Hainanese Chicken Rice 海南雞飯

This was my first attempt in cooking Hainanese chicken rice and the soft poached chicken turned out better than expected. The skin was silky and meat moist and juicy. But I need more skill and practice in carving the chicken, perhaps getting a Chinese chopper will make the job easier.

I used Prima Taste ready-to-cook sauce kit, which saved me the trouble of chopping and blending the ingredients like ginger, garlic, shallots and such. The kit even came complete with the dipping sauces - chilli, ginger and dark soy sauces.

Click here for full ingredients and cooking instruction from Prima Taste.

I did not exactly follow the cooking instruction on the packet, which suggests to cook the chicken in the stock by simmering in low heat for 30 minutes. Instead, I immersed the chicken in the boiling stock, turned off the heat and let the chicken stand in covered pot for 20 minutes. I repeat the process and bring the water back to a boil, turned off the heat and let chicken cool for another 20 minutes. (This process is done 3 times in an hour to make sure the chicken cooks inside as well as outside.) The chicken is then removed and immersed in ice water for 15 minutes to stop the cooking process. The final step involved pouring PT's sesame soy sauce oil over the chopped chicken pieces.

For chicken rice, I mixed 3 cups of rice with PT's premixed fragrant oil and chicken stock (for boiling the chicken) and cook in an electric rice cooker.

Serve the chicken with rice, soup (from the chicken stock) and the condiments. Bon Appétit!