Cheat’s Chicken Rice

Brought to you by Nuffnang and SunRice

Do you miss the delicious Chicken Rice which you had a taste of when traveling abroad? This Cheat’s Chicken Rice recipe is the answer to your cravings! It is a foil-packet chicken recipe which ensures the essence of Hainanese Chicken Rice flavours minus the effort, a perfect winter warmer!

It’s about time I share this recipe on Fuss Free Cooking ha!

Due to its simplicity , it takes less time than the authentic recipe – it takes less than 10 ingredients and only takes around 45 minutes. Additionally, no deboning/chopping a whole cooked chicken is required. This means Hainanese chicken rice is no longer reserves for a weekend cooking undertaking. The recipe also incorporates brown rice – which makes the dish taste a little nuttier and filled with the brown rice goodness (it is a natural source of dietary fibre and energy)!

This clever recipe is the brainchild of Poh Ling Yeow, host of ‘Poh & Co’ on SBS and runner up of Masterchef season 1 and SunRice ambassador. I had a chance to pick her brain on tips and tricks in dealing with dinnertime dilemma.

I asked about her thoughts on an easy and tasty dish to master by a novice cook:

“Fried Rice is a brilliant one. This is because it literally takes minutes to make and it’s so nice and warming in winter. You can make it with just about anything and with no recipe. For example, leftovers, cured meats leftover from lunch. Just make sure you always have rice on hand, then throw in some olive oil, onion, garlic, a protein and whatever veggies or herbs you have in the vege drawer; and last but not least a few eggs at the end.

My big tips are always use freshly cooked brown rice because it’s sturdier. You can also use microwave rice for something that’s authentic and ready in 90 seconds. So the grains are nicely separated and won’t go gluggy. Cut all your ingredients very small (about a 5mm dice – you can use the food processor if your knife skills are a bit dodgy) to draw maximum flavour out of the ingredients in a short cook. Also for a dish like fried rice, you want to be able to scoop each mouthful without a huge chunk of chicken dangling from your fork or mouth. Season with light soy, oyster sauce or fish sauce if it’s vaguely Asian. If you do something more Mediterranean, omit the egg and use salt instead”

When it comes to grocery shopping, I am curious if Poh buys ingredients with a recipe in mind or develops a recipe based on what she has on hand.

“When I’m grocery shopping I rarely buy with specific dishes in mind. I buy stuff that will last because if I forget about it, I can make very quick simple meals without having to leave the house to buy additional bits and pieces. My favourites are rice, noodles, garlic, ginger, chicken bones to make stock, olive oil, eggs, capers, broccoli, cauliflower, wombok, lemons, butter, cream, tinned and fresh tomatoes, tinned tuna, garlic, dried chilli, anchovies, dried shiitake, and mushrooms.”

So what is Poh’s favourite rice based dish?

“There are so many! Hainanese Chicken Rice is definitely one because it’s so pure and clean and the title absolutely respects the simplicity of it. The dish pays such respect to two very common ingredients and draws so much wholesome flavour out of it. When you eat this everything in the world is ok! “

PrintCheat’s Chicken Rice

4 Servings

Ingredients

1 Tablespoon rice bran oil or vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled & chopped finely
2 slices ginger, 5mm thick, bashed
2 cups SunRice Brown Medium Grain Rice
4 cups chicken stock
Salt to taste (see Note 1)

Chicken:

8 stalks spring onions, finely sliced
6-7cm ginger, peeled, finely grated
2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup rice bran or vegetable oil
4 chicken breasts (or 8 chicken thigh fillets), scored at 2cm

Accompaniment:

8 heads of Bok choy, blanched with boiling hot water for 1 – 2 minutes, drained

Instructions

Combine the oil, garlic and ginger in a non-stick saucepan. Saute until golden and fragrant.
Add the rice and toast until the rice is coated with oil.
Add the stock. Bring to the boil, reduce to a simmer, cover and cook for 20 minutes or until rice is soft and cooked.
Remove from the heat and allow to sit for a further 5 minutes before fluffing up with a spoon.

To make the chicken:

Preheat chicken at 180ºC. Prepare 4 sheets of baking paper and 4 sheets aluminium foil, both cut into 35cm (14 inches) lengthwise.
To prepare the chicken, combine the spring onion, ginger and salt in a medium mixing bowl. Heat the oil in a small saucepan until smoking, then carefully pour this over the spring onion, ginger and salt. This will spit aggressively so stand back (see Note 2 below).
To assemble the foil packets, first lay down the aluminum foil and followed by baking paper (see Note 3 below).
Place a chicken breast on the baking paper then spread the green sauce over the meat. Fold up to enclose the filling. Repeat this step with the remaining chicken breasts.
Bake for 15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Divide the rice and chicken (thinly sliced optional) into 4 portions and garnish with the book choy. Serve immediately.

Notes

{Note 1} – Salt may not be required due to the salt content in the store-bought chicken stock.{Note 2} – If you are concern about the spit, you can add grated ginger and oil in a saucepan first and then warm up the oil. When you hear the ginger starts to sizzle add the spring onions. This is the modification I made to the original recipe.{Note 3} – I don’t have a large enough oven proof dish and therefore, I used foil-packets to cook the chicken, The original recipe calls for placing all the chicken in an oven proof dish preferably with a lid (or cover tightly with foil).

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