Recipe: Make Gai Wong’s Hainanese Chicken Rice For Someone You Love

“Hainanese chicken rice is a true labour of love. It may seem simple, but there are many elements that must come together to make it complete. As a child, I used to eat this dish at least once a week. Two of my brothers could, in fact, have a whole chicken to themselves, should they have their way. This recipe is also very cost effective for families, as nothing goes to waste and every part of the chicken is used to its fullest potential.

It is important to note that, traditionally, Hainanese chicken rice is eaten cold with hot rice and broth, and with the chilli-garlic sauce on the side. The reason the chicken is served cold is because the important step of cooling the chicken creates the beautiful gelatinous layer between the skin and meat. I usually prepare this dish for dinner as it is a rather long process. Told you, it is a labour of love. If anyone cooks HCR for you, know that you’re someone they truly love and care for."

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Hainanese chicken rice by Gai Wong

Serves 4
Preparation time: 40 minutes, plus 4 hours curing
Cooking time: 2 hours 15 minutes, plus 1 hour cooling and 20 minutes resting

Ingredients

1 x 1.5kg whole free-range chicken
Iced water
2 Lebanese cucumbers finely sliced
125ml (½ cup) soy sauce
3 tbsp sesame oil

Chilli-garlic sauce

200g long red chillies deseeded if you prefer less spice, roughly chopped
8 cloves garlic
2cm piece of ginger peeled and roughly chopped
130ml freshly squeezed lime juice from about 3 limes
70ml rice wine vinegar
50g raw sugar
2 tsp Himalayan salt

Poaching liquid

3 whole chicken carcasses
5 cloves garlic crushed
4–5 makrut lime (crushed by hand, to release the aromas)
2cm piece of ginger unpeeled
1 tsp whole white peppercorns
1 tsp Himalayan salt

Fragrant rice

500g jasmine rice
750ml (3 cups) poaching liquid
2 pandan leaves tied in a knot
3cm piece of ginger peeled and smashed using the side of a knife
½ tsp Himalayan salt

Method

First up, make the chilli–garlic sauce as it needs to cure for 4 hours. Using a mortar and pestle (or stick blender if you are pushed for time), pound the chilli, garlic and ginger to a fine paste. Transfer to a bowl and stir through the lime juice and vinegar, then add the sugar and salt, stirring slowly until the sugar and salt have dissolved. Set aside for at least 4 hours for the lime and vinegar to work their curing magic. This step is important as it removes the raw taste of the chilli, garlic and ginger.

Before making the poaching liquid, it’s important to thoroughly clean the chicken carcasses. According to our elders, this process removes the dirt and scum from the bones, thus giving you a beautiful clear broth at the end. To do this, place the carcasses in a large (10L) stockpot and cover with water. Bring to the boil over high heat and blanch for about 10 minutes or until most of the scum rises to the top. Drain and wash the carcasses under cool running water to remove any last vestiges of scum on the bones. Clean and wipe dry the stockpot.

Next, place 8L of water in your now clean stockpot and bring to the boil. Add the chicken carcasses and the remaining poaching liquid ingredients, then reduce to a simmer and cook for 1.5 hours or until the chicken carcasses are soft to touch. To test the carcasses, gently squeeze the bones with a pair of tongs (don’t worry if they come apart, this is perfectly fine). This releases additional flavour from the chicken bones into the stock.

Loosely tie the whole chicken to a long cooking chopstick or wooden spoon, one that will sit comfortably across the top of the pot. To do this, loop a length of string under the wings and then attach it to the chopstick or spoon. This enables the chicken to hang suspended in the poaching liquid, rather than sitting on the base of the pot, allowing the chicken to remain intact and visually silky.

Using tongs, remove the chicken carcasses from the poaching liquid and discard. Bring the liquid back to the boil, then, holding onto the chopstick or spoon, gently dunk the chicken in and out of the liquid three to four times. This process is important as it tightens the chicken skin. (Many recipes will tell you to stuff aromatics into the cavity of the chicken. Please don’t do this, as it will actually stop the beautiful poaching liquid from entering the cavity of the chicken.)

Quickly reduce the heat to a gentle simmer, then slowly lower the chicken into the pot, with the chopstick or spoon resting on top. The chicken must be completely submerged in the poaching liquid without touching the base or side of the pot; otherwise the skin will be damaged. Top up with extra boiling water, if necessary. Simmer for 30 minutes, then remove the pot from the heat. Cover with foil and allow the chicken to continue poaching in the liquid for another 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, fill a bowl large enough to submerge the chicken with iced water. This is a vital process as it stops the cooking process. It also ensures you’ll have a silky gelatinous layer between the skin and the meat. Remove the chicken from the poaching liquid (reserve the poaching liquid) and submerge it in the iced water. Set aside for 1 hour, then remove the chicken and allow to air dry for 20 minutes.

To make the fragrant rice, wash the rice two or three times in cold water, until the water runs clear. Drain, then transfer to a rice cooker or saucepan and add the remaining rice ingredients, ensuring that the pandan leaves and ginger are on top of the rice. Cook according to the rice cooker instructions or simmer in the pan for 10 minutes or until the liquid is absorbed. Remove from the heat, cover and set aside for 10 minutes, until fluffy and cooked through.

Taste the remaining reserved poaching liquid and add salt and white pepper, to taste.

To serve, cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces. At home, we usually serve it on the bone, but you can also debone the chicken if you prefer. Lay the cucumber slices on four plates and top with the chicken, then drizzle over the soy sauce and sesame oil. Divide the broth among small serving bowls.

Place the rice and chilli–garlic sauce on the table and invite everyone to sit down. Address your elders at the table by saying: chiak peng! (Let’s eat!).

To eat, we usually douse our fragrant rice with the soy sauce and sesame oil from the chicken and mix it thoroughly. Then, to achieve the perfect bite, we pile a little rice, chicken and chilli–garlic sauce onto a spoon and eat it in one gulp. Only after a few bites do we go in for the cucumber at the bottom of the plate, after it has absorbed the beautiful sauce. The cucumber provides a wonderful fresh taste, almost like a palate cleanser, between bites of rice and chicken. This is why we can eat this dish every single day and never get bored.

This is an extract from the Broadsheet cookbook Home Made, featuring 80 diverse recipes for home cooking, sourced from Melbourne's best cooks, chefs and restaurants. Published by Plum, the book is available for $49.95 at shop.broadsheet.com.au