There’s nothing like Hainanese Chicken Rice. If you’re familiar with this absolute comfort dish, you know it’s basically the greatest thing next to a big hug. (Chicken noodle soup has nothing on this dish!)
Hainanese Chicken Rice is a staple of Hainan cooking, one that has inspired similar dishes throughout all of southern China. It’s a simple dish that’s made up of, well… chicken and rice! But its bold chicken flavor is what makes it stand out, even when compared to more complex meals.
While the cooking process for this dish isn’t very difficult, there are 2 simple steps to make this dish extraordinary. We’re gonna tell you what they are and how to cook the very best Hainan Chicken Rice.
Today You’ll Learn:
- How to choose the right chicken for your Hainanese Chicken Rice
- Why you need to exfoliate the chicken
- How to cook the perfect chicken that is juicy, moist & tender
- How to get your Hainanese rice flavorful & fluffy
- And finally, how to prepare a spicy, savory chili dipping sauce and a gingery-garlic sauce
For those of you who have never tried it, let’s start at the beginning.
What is Hainanese Chicken Rice?
This delicious little dish consists of poached chicken and seasoned rice, usually served with a chili sauce with some cucumber slices for garnish. In essence, it’s one of the simpler chicken and rice dishes out there, but this dish is anything but plain. Poaching the chicken in a flavorful broth of ginger, garlic, and green onions gives it SO much flavor. Once the chicken is done, the rice is then cooked in the poached chicken broth, infusing it with savory chicken flavor.
Where Does Hainanese Chicken Rice Come From?
Hainanese chicken rice derives from early Chinese immigrants of Southern China, in the Hainan province, and is adapted from a similar Hainan dish called Wenchang chicken. Hainanese chicken rice is widely considered the national dish of Singapore, and is available in many a hawker center and food court throughout the country. Variations of this dish have made their way throughout Southeast Asian countries in general, including Malaysia and Thailand.
What’s really interesting is the prevalence of chicken and rice dishes throughout the world, like Latin American arroz con pollo, Japanese oyakodon, Pakistani/Indian chicken biryani, and West African jollof rice, among others. Chicken and rice is truly a global comfort food.
The Secret Behind Making the Perfect Rice for this Dish
The rice in Hainanese chicken rice might be what makes this dish so comforting, and if you lean in reaaaal close, I’ll tell you secret to why that is: poaching liquid. As any good cook will tell you, when you cook rice with the chicken poaching broth, that infuses the rice with a bold flavor AND adds a little excess fat to your rice, which makes it nice and fluffy!
There are a number of methods people swear by for this dish. Some people cure their rice for 24 hours. While others fry their rice in rendered chicken fat before they cook it in the broth, and that works too! Personally, I like to use sesame oil. Just remember, the best chicken and rice dish is the one you enjoy making. You don’t have to jump through hoops for a good, comforting meal.
The Secret to Making the Best Hainanese Chicken: EXFOLIATE!
For this recipe, I’m using an organic supermarket chicken because, well, here’s the deal about the chicken: you gotta buy the best. Hainanese Chicken Rice dish is all about the pure taste of your chicken, so you really want to go with organic. Trust me on this. It’s worth the money for your health, the environment, and for your taste buds.
When you buy a whole chicken and are cooking it skin-on, and ESPECIALLY if you’re steaming or poaching the chicken, you want to make sure you get the “nasties” off.
I’m sure by looking at this photo you know what I mean. What I’m after is smooth, clean, unblemished skin.
So I give my guy a facial.
Yes, I’m totally serious!
I exfoliate my chicken.
Exfoliate Your Chicken
How to give your chicken a spa treatment: Start with a small handful of kosher salt. Regular table salt is too fine to use for exfoliation. Sea salt is too expensive. Just use kosher salt. Even if you don’t have that loose skin on your chicken, it doesn’t mean you don’t need to exfoliate. There’s still hidden gunk and yuck that’s trapped in that chicken skin. TRUST ME. Your chicken will look and taste better this way.
Now RUB RUB RUB!!
Be gone wrinkles!
Be gone trapped gunk!
Be gone dead skin!
Work those pores!
Rinse, pat dry and ta-da!!!
Glistening.
Glowing.
Soft.
Smooth.
Taut.
Chicken.
Check out those lovely pores.
Ingredients You’ll Need to Make Hainanese Chicken Rice
This is my family recipe for Hainanese Chicken Rice and I’ll show you step by step instructions in both text AND video. It’s a multi-step recipe, with 5 components:
- Chicken
- Soup
- Rice
- Garlic Ginger Sauce
- Red Chili Sauce
How To Make Hainanese Chicken Rice Recipe – Step By Step
Cook the Chicken
- Boil a large pot of water, and exfoliate your chicken while it’s heating up. Rinse the chicken well, inside and outside.
- When water is at a hard boil, add the chicken to pre-boil it. Let it return to a hard boil and allow the scum to come to the surface. Boil for 5 minutes. Throw out the scummy water.
