Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Special Guest Blogging
Giff's Corner - Hainanese Chicken Rice

So I have been extremely lazy these few weeks but let me assure you, my heart still rests on this blog. I am *always* worried about not posting anything when I haven't posted for quite a while. But hmm all thoughts only, zero action taken. Ya, call me lazy pink pig if you like :p

Giff's Hainaese Chicken Rice
♥ Giff's Corner - Hainanese Chicken Rice
Anyway, my dearest friend of all, Giff has kindly written yet another post for me! *yippeee* The two of us had been talking about Hainanese Chicken Rice a while back and it just happened that Giff had actually cooked the dish herself. And it just so happened that she had also taken a few photos of the dish and had copy of the recipe.

So Giff wrote a post for me so that I won't feel so much guilty anymore. *grin* What are best friends for! Read on for Giff's post! ;-)

♥ tabeshimashita @ Giff's Kitchen during summer 2005
Giff's Hainaese Chicken Rice with pineapple and broccoli
♥ Giff's Hainaese Chicken Rice with pineapple and broccoli
Pinkcocoa and I were just discussing about Hainanese chicken rice. Apparently, there are so many versions out there. Some recipe requires pandan leaves, some don't. I personally like the aroma of pandan but it's so rare in New Zealand, you either have to get frozen one or just do without. I happened to go with the latter on this occasion because I didn’t want to drive 15 minutes to get a packet of frozen pandan leaves.

Without much ado, here's my version of Hainanese chicken rice. The credit has to go to Connie Clarkson. In her book, Asian Flavour, Connie talks about the females in her family and their recipe. It was interesting not only to know the recipe but also to know the people who made them. Connie Clarkson is a Singaporean who then settles in New Zealand after she studied in Dunedin, NZ. Her book mentions of her culinary adventure substituting Asian ingredients in the 70s when Asian ingredients are still really rare.

♥ Connie Clarkson's Hainanese Chicken Rice Recipe
taken from Connie Clarkson's Asian Flavours
♥ Ingredients:
Enough chicken stock to cover a 1.5kg chicken
1 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp crushed garlic
1 tsp crushed fresh ginger
1 spring onion, chopped into quarters
1 tbsp coriander, chopped (I didn’t want to chop it, I prefer it in large stalks)
1 tbsp rice wine
1.5kg chicken

♥ Glaze for cooked chicken
Made of 1 tsp each of dark soy sauce, oyster sauce and sesame oil

♥ Garnish:
1 cucumber, seeded, skinned and sliced (omitted in my recipe)
½ small pineapple, skinned and sliced
fresh coriander (omitted)
flavoured rice
chilli ginger sauce (omitted)

  1. In a large stockpot, bring the stock, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, spring onion, coriander and rice wine to the boil.
  2. Carefully immerse the whole chicken in the stock. Turn off the heat, cover the pot and let the chicken stand for 15 minutes.
  3. Remove the chicken from the pot, plunge into a sink of cold water and drain.
  4. Bring the stock back to the boil, add the chicken and repeat the steeping process two or three times until the chicken is cooked (about 45 minutes steeping time in total).
  5. Reserve the stock for cooking the rice and the soup course.
  6. Cut the chicken into bite sized pieces and brush with prepared glaze. Bone the chicken if desired.
  7. Garnish with cucumber and pineapple and serve with flavoured rice, chilli ginger sauce and dark soy sauce.
  8. Serve the remaining stock as accompanying soup.


Giff's Hainaese Chicken Rice - Tender Succulent Chicken Maryland
♥ Tender Succulent Chicken Maryland
Of course, I took the liberty to modify the recipe again to my liking and according to the stock in my pantry.

♥ Giff's Modification on Hainanese Chicken Rice Recipe
♥ Ingredients:
Enough to serve 5 people
Enough chicken stock to cover 5 chicken thighs.

Here's how to cook the chicken stock:
Bring water to boil. A dash of light soy sauce. 3 crushed garlic. (I choose plump ones). 1 knob of crushed ginger. Spring onions and Coriander to taste. 1 tablespoon of cooking wine.

I cooked the chicken thigh for 25-30minutes. Don't really like mushy chicken.

For the rice, I measured 2 bowls of Sunlong long grain rice into rice cooker.
Then, I carefully scooped out the chicken stock into the rice cooker. Then proceed like how you would normally cook rice in rice cooker.

I ensure there's enough stock left for soup course.

Giff's Hainaese Chicken Rice - Sauce and Soup
♥ Giff's Hainaese Chicken Rice - Side Dishes, Soup and Sauce
As side dish to accompany the chicken rice, I blanched some broccoli. I put some salt and a few drops of sesame seed oil to make the broccoli fragrant. For the broccoli’s sauce, microwave 1 tbsp of Hoisin sauce and 2 tablespoon of water for 20 seconds. Stir and pour over the drained broccoli.

I also use the diced pineapples as my second side dish. Before the chicken is served, I dashed some sesame seed oil and light soy sauce on the chicken for taste. Serve the remaining stock as accompanying soup garnished with finely chopped spring onions.