Ok how about some chicken chinese style for a change!! Hainanese Chicken Rice! Plus some side dishes..

Since i am at least half Hainan(My other half is Teochew by the way), i figured it is appropriate to kick start the oriental recipes with what better than Hainanese Chicken Rice! Au Naturelle! No artificial favoring! It is really not as hard as it looks! My first attempt at this was about 12 years ago strangely in France when i was staying with a French family while i was doing my exchange. I decided to cook for them as a farewell. You ready? Ok this is gonna be a long post since we are going to do a meal ie 4 DISHES! The philosophy here is don't waste the goodness that is called stock..the reason why there are 4 dishes is because one of the dishes actually leads to 2 others..We are gonna cook:

1. Hainanese Chicken

2. Of course the Chicken Rice

3. Then don't waste the stock..make some yummilicious soup! (If you can't finish the soup, you can keep it, freeze and cook it with maggie mee or beehoon the next day!)

4. Lastly some vege.

Ingredients for Chicken:

- A whole chicken of course

- 1 bulb of garlic (Peeled and smash)

- 1 thumb worth of old ginger (Peel, cut into 2 to 3 pieces and smash to bring out the flavors)

- Salt 

Preparation: 

- Wash the chicken thoroughly 

- Rub salt evenly on the outside and inside 

- Stuff the cavity with the garlic and ginger

- Use a toothpick to close up the cavity to prevent the stuffings from coming out

Leave it for a while to season bout 10 to 15mins

Cooking the Chicken:

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil

2. Put in the chicken. The water will cool when the chicken is put in. 

3.  Bring it to boil again then turn down to mid-low heat. The pot should be covered. Boil for 10mins

4. Turn the chicken and boil for another for another 10mins. Remove the cover and turn off the fire completely

5. Leave the chicken in the water for about another 5 to 10mins and Voila you're done! 

6. Take the chicken out and start chopping it up! 

Optional: You can actually take the chicken out and put in cold water with ice to give it the boon thong kee texture before carving it up. 

Ok Ok..Presentation you say..add in a little sliced up cucumber to give it the authentic "feeling" you get from eating chicken rice at the hawker centre!

Ingredients for Chicken Rice : Serves 6 people

- 2 and half full garlic (chopped finely)

- 5 to 6 shallots (chopped finely)

- 2 slices of old ginger (chopped finely)

- 1 cup of Rice (Wash and put aside)

- Some of the chicken stock you had earlier prepared from the chicken

- Oil and Salt

Cooking the Chicken Rice: 

1. Pour some oil into a wok or frying pan

2. Pour in the finely chopped garlic, shallots and ginger. Fry until you can smell the fragrance. Don't over do this ie DO NOT FRY UNTIL the garlic turns brown. 

3. Pour the fried mixture with the oil into the rice.  Add in about 2 pinches of salt and mix everything well. 

(I would assume by now that the rice is in the rice cooker)

4. Pour in the stock and Cook the rice! 

5. Open the cover, smell and start salivating! Take a taste, once again, if it is not salty enough, just add salt sparingly and slowly until you reach your liking of saltiness.

Sorry I don't have a picture of the chicken rice here. If you can see the container with the red cover in the picture below. The rice is still sitting in there...Ooops.

This is what "Wong Bok" looks like! 

Ingredients for soup:

- Fish maw (Soaked in water)

- fish balls

- Chinese cabbage or "Wong Bok - i was just educated by my better half that it is actually called Wong Bok"  (Peel and wash thoroughly). Wong Bok is beautiful for cooking soups! 

- Salt to taste

Optional: Dried scallops (Soak in water to soften it first) 

Boiling the Soup: 

1. Throw everything into the stock and boil ! Make sure to boil until the cabbage is soft. The cabbage adds sweetness to soup! Scallops - additional flavors!

2. Taste and add salt to your level of liking! 

Guess what? Ta da..you're done!

Cooking Vege: 

- Wash the Xiao Bai Cai

- Peel and slice up a clove of garlic

- Pour a little oil into a frying pan

- Throw in the garlic

- Throw in the Xiao Bai Cai

- Add either fish sauce or some oyster sauce.(Not too much cos it'll get salty)

Bon Appetit! 

Let me know how it goes! One of the key things to watch out for is the fire control while cooking the chicken. Cos under high heat, the skin tears. And as always, make sure to taste your food as you go..don't over do it! As i have mentioned earlier, it is easier to add salt if it is not salty enough than to remove it! 

You're now ready to open your own Hainanese Chicken Rice stall! :)