Hainanese chicken is a famous Singaporean dish with tender poached chicken, aromatic rice cooked in chicken fat, and a delicious array of condiments.
My recipe for Hainanese chicken uses all the traditional methods as well as a few tricks I learned throughout my 25-year professional cooking career.
We'll look at the secrets that make the juiciest chicken, how to make the best rice of your life and create all the fantastic little accompaniments like ginger chili sambal, green onion oil, and the most delicious chicken broth.
Before you know it, you'll be serving authentic Hainanese chicken and rice to all your friends and family(I do all the time), and it will taste even better than the chicken and rice from the famous hawker stalls in Singapore. Guaranteed.
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Ingredients
- Chicken - Ideally, you want to use a whole chicken. You can make it with already cut pieces, but the process will have to be adjusted somewhat, depending on which chicken cuts you use. I also like adding bone-on chicken thighs with the skins removed for extra flavor. We render the fat to make essential and delicious chicken fat rice and other sauces.
- Aromatics - Garlic, ginger, and onion, will be what most people can find. Traditionally pandan leaves are used but almost no one living outside Asia will be able to get their hands on this. Although some say you could use lime leaf or lemongrass, it's not the same. Rather stick to lots of fresh ginger, garlic, and a touch of onion. We also use scallions or green onions in different parts of the recipe.
- Chili - Hainanese chicken is not a spicy dish, and I prefer using mild chili. However, if you insist on having it hot then, by all means, use bird's eye chili or any other hot chili of your choice.
- Seasoning - Salt and optionally, but highly recommended, MSG. By the way. For those who fear MSG. It's produced by fermenting sugar cane with glutamic acid-producing bacteria, and not conjured up in a dodgy lab as many would have you believe. A very useful seasoning and will make your broth taste extremely chickeney. However, if you are fearful or sensitive to it, then simply leave it out.
- Greens - Most hawker stalls serve it with bok choy. If you can't find bok choy spinach or young cabbage works great.
- Herbs - Most restaurants will serve it with cilantro, but you can easily use mint or Thai basil if you don't like the flavor of cilantro. Some say it tastes of soap. Which, it does))
- Rice - Jasmine rice is the one you want, but you can use any other long-grain rice too. Basmati is a good alternative.
- Cucumber - This is just freshly sliced and served on the side. I assume for freshness. I never eat it all, but it is part of authentic Hainanese chicken, so it's got to be there for the full experience.
- Soy sauce - Light soy or dark soy is commonly served, although we will use light soy in the recipe to make a chicken broth and soy gravy. It's what most chicken rice stalls in Singapore serve with their Hainanese chicken, so we will do the same. It's milder than straight soy, and it compliments the chicken flavor.
- Oil/fat - Preferably, you render chicken fat and use that for every step that requires any type of oil. It is the best way to get maximum chicken flavor running through the dish. However, a tiny bit of sesame oil can be nice when rubbing the chicken before serving and neutral oil can be used for making the rice and green sauce, in case you don't want to make the chicken fat.
- Other bits - Lime for balancing the ginger chili sambal and optionally crispy shallots for crunch when serving.
See recipe card for quantities.
Instructions
Brining (Optional) - This is, in my professional opinion, a very necessary step if you want the most succulent and flavorful poached chicken.
It requires some planning, as you have to do it the day before or first thing in the morning if you plan on making this for dinner.
Remove any excess bits of fat from around the cavity. Make a 2 % salt brine, then keep the chicken refrigerated in the brine for 12 to 20 hours.
Chicken fat - One chicken does not have enough excess chicken fat nor enough flavor to flavor the broth. We use extra chicken bone-in, skin-on thighs for this reason.
Harvest the skins then bake them in the oven at 160 °C or 320 °F for about an hour to render out the fat from the skins. Remove, pour the fat into a container and squeeze out the chicken skins once cool enough to handle as there will still be plenty of fat inside. Do not throw them away though.
Crispy crackling - Once your chicken fat is done, you will chop up the leftover skins and slowly roast them in a dry pan. Move them around often to avoid burning, Drain on a paper towel and store in a cool dry place.
We will use these to sprinkle on top of our chicken later on. Of course, you can skip this step if you are pressed for time.
Blanching - To prepare the skin, we dip the chicken 3 to 5 times into boiling water. This Will help keep the skin from tearing and provide the authentic texture of Hainanese chicken.
