Monday, 26 February 2018

Heritage food series : Hainan Chicken Rice

I can only remember eating my brother-in-law's chicken rice once, in Tangkak enroute from Penang to Muar. Apparently, he cooked it quite a lot and my family members were effusive in praising Kai Hiah's Hainan-style chicken rice ('hiah' is an honorific term to address an elder male member of the family).

The traditional method is poached by dunking it in hot water several times before letting it cook in medium fire for 10 minutes and then leaving it in the soup for another 30 minutes (with the fire off). Finally, you dunk the chicken in a cold bath followed by a rub with sesame oil and salt, perhaps cooking wine if desired.

Along the the way, my sister told me that her husband switched to steaming the chicken instead of poaching because of concerns with the excessive amount of fat in the soup.

Not all Hainan Chicken Rice are made equal. If you google Ipoh chicken rice, you will be directed to a famous shop which we found to be very disappointing. In Melaka, they are famous for the chicken rice balls with many shops making roaring business along Jonker Street. George Town, Penang is also well-populated with chicken rice shops with some really good ones.

What makes good Hainan Chicken Rice?

First of course is the chicken. I once brought an Aussie (old Doc Matt) to the 1926 Hotel for their well-known Hainan Chicken Rice. He had tried it before and said it basically tasted flat but was willing to give it another try. Cooking technique is one thing but the quality of the chicken also affects the outcome. Not any old chicken from the market stall or supermarket will do. Some people believe free range chicken or kampung chicken are best. You probably need to try various types and suppliers to find the best for you. Oh, yes, you need to eat lots of chicken to get to chicken rice heaven.

The chicken meat itself must be full of flavour. The sauces and chillies only enhances it. The meat when cooked must be soft and tender, not flaky and dry. Usually, the breast meat tends to dry out when over cooked.

Next most important part of the experience in a good Hainan Chicken Rice meal is the rice. Not the usual plain white rice. It must be accompanied by fragrant rice cooked with the chicken stock and a few aromatics such as pandan leave, lemongrass, garlic and ginger. Preferably, the rice should be fried with the aromatics before cooking in the chicken stock. You can expect some hawkers to skip this time-consuming step and just give you oily rice.

The texture of the cooked rice grain must be full, fluffy and wholesome, not soft and mushy. It might even feel like you are eating glutinous rice.

And finally, it must be accompanied by that special blend of chilly sauce. A generous amount is usually consumed. If you are at the hawker, don't be shy to ask for more chilly.

At the shop or hawkers you can probably still get a plate of Hainan Chicken Rice for about RM5. In fancy restaurants, they charge maybe RM25 for all the whistles.

Oh, yes, if you like fish ball soup, they are great with Hainan Chicken Rice too.

I have cooked chicken rice before but this time I tested out the well-tested recipe by Li Nah, Shiow Kai's daughter. It was recorded by Huey as part of project to document family recipes started in 2016 (now in cold storage awaiting fresh infuse of enthusiasm; so I am giving them a nudge here). Most of the text are from that document, with additional notes from this recipe validation. Apologies for the plagiarism.

This is one whole chicken, deboned. Chopping up the chicken also requires a certain skill. Next time, observe the hawker.
No additional sauce after cooking. Usually at the hawkers, they will splash the meat with a combo of soya sauce, sweet sauce and sesame oil and probably some chicken stock. Some probably use oyster sauce for the extra kick.

Home-cooked Hainan Chicken Rice. Served with red wine and kiam chai thng.


Chicken

Ingredients:
  • 1 whole chicken (I bought an organic chicken fed with probiotics from the Aeon Supermarket at Queensbay Mall)
  • 6 cloves of garlic
  • 1 thumb-size piece of ginger
  • 4-5 stalks of spring onion
  • Water (enough to fill a large pot). (You don't want to have too much water left over, so just submerge the chicken into the water to check the level before you start boiling)
  • 3 tablespoon of coarse salt (I didn't measure and I think I used too little salt; the consensus is that I should use more salt next time)
  • Ice for ice bath
  • 1 teaspoon fine salt
  • 1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine (I used Chinese cooking wine bought at the supermarket; not sure if it is rice wine; you probably can use any kind of Asian wine; try red wine if you like)
  • 1 teaspoon sesame oil



Method:

  1. Rub the coarse salt all over the chicken ensuring that you massage it into the chicken. Wash off the  salt.
  2. Prepare the aromatics by lightly smashing the garlic cloves with the side of a knife and cut the ginger into large pieces.  Stuff the garlic, ginger and spring onion into the cavity of the chicken. (Stuff the ingredients tight into the cavity so that it does not slip out during dunking)
  3. In a large pot,  fill with water to with enough water to submerge the whole chicken and bring to the boil.
  4. When stock comes to the boil, blanch the chicken by holding on to the neck (or the opening if you have removed the neck) and dunking it whole into the hot stock and remove immediately. Be careful not to burn your hands in the process. Repeat this 4 more times. (My chicken had no neck so I held on to the legs instead. I submerged the chicken for about 15 to 20 seconds, lift it out, left the water heat up a bit, then repeat the process).
  5. Then carefully place the whole chicken into the stock and bring the stock to a boil.  When the stock has come to boil, turn down the heat to medium. (I did not bring it to a full boil, merely to a simmer; I didn't want it to be too hot.)
  6. Cover the pot with a lid and let it simmer for 10 minutes.
  7. After 10 minutes of cooking on medium heat, turn off the fire and leave the chicken in the stock with the lid closed to continue cooking in the residual heat for another 35-40 minutes. (I left it for 30 minutes; it was not a very big chicken)
  8. Just before you take out the chicken, prepare an ice bath by using a large basin (or pot) and filling ¾ with water and a few handfuls of ice.
  9. Take out the chicken from the hot stock and place it straight into the ice bath.  Leave for a few minutes and then take out and place it on a chopping board. Reserve the chicken stock for soup and chicken rice. The purpose of the cold bath to immediately stop further cooking of the meat from embedded heat.
  10. Rub the chicken with fine salt, Chinese rice wine and sesame oil.  (I should add a little more salt in future)
  11. Chop the chicken and serve. If you prefer to eat without the bones, you can de-bone the chicken before cutting it up. Hainanese chicken is usually served in big generous thick portions  (see picture) but if you prefer thin slices, it tastes just as good.
  12. Serve with chicken rice and soup. Don’t forget the all important chilly sauce - Hainanese Chicken Rice is not complete without it.

Massage with coarse salt

Dunk in boiling water 5 times. What does it really do? I think it progressively sears the meat. Note the chicken oil floating at the stop - scope and discard some if you are worried about the fat.

Stop the cooking with a cold bath

Rub with sesame oil, fine salt and cooking wine. Can probably add soya sauce or sweet sauce for variation of the flavour.

Rice

Ingredients:
  • Chicken stock from cooking the chicken (Scoup off the floating brownish stuff and oil)
  • 1 small knob of ginger (approximately 1 cm in length) - minced
  • 2 shallots (or 1/2 small onion) – finely diced
  • 1 clove garlic – finely diced
  • 2 pandan leaves
  • 1 stalk of lemongrass (optional) – use bottom only.  Bruise it slightly by placing the flat side of the knife on the lemongrass and using the palm of your hand to press down on it)
  • 1 small knob of butter or chicken fat (you can use either). If you are using chicken fat, fry the chicken fat in hot pan to get the oil. You can also use  the layer of chicken fat from the stock. (I used only the oil floating in the stock)
  • 3 cups of white rice (washed)
  • Salt to taste
  • Dark soy sauce
Method:

  1. In a wok or deep pan,  place the butter/chicken fat, minced ginger, chopped shallot/onion and garlic, tied up pandan leaves and lemongrass (if using).  Cook on medium heat until onion becomes slightly translucent. (I used about 1 or 2 tablespoon of cooking oil to fry the ingredients and rice)
  2. Add 3 cups of rice and stir through the aromatics.  Add salt to taste.
  3. Add 3 cups of hot chicken stock.
  4. Transfer to rice cooker to cook.
  5. Serve rice with dark soy sauce

After frying the ingredients and rice in the wok, I transferred it to the rice cooker. Then I added the chicken stock using the level in the pot to measure the liquid. Remember to add in the pandan leaves (which I did not fry with the rice)

Shallot, garlic, ginger and lemongrass - a little more generous that the above recipe

Three cups of rice fed four of us that night.


Chilly Sauce

This one I concocted from memory. In the olden days, we had to pound the chilly with a granite mortar and pestle. The chilly will splash all over your fingers so you will be on heat for hours after that.


Curry flower, lemongrass, garlic, ginger, big and small chillies
I used only a small portion of the bunga kantan (curry flower) from my garden and a small section of the lemongrass. Add some salt.

After a few spins on the blender.
The consensus was that it was fragrant but not hot enough. I will add a bit more lemongrass, curry leave and ginger and some small chillies to give it more kick.

To serve the chilly, add some lime juice, soya sauce and sweet soya sauce if you like.


A tribute to Liow Shiow Kai

It's not difficult to cook Hainan Chicken Rice. You might have to try out a few times to get it right. There's a lot of art and love you need to put into it.

The Hailam's are well known for their culinary prowess, even for the humble cup of kopi.

Kai Hiah is the handsome gentleman in the centre; on his left is my eldest sister (his wife) who was 20 years older than me. Photo taken in Tangkak, by my estimate about 35 years ago (mid-1980s) judging by Soo Fern's age of about 5 or 6.

Photo taken in Muar, around 1992 (judging by Chun Liang's age of 2 then; the baby on the right).
Shiow Kai passed away in 1999, aged 67.



Other heritage food on this blog:




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