- Refill pot with enough water to cover the chicken by 1-inch, and add in the garlic, green onion and ginger. Bring the pot to a boil over high heat, then immediately set to low heat to keep a simmer. Cook for about 30 minutes more (less if you’re using a smaller chicken). Check for doneness by sticking a chopstick into the flesh under the leg and see if the juices run clear or insert a thermometer into the thickest part of the thigh not touching bone. It should read 160F. The chicken will continue to cook to 165F during rest.
- When the chicken is cooked through, turn off the heat and remove the pot from the burner. Immediately lift and transfer the chicken into a bath of cold water to cool. The quick cooling will stop the cooking process, keeping the meat soft and tender, and giving the skin a lovely firm texture. After cooling, pat the chicken dry with paper towels and rub the sesame oil all over the chicken. This will help prevent the chicken from drying out.
Season the Soup
- Discard the garlic, ginger and green onion. Season the soup with salt to taste.
Cook the Rice
- Place rice into a large bowl, and fill with water. Use your hands to swish the water around, cleaning the rice. Tilt bowl to discard water, keeping the rice in the bowl Repeat 3 more times, until water is less cloudy.
- In a wok or pot, heat 2 tablespoons of cooking oil over medium-high heat. When hot, add the ginger, shallots and the garlic and fry until your kitchen smells like heaven. Be careful not to burn the aromatics! Add in your drained rice and stir to coat, cook for an additional minute. Add the sesame oil, mix well.
- Add 2 cups of your reserved poaching broth and bring to a boil. Immediately turn the heat down to low, cover the pot and cook for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit (with lid still on) for 5-10 minutes more.
- While the rice is cooking, make the sauces and carve the juicy chicken for serving.
Make Your Sauces
- To make the chili sauce: Blend your chili sauce ingredients in a blender or food processor until smooth and bright red.
- To make the ginger garlic sauce: In a small saucepan, heat the cooking oil until very hot, when you start seeing wisps of smoke. Turn off heat. Immediately add garlic and ginger and let it sizzle for a few seconds. Once it settles, stir in salt and vinegar.
Hainanese Chicken Rice Recipe Video
FAQ
What sort of chicken should I use for this dish? Chicken thigh? Chicken breast? Bone-in? Skin on?
I highly recommend using an organic chicken for this meal. I like to use a whole chicken with the skin-on, but some people like to use skin-on chicken thighs or breast as well.
What’s the best kind of rice to use?
Any kind of white rice will do. Jasmine rice is a great option if you enjoy a more fragrant rice.
What do I serve Hainanese chicken and rice with?
You can serve Hainanese chicken with cucumber slices, tomato slices, or even cilantro for garnish. You can also drizzle it with kecap manis (sweet soy sauce) for a sweet twist. Some people enjoy pairing it with bok choy or baby bok choy as well.
Can I make this in a rice cooker?
Yes, you can! Just be sure to clean your rice, and then fry it in cooking oil (or chicken fat) first. Then add it to the rice cooker with your poaching broth and aromatics, and set it to cook. Once it’s done, you can place the cooked chicken on top of the rice and set it to keep warm for 10 minutes before serving for extra fluffy rice and moist chicken.
Ready to Make Your Own Hainanese Chicken & Rice?
Now you have all you need to make this delicious comfort meal!
Is this a new dish to your repertoire or are you well familiar with this beloved meal? Got some tips and tricks for your own Hainanese chicken? Let us know in the comments below! We love hearing from you.
More Recipes to Explore:
- Chinese Boiled Peanuts Recipe
- Chinese Spring Rolls with Chicken Recipe
- Aged Sriracha Hot Sauce Recipe
Hainanese Chicken Rice Recipe
Ingredients
FOR THE CHICKEN
- 1 whole chicken 3.5 lbs, 1.8kg, preferably organic
- 1/4 cup kosher salt for exfoliating (the salt is for cleaning the chicken, this is not consumed)
- 4 inch section of fresh ginger peeled and cut into 1/4'' slices
- 4 cloves garlic
- 2 stalks green onion cut into 1" sections (both green and white parts)
- 1 tablespoon Asian sesame oil
FOR THE RICE
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil like canola, vegetable, peanut
- 2 cloves garlic finely minced
- 1 shallot minced
- 1 inch section of ginger finely minced (or grated on microplane grater
- 2 cups long-grain uncooked rice
- 2 cups reserved chicken poaching broth
- 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
FOR THE CHILI SAUCE
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
- 2 tablespoons reserved chicken poaching broth
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 4 tablespoons sriracha chili sauce
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 inch section of ginger peeled
FOR THE GINGER GARLIC SAUCE
- 4 tablespoons cooking oil canola, vegetable, grapeseed
- 2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
- 2 cloves garlic finely minced
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon rice or white vinegar
Instructions
COOK THE CHICKEN
- 1. Boil a large pot of water. In the meantime, clean the chicken by exfoliating with kosher or coarse salt. Rinse chicken well, inside and outside.