If you are not making this with a whole chicken, you still do the same with chicken pieces.
The skinless- thighs also get a dip in the hot water to remove impurities that may make the broth cloudy.
Ice water - It's important to shock the chicken in ice water after dipping it in the boiling water for this method to be most effective.
The extra thighs don't need chilling down, they go straight into the pot.
Chicken Broth - Slice, washed, unpeeled ginger into fine strips then bash them up a bit to release their flavor better, crush the garlic cloves and slice the onion finely, as well as the bottom parts of the green onion. Add it to a pot along with the chicken thighs.
Place your whole chicken into the pot and add just enough water to cover. Bring this up to 90 °C or 194 °F. THE BROTH SHOULD NEVER BOIL.
Poach the chicken - If you have a kitchen thermometer then that's great. If not then don't worry. The internal temperature of the chicken measured at the thickest part should read 68 °C or 154 °F. It takes around 45 minutes depending on the size of your chicken.
While poaching you want to make sure the hot water gets distributed throughout the cavity to make sure it cooks evenly. This can be done with meat hooks attached under the wings or carefully with chopsticks to move the chicken and displace the broth.
Green onion oil - While the chicken poaches we make some of the other accompaniments.
To make the green oil you chop up the green parts of the onion finely. Grate some peeled ginger and add hot chicken fast or neutral oil to the mix while stirring.
Set aside to cool. This green oil is also delicious on other dishes and can be stored for weeks in the fridge.
Ginger garlic sauce - The dipping sauce for Hainanese chicken is often simply this mildly spicy sambal.
Pound or blend the garlic, grated ginger, chopped chilli and a touch of salt in a small blender or pestle and mortar until you have a paste. Add chicken broth and season with lime juice and a touch of sugar for balance.
Store until needed.
Aromatic rice - The most important part after the chicken. Heat the chicken fat then add crushed garlic and sliced ginger.
Toast it until starting to brown then add your rice and give that a good stir through. Add the chicken broth, reduce the heat to a minimum and cook for 15 minutes lid-on. You can also do this in a rice cooker.
Keep your rice warm once cooked.
Chill the chicken - Once the chicken is poached, repeat the ice bath step. Keep the chicken in the ice water for a few minutes then remove it and let it rest.
You don't want to cool it down fully. It's just to shock the skin to get the correct texture.
The extra thighs can be used for other dishes or frozen for later use.
Dry - Remove from the water then pat dry with a paper towel. You will notice that some parts of this chicken skin are extremely thin and torn somewhat. That's because it's a specific organic chicken with an extremely tender skin. The skin on the breast held up well which is the result of the blanching and shocking steps. If I skipped those this chicken would have been skinless by now.
Oil and rest - Rub the chicken with a touch of sesame oil or rendered chicken fat while it's resting. To keep it warm place in an oven with only the light turned on. Hainanese chicken is served at somewhat of a tepid temperature which is often the case in Southeast Asian countries with hot humid climates.
Soy gravy - Make a cornstarch and chicken broth slurry then whisk into the chicken broth and soy sauce.
Heat on medium and keep whisking until it thickens.
Steamed greens - Steam the greens in a steamer basket for 3 minutes or use any other method you normally use for cooking fresh green vegetables. I have a guide to cook spinach, bok choy and broccoli if you need help.
Carve the chicken - Remove the legs, breasts and wings. The legs can be deboned if you want but it's not necessary.
Sklice the breasts across and at least separate the thighs from the drumsticks. The wings can be left as is.
Assemble- Plate up by adding a generous portion of chicken fat rice.
Add some steamed greens and sliced chicken.
Follow that up with a steaming bowl of hot chicken broth sprinkled with more fresh green onion.
Slice the cucumber and add a few sprigs of your preferred green herb like cilantro or mint.
Add the green sauce and ginger chili sauce.
Ladle over some soy chicken broth and sprinkle with crispy shallot and chicken skin crackling.
Serve and eat - To appreciate the Hainanese chicken rice experience, you need to taste a little bit of everything.
It's best served straight away as reheating runs the risk of drying out the chicken.
However, that only applies to the breast meat.
Video
Substitutions
- Soy sauce - You can use tamari if you're gluten intolerant.
- Whole chicken - Hainanese chicken is traditionally made with whole chicken but not everyone has access to good quality whole chicken. You can still get great results by using already pre-packed chicken cuts.
