Authentic Hainanese Chicken And Rice

Today we're making my absolute favorite vegan food, Hainanese chicken. The greatest chicken and rice dish to ever exist. This is how to turn the simplest food on the planet into the grandest eating experience of your life. It all starts with my favorite vegetable, chicken. Slightly fancy, but basic corn-fed free-range farmer's chicken from Dagestan. But feel free to use any chicken you have. Now of course, this is not just any old boiled chicken dish. There are seven secrets in this, well, restaurant. Secret number one. Chicken fat. That's right. It flavors and unifies all the other subtle flavors that make it such a delicious dish. We use the excess skin and then melt the fat out of it. Most of it will be found around the cavity and head. Free-range farmer birds like these usually come with a head or neck still attached, which has a lot of skin. On the flip side, they have more tender skin, which can easily tear before and during cooking. Not the end of the world and worth the extra flavor. We remove the wishbone as it will make carving a breeze later on. And of course, to make a wish. Also remove the wingtips as those are full of fat and otherwise just get in the way. There won't be enough excess skin on a single chicken, nor does it have enough flavor to flavor the broth and stay tasty at the same time. So we'll use some extra chicken thighs to solve that problem. We remove the skins, then set aside the thighs for now, which we'll also use to make the broth instead of just using flavorless water. You can by all means just buy ready chicken broth and kindly ask the dude at the meat counter for some chicken skins. Once you have your skins, you place them onto a foil lined baking sheet in order to easily catch all the fat and make cleaning up easy. Bake this in the oven at 160 degrees Celsius or 320 degrees Fahrenheit for about an hour or until the fat has rendered out. Once the fat has rendered out, you pour it into a little sauce bowl and squeeze the remaining fat from the skins once it's cooled down enough to handle. Keep the fat to the side for now. Leftover fat can be stored in the fridge for months and used to cook delicious healthy vegan dishes like toast potatoes. Also makes a great moisturizer. Chop up the chicken skins finely and fry it in a pan to crisp up. Do this slowly on medium heat to avoid the crackling from burning. Drain it on a paper towel and set aside for later in a cool, dry place. Secret number two. Brining. To be honest, this is an optional, but in my opinion, very necessary step. It seasons the chicken throughout and also result in much juicier chicken. Brine the chicken in the fridge overnight in 2% salted water. That's three and a half tablespoons or 60 grams salt dissolved in three liters of water. I've made this on the fly for dinner without brining and the brining definitely levels it up. So brine it or don't brine it, but I did tell you the hack. Secret number three. Blanching the bird. Hainanese chicken has a very special gelatinous skin once cooked. This is achieved by heating and rapidly cooling the skin. Get a bowl of ice water and a large pot of barely boiling water. Dip the chicken into the water three to five times, making sure the water goes all the way through the cavity of the chicken. Chill it down in the ice water. Then while you still have your hot water, grab the chicken thighs and let them swim a bit. It gets rid of the impurities that would otherwise make your broth cloudy. Set the thighs to the side after a two minute hot tub. Get rid of the dirty water and place the chicken thighs back into the pot. Secret number four. Aromatics. Once they release their natural glutamate, you'll never make chicken broth any other way. We start with a large head of garlic weighing 100 grams or about half a cup worth. Peel and roughly crush the cloves to break them up a bit. Place them into the pot with the chicken thighs. Next you take a large piece of washed, unpeeled ginger, about 200 grams or one cup. Slice it into thin strips, then bash it and bruise it so it releases flavor better. Get that into the pot, then grab one white skinned onion, about 150 grams or one cup. Slice thinly in any direction you want and add that to the other goodies. Grab your chicken and get that into the pot. Putting the thighs and aromatics in the bottom first will prevent the chicken from sitting on the bottom of the pot, minimizing the risk of severely ripped skin, especially when using a chicken with delicate skin like this one. Add enough clean, drinkable water just to cover the chicken. Add the bottom parts of scallions or green onions, about 100 grams or one cup worth. Keep the top green parts to the side for now, as we still need to make the all important scallion oil. Optionally, but very necessary, you add 15 grams or 1 tablespoon of MSG to max out the umami flavor. That's no secret though, which brings us to secret number 5, temperature. If you're going to mess this up, this is where you'll do it, which you won't because I'm showing you the correct way. Ideally, you want a kitchen thermometer