My first go at making this, and it turned out super in my opinion, well ‘The Man’ only gave me a 67.9% so harsh!!! In Melbourne there is a Chinese restaurant called Chinabar at Box Hill, and it has the best Hainanese Chicken with rice you can buy at a store.

Another good place for this dish is in Perth, my friend Floey’s mum makes the best, she can even make it to feed a few hundred and it still taste oh soo good, now thats a talent, increasing all the quantities and having the flavour just right!!

My Sydney friend TT also makes a mean Hainanese Chicken Rice too, I’ve tried and tasted it, she has told me my comments were something along the lines of its really really good, but not as good as Floey’s mum!! Gosh i’m so insensitive sometimes!!

Chicken

1 whole chicken
2 tsp salt
3 cloves garlic
3 slices ginger
2 stems of shallot
1 litre water
1 cucumber (sliced)

1. Prepare chicken by washing and removing excess fat then using the salt rub the cavity of the chicken. With the side of your knife squash the garlic and ginger to release the flavours. Then place garlic, ginger and shallot inside chicken.
2. Heat water in large pot and bring to boil. Add chicken into pot and cook covered on medium heat for 15 minutes. Rotate chicken and cook for further 15 minutes.
3. Remove chicken and drain excess liquid then plunge into ice bath for 3 minutes. This will make the chicken tender and juicy, the skin will also contract. Drain well, once chicken is room temperature slice up and arrange on plate with cucumber. Serve with chicken rice.

Chicken Rice

1 cup rice
2 tbsp seasame oil
3 eshallots (finely minced)
3 cloves garlic (finely minced)
3 cups chicken stock (from cooking chicken)
1 tsp salt

1. Wash rice a few times in cold water, then drain well.
2. In a non stick fry pan heat oil, adding eshallots and garlic fry till fragrant. Then add rice and stir fry for 2 minutes after rice is fully coated.
3. Next remove from heat, place rice into rice cooker and add chicken stock plus salt.

If you don’t have a rice cooker, just cook on the stove in a non stick saucepan with lid, bring to the boil, once water reaches just above the rice, stir rice then turn onto low heat for 15-20 minutes.

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