- Aromatics - The most important aromatic in this dish is ginger. If you can not find fresh ginger then use some dried ginger
Equipment
Storage and reheating instructions
Hainanese chicken is best eaten straight away.
However, if you do plan on making this in advance or have plenty of leftovers you can store each element in the fridge in its separate airtight container.
The sauces will last for a week or longer, the chicken for up to 4 days and the rice and greens for 3 days.
You can also freeze all the different items apart from the greens and then let it defrost in the fridge overnight.
When you reheat you want to make sure to boil the broth and gently heat the chicken in the broth. The rice also has to be fully reheated. Works great in a microwave.
Top tip
Make sure you are organised before serving this. Many elements come together all at once. If you are a beginner then simply make the chicken, rice and at least one sauce. Once you've made it though, you'll easily be able to make this for a weeknight dinner.
Frequently asked questions
Instant Pot or any other slow cooker works fantastic for cooking Hainanese chicken and makes very tender chicken and a flavorful broth.
The most important dipping sauce is made with ginger, garlic, chili and chicken broth. Exactly the same one as in this recipe.
The fragrant chicken fat rice can be cooked in a rice cooker once you have toasted the ginger, garlic and rice in chicken fat. Simply add that to the rice cooker followed by chicken broth and press the cook button.
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Recipe
The Ultimate Hainanese Chicken Rice Recipe
Ingredients
Chicken And Broth
- 1300 g (3 lb) whole chicken - note 1
- 900 g (2 lb) chicken thighs - bone on skin on - note 2
- 100 g (½ cups) white onion - peeled and sliced
- 100 g (1 cups) scallions - white and middle parts only
- 100 g (6 cloves) Garlic - peeled and crushed
- 200 g (2 cups) Ginger - sliced, skin on
- 12 g (2 teaspoon) salt
- 6 g (1 teaspoon) Msg - note 3
- 12 g (1 tablespoon) sesame oil - note 4
Green onion oil
- 15 g (2 tablespoon) ginger - peeled, finely grated
- 20 g (3 tablespoon) scallions - green only, finely chopped
- 50 g (¼ cups) chicken fat - note 5
Ginger chili sauce
Rice
- 300 g (1 ⅝ cups) Jasmine rice - note 7
- 450 g (1 ⅞ cups) chicken broth
- 50 g (¼ cups) chicken fat
- 30 g (⅓ cups) ginger - sliced skin on
- 20 g (2 ½ tablespoon) garlic - crushed and peeled
- 6 g (1 teaspoon) salt
Soy gravy
- 240 ml (1 cups) chicken broth
- 60 ml (4 tablespoon) soy sauce
- 10 g (1 ¼ tablespoon) cornstarch - Not the same as corn flour
Greens
- 100 g (⅕ lb) bok choy - note 8
To serve
- 4 g (2 sprigs) cilantro - optional or substitute with mint or Thai basil
- 4 g (½ tablespoon) crispy shallots - optional
Instructions
For the chicken and broth
- Brining (Optional) - This is, in my professional opinion, a very necessary step if you want the most succulent and flavorful poached chicken. It requires some planning, as you have to do it the day before or first thing in the morning if you plan on making this for dinner.
- Remove any excess bits of fat from around the cavity. Make a 2 % salt brine, then keep the chicken refrigerated in the brine for 12 to 20 hours.
- Chicken fat - One chicken does not have enough excess chicken fat nor enough flavor to flavor the broth. We use extra chicken bone-in, skin-on thighs for this reason.
- Harvest the skins, then bake them in the oven at 160 °C or 320 °F for about an hour to render out the fat from the skins. Remove, pour the fat into a container and squeeze out the chicken skins once cool enough to handle as there will still be plenty of fat inside. Do not throw them away, though.
- Once your chicken fat is done, you will chop up the leftover skins and slowly roast them in a dry pan. Move them around often to avoid burning, Drain on a paper towel and store in a cool dry place. We will use these to sprinkle on top of our chicken later on. Of course, you can skip this step if you are pressed for time.
- Dip the chicken 3 to 5 times into boiling water. This Will help keep the skin from tearing and provide the authentic texture of Hainanese chicken. If you are not making this with a whole chicken, you still do the same with chicken pieces. The skinless thighs also get a dip in the hot water to remove impurities that may make the broth cloudy.
