :)


Ingredients


Chicken
Whole Chicken or 4 Maryland Chickens
2 1/2 thumb size Ginger, Sliced
10Cm Lemon Grass
1 Garlic (1 Bowl cut in half)
Whole White Peppercorns
4 Tbsp Salt
Half an onion


Chilli Sauce
2 Fresh Chillies, add a birds eye chilly if you want it hot
1 Clove of garlic
1 Tbsp of Sugar
1 1/2 Tsp of Lemon Juice
100ml of water


Chicken Sauce
A ladle of Chicken Stock from the poaching liquid
2 Tbsp Light Soy Sauce
1 1/2 Tbsp Sugar
Salt to taste
Powdered Chicken Stock
1 Tsp Sesame Oil

Chicken Rice
2 Cups of Rice
4 Sliced Ginger
4 Cloves of Ginger, finely chopped or pasted.
Water to cook the rice in the rice cooker will be replaced with poaching liquid.
2 Tbsp of Cooking oil
1 Tbsp Salt


Directions

Chicken
In a large pot, put your chickens, ginger, lemongrass, garlic, peppercorns, salt and onion all in one pot. Put cold water into the pot, make sure all the chickens are submerged underwater. Bring it to the boil slowly under low heat and once the water hot, cook it for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Skim stock when needed.




When chickens are cooked, prepare a big bowl of cold water (lots of ice) and lift the chicken out of the pot very carefully, trying to keep the skin as pristine as possible and shock it to the cold water and leave it in the cold water until chicken is completely cool. This will take around 30 minutes. Water might need to be refreshed every 15 minutes. This is a very crucial part of cooking the chicken, which will give the chicken's skin that superb texture, a slight crunch to it.

Chicken Rice
Wash rice well, drain. Put poaching liquid until about there is a Centimeter of liquid floating on top of the rice grains. Then Oil, Ginger, Garlic, Salt goes in and mix thoroughly. Cook it with a rice cooker. Once cooked, stir the rice to prevent clogging of the rice and even distribution of oil.


Chicken Sauce
A ladle of poaching liquid, Soy Sauce, Sugar, Salt to taste, Powdered Chicken stock to taste and once everything has been infused and tastes correct (its supposed to be salty, only a small amount will be used) put in the sesame oil at the last minute.


Chilli Sauce
Chop your chillies and Garlic and pound it using a pestle and mortar or a food processor. Once semi-smooth put it into a milk pan, put water, lemon juice and sugar and warm it up to get ride of the raw smell of both the chillies and garlic. Modify the ingredients to your liking.


Plating up
Chicken Rice on the bottom, Chicken dressed with the chicken sauce and Chilli on the side or on top of the rice. Personally, I like to add Caramel Thick Soy Sauce which you can find it down in your local Asian Grocer.


Hope you guys will enjoy this, and any critiques, do post a comment! Cheers!

1 comments:

nomnomnomphile said...

NOM NOM NOM :D good job at the pictures! Im drooling now.

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