Chicken Rice - December 12th, 2010

This is Hainan chicken rice done the Tea Family way.

We make plain jasmine rice instead of making rice with the chicken broth. We boil the chicken with some carrots and sliced ginger to make a broth.


While the soup is simmering away, we mince ginger, garlic and a bit of green onions. The ginger and garlic are fried in oil with salt and a bit of sugar. Just as the whole thing is finished, green onions are added in last.


Once the chicken is fully cooked, we take out the chicken and shred the meat. The bones are thrown back into the broth for more flavour.


We usually have watercress or napa cabbage to add to the simple pot of soup. We had napa cabbage that night, though it tastes a lot better with watercress.


We usually have both corn and peas, but we didn’t have corn that night so we just boiled some frozen peas.


Chicken rice is one of those dishes that has to be personalized. It starts with a blank slate – white rice and chicken. Oyster sauce, ginger oil (with the ginger and garlic bits), and peas are added to the plate and then mixed together. There’s also another sauce that we have at the table with this dish. It’s a mix of lime juice, sugar, fish sauce, water, and minced garlic and birds eye chili peppers. My dad dips his chicken into this lime sauce, but I like to pour a bit onto my rice. Lastly, the ginger and chicken soup is served separately.

Although I really like this dish, I think it would taste a lot better if we had some roast chicken from Chinatown or a rotisserie chicken from Costco.

This is our version of Hainanese chicken rice. Do you eat this dish differently? And if so, what are the differences?