- Shock the chicken in ice water after dipping it in the boiling water for this method to be most effective. The extra thighs don't need chilling down, they go straight into the pot.
- Slice, washed, unpeeled ginger into fine strips then bash them up a bit to release their flavor better, crush the garlic cloves and slice the onion finely, as well as the bottom parts of the green onion. Add it to a pot along with the chicken thighs.
- Place your whole chicken into the pot and add just enough water to cover. Bring this up to 90 °C or 194 °F. THE BROTH SHOULD NEVER BOIL. If you have a kitchen thermometer, then that's great. If not, then don't worry. The internal temperature of the chicken measured at the thickest part should read 68 °C or 154 °F. It takes around 45 minutes depending on the size of your chicken.
- While poaching, you want to make sure the hot water gets distributed throughout the cavity to make sure it cooks evenly. This can be done with meat hooks attached under the wings, or carefully with chopsticks to move the chicken and displace the broth. Once the chicken is poached, repeat the ice bath step. Keep the chicken in the ice water for a few minutes, then remove it and let it rest.You don't want to cool it down fully. It's just to shock the skin to get the correct texture.
- Remove from the water, then pat dry with a paper towel. The extra thighs can be used for other dishes or frozen for later use. Rub the chicken with a touch of sesame oil or rendered chicken fat while it's resting and waiting to be carved.
Green onion oil
- Chop up the green parts of the onion finely. Grate some peeled ginger and add hot chicken fast or neutral oil to the mix while stirring.
- Set aside to cool. This green oil is also delicious on other dishes and can be stored for weeks in the fridge.
Chili ginger sauce
- Ginger garlic sauce - The dipping sauce for Hainanese chicken is often simply this mildly spicy sambal.
- Pound or blend the garlic, grated ginger, chopped chilli and a touch of salt in a small blender or pestle and mortar until you have a paste. Add chicken broth and season with lime juice and a touch of sugar for balance. Store until needed.
Aromatic rice
- The most important part apart from the chicken. Heat the chicken fat, then add crushed garlic and sliced ginger.
- Toast it until starting to brown, then add your rice and give that a good stir through. Add the chicken broth, reduce the heat to a minimum and cook for 15 minutes lid-on. You can also do this in a rice cooker. Keep your rice warm once cooked.
Soy gravy
- Make a cornstarch and chicken broth slurry, then whisk into the chicken broth and soy sauce.
- Heat on medium and keep whisking until it thickens.
Steamed greens
- Steam the greens in a steamer basket for 3 minutes, or use any other method you normally use for cooking fresh green vegetables. I have a guide to cook spinach, bok choy and broccoli if you need help.
To serve
- Remove the legs, breasts, and wings. The legs can be deboned if you want, but it's not necessary.Slice the breasts across and at least separate the thighs from the drumsticks. The wings can be left as is.
- Plate up by adding a generous portion of chicken fat rice. Add some steamed greens and sliced chicken. Follow that up with a steaming bowl of hot chicken broth sprinkled with more fresh green onion.
- Slice the cucumber and add a few sprigs of your preferred green herb like cilantro or mint.
- Add the green sauce and ginger chili sauce.
- Ladle over some soy chicken broth and sprinkle with crispy shallot and chicken skin crackling.
Video
Notes
- It's best to use a whole chicken for the most authentic Hainanese chicken experience. However, if you can't find good quality whole chicken, then you can use already portioned chicken. Frozen is ok, but fresh will have a much better texture.
- We use extra thighs because we can use the fat to render down, and it makes the broth more intense. You could also use wings or legs.
- MSG often gets a bad name. It's in actual fact, produced with a natural fermentation process and a key part of the authentic recipe. However, if you are convinced that it's bad for you then simply leave it out. I've included plenty of ingredients like garlic, ginger, onion and extra chicken that has its own natural glutamate and will eventually give us a nice umami flavor.
- You can use sesame oil or rendered chicken fat, or mix the two. This is up to you and your liking for sesame oil.
- If you do not have enough chicken fat or can't be bothered rendering it out of the excess fat, simply use a neutral oil.
- Use any chili you like that works with your tolerance for spiciness.
- You can use another long grain rice like basmati if you prefer. Short grain or sticky rice won't work.
- Steamed greens are a must, even if you don't like them). You can use spinach or broccoli as a substitute if you can't find bok choi.
Marion says
This took some work but worth every second. Thanks!