Chicken with Rice, Hainan Style
Instructions:
In this Chinese classic, you poach the chicken, then the
rice in the resulting stock and serve them together, with
garnishes and a flavorful sauce. Not to put too fine a
point on it, the dish itself is kind of bland; but with
sauce, it’s delicious, because the rice has that nice chickeny
fattiness.
1 whole chicken, 3 to 4 pounds, trimmed of excess
fat and cut into 8 pieces, or any combination of
parts
Salt
3 tablespoons roughly chopped garlic
5 slices fresh ginger, smashed
1/4 cup peanut or neutral oil, like grapeseed or corn
2 cups any rice
2 tablespoons dark sesame oil
Ginger-Scallion Sauce
About 2 cups peeled, seeded, and diced cucumber
2 tomatoes, sliced
Chopped fresh scallion and/or cilantro leaves for Garnish
MAKES: 4 servings
TIME: 11/2 hours, plus time to rest
- Put about 4 inches of water in a large pot over high heat. Rub the inside and outside of the chicken with salt and about half the garlic and ginger. When the water boils, put the chicken in the pot; it should be just submerged (add more water if necessary and return to boiling, or remove some if you have to). Cover, reduce the heat to medium, and cook for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the bird remain in the water for 1 hour, covered.
- The meat should be opaque all the way to the bone; if not, return the pot to a boil and cover again for another 5 minutes.
- Remove the chicken from the pot (leave the stock in there) and set aside. (At this point, you may refrigerate the chicken and cooking water if you want to make the rice later or even the next day.) Put the oil in a skillet over medium heat. When hot, add the remaining garlic and ginger; cook, stirring occasionally, until the garlic begins to brown, about 3 minutes. Add the rice and stir, then add 4 cups of the stock; bring to a boil again, adjust the heat so that the mixture bubbles gently but steadily, and cover. Cook until the rice has absorbed all the liquid, about 20 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning.
- Rub the chicken with sesame oil and cut it into bite-sized pieces (you decide whether to include the bones). Drizzle some of the sauce over it and serve over the rice, decorated with the cucumber and tomatoes and sprinkled with the scallion and/or cilantro over all. Serve with more of one or both of the sauces. You can also heat the remaining stock and serve it in small bowls, sprinkled with the scallion, on the side.