for this because it's useful, affordable and foolproof. But if you don't have it, then just remember to never ever boil this thing. The liquid should never rise above 90 degrees Celsius or 194 degrees Fahrenheit, because the chicken has a cavity, you'll carefully have to move it around 2 to 3 times to distribute the liquid evenly, otherwise it won't cook evenly around the carcass. You can easily do this with two meat hooks attached below the wings. The good news for thermometer-less people is that it takes about 45 minutes to poach the chicken. We aim to reach an internal chicken temperature at the thickest part of 68 degrees Celsius or 154 degrees Fahrenheit. While the chicken is doing its thing, you heat up the chicken fat. Finely chop up the green parts of the scallions you saved so lovingly earlier. Add the hot chicken fat to the scallions, give it a stir and set aside for now. Prepare a bowl of ice water and once your chicken is cooked, you take it for a cold plunge, the final chill for that magical gelatinous skin. So don't skip this step, once the outside has chilled down a bit, remove from the ice and gently pat it dry with a paper towel. Lube it up with a tiny bit of sesame oil or chicken fat and let it sit at room temp or if you're in a cold place, then oven with only the light on. If you did it all correctly, you'll have a beautiful, almost completely clear, delicious chicken broth. You can save the cooked thighs for chicken mayo sandwiches, pate, salad or treat your best mate, if it's allowed. Strain the broth through a sieve and keep it to the side for now. Secret number 6. Aromatic rice. Wash 1 cup or 225 grams of jasmine rice very well under cold, running water. Crush 4-5 garlic cloves and slice a thumb sized piece of ginger into 4-5 slices. Add it to a saucepan followed by 3 tablespoons or 45 grams of chicken fat. Roast it in the oil for 2 minutes on medium heat until just starting to release some aroma and slightly caramelize. Add the rinsed rice and toast it by gently mixing through the fat and aromatics. Season with 3 grams or half a teaspoon of salt before adding 300 ml or 1 1⁄4 cups of chicken broth. Bring this to a boil then immediately cover with a tight fitting lid. Turn down the heat to a minimum and set a timer for 15 minutes. Enough time for us to make a sambal or relish and reveal the 7th secret. First, you grab 2 cayenne peppers or if you like it super spicy, then bird's eye chilies. Indonesian chicken is not a hot, spicy dish and I prefer using milder chili. Anyway, chop it up, seeds and all and get it into a pestle and mortar or blender if you don't have one. Add 1 teaspoon or 6 grams of salt, 30 grams or a thumb sized piece of finely grated ginger and 2 cloves of finely grated garlic. Give that a proper bashing or blend then add 120 ml or half a cup of chicken broth. Give it a taste before balancing with a touch of sugar and a good squeeze of lime juice. Get it into a little dipping dish and set aside for now. Secret number 7, gravy. One thing I noticed was the brown gravy they poured over the chicken in Singapore, which turns out to be a very simple concoction and not simply soy sauce like so many recipes call for. Into a pan goes half a cup or 120 ml of chicken broth, 60 ml or a quarter cup of soy sauce and a light cornstarch slurry made with 10 grams or 1 tablespoon cornstarch mixed with a tablespoon or 15 ml of chicken broth. Whisk that all well together and then bring it to a simmer on medium heat until the gravy has thickened. This little gravy works much better than straight up soy sauce as it doesn't overpower the dish but rather enhance it. By now your rice will be fully cooked and beautifully fragrant and fluffy. Get it off the heat and let it rest on the side, lid on, while we steam some greens and carve the chicken. Bok choy is the classic, so we'll stick with that. Halve them, rinse them and get them into a steamer basket set over boiling water for 3 minutes while carving up your chicken. Remove the legs and optionally you remove the bones and slice up the thighs. Take off the breasts and carve that up nicely, keeping everything happy together. Carefully remove your bok choy from the heat and keep it in the basket for now. If you don't have a steamer basket, then blanch it or nuke it, whichever makes you happy. Time to plate up and behold the grandest chicken feast of all time. On goes the rice in a neat little mound of aromatic, gingery chickeniness. The highly unnecessary but compulsory steamed greens. I'm a juicy breast guy, so that's what I'll go for, but mix and match any way you fancy. On goes our chili ginger sambal and green onion oil. A generous, steamy bowl of the best chicken broth you'll ever have. Topped with some more finely sliced fresh green onion. For some reason, a fresh few slices of crispy, crunchy cucumber. Couple of cilantro strips, also known as soap leaves. Ladle over a load of Old Man's famous soy chicken gravy. Optionally a sprinkle of crispy shallots. And finally, with them crunchy bits of chicken skin crackling, we started what seems like a week ago. Now go hide in his life.