- 2. PRE-BOIL CHICKEN: When water is at a hard boil, add the chicken. Return to hard boil, let scum come to the surface. Boil for 5 minutes. Discard all the water, including the scum.
- 3. Refill pot with clean water to cover the chicken by 1-inch, and add in the garlic, green onion and ginger. Bring the pot to a boil over high heat, then immediately turn the heat to low to keep a simmer. Cook for about 30 minutes more (less if you're using a smaller chicken). Check for doneness by sticking a chopstick into the flesh under the leg and see if the juices run clear or insert a thermometer into the thickest part of the thigh not touching bone. It should read 160F. The chicken will continue to cook to 165F during rest.
- 4. When the chicken is cooked through, turn off the heat and remove the pot from the burner. Immediately lift and transfer the chicken into a bath of ice water to cool. The quick cooling will stop the cooking process, keeping the meat soft and tender, and giving the skin a lovely firm texture. After cooling, pat the chicken dry with paper towels and rub the sesame oil all over the chicken. This will help prevent the chicken from drying out.
SEASON SOUP
- Discard the garlic, ginger and green onion. Season the soup with salt to taste.
COOK THE RICE
- 1. Place rice into a large bowl, and fill with water. Use your hands to swish the water around, cleaning the rice. Tilt bowl to discard water, keeping the rice in the bowl Repeat 3 more times, until water is less cloudy.
- 2. In a wok or pot, heat 2 tablespoons of cooking oil over medium-high heat. When hot, add the ginger, shallots and the garlic and fry until your kitchen smells like heaven. Be careful not to burn the aromatics! Add in your drained rice and stir to coat, cook for an additional minute. Add the sesame oil, mix well.
- 3. Add 2 cups of your reserved poaching broth and bring to a boil. Immediately turn the heat down to low, cover the pot and cook for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit (with lid still on) for 5-10 minutes more.
- While the rice is cooking, make the sauces and carve the chicken for serving.
MAKE SAUCES
- To make the chili sauce: Blend your chili sauce ingredients in a blender until smooth and bright red.
- To make the ginger garlic sauce: In a small saucepan, heat the cooking oil until very hot, when you start seeing wisps of smoke. Turn off heat. Immediately add garlic and ginger and let it sizzle for a few seconds. Once it settles, stir in salt and vinegar.
Did you try this recipe? Please leave a star rating in the recipe card below and leave a review in the comment section! I always appreciate your feedback and I know other readers do, too!
Stay in touch with me in our 
I make this every time someone in my family has the flu, a head cold or a chest cold. Why? Aside from the fact it is DELICIOUS, the garlic, ginger, chili and minerals from the connective tissues and bones are incredibly healing. And chicken fat – did you know that a medical study showed that chicken fat acts in the body as a mucus loosener? Chicken soup is, after all, dubbed Jewish penicillin for good reason. And that rice – so aromatic. Happy eating..!
trying this recipe tonight after seeing the video… cross my fingers 🙂
I will make it
Good recipes,, that must be yummie
Good recipes,, that must be yummie
Help.. my soup taste like water….. I did everything
My (Japanese) wife and (American) I are good cooks and love Chinese and the rest of Asian cooking. We bought the most expensive specially-raised chicken in our Japanese supermarket. We followed the recipe pretty closely. Everything came out fine but I just don’t get any sense of magic. In contrast the first time we made Chinese spare ribs, moo shu pork, Singapore noodles, Vietnamese spring rolls, or Japanese “Karaage” fried chicken, we risked eating ourselves to death.
Things you might want to clarify: 1) how to section and debone chicken, 2) whether to do so before or after cooking, with tips on preserving skin, 3) whether to skim scum from the pot, 4) how long to cook the bones in the broth and 5) what end volume to target. For instance we started with 6 qt water and ended with 9 cups.
We may make this again yearly or something but we’ll be looking fwd to it more as a change of pace I think.
If you say you are good cook, you should know to section or debone chickenAlso, you can simply research for answer online. That tool is call GOOGLE,duh!
How long to cook chicken bone in the broth? Seriously?!! Use common sense, look, taste & adjust! Everyone knows how to cook know this already! Gezzz!
@Jen, you make a good point@ シーレン・フランク, seriously?? LOL
@Jen & @Rebecca -Exactly! Some people need a new glasses or eyes check if they cannot read the recipe properly or watch the video attached. Everything is so clear to me. If author said put 6 cups of water, when you pour, you use your judgement and adjust . If seems too much then add less. Not to follow blindly but use common sense. If some one says kick, you don’t kick yet, you look and judge and think! Same thing with cooking process…
@Jen, That’s true & make sense though. When I cook I use common sense too and adjust everything from there. Recipe & video just give me an idea how to start and I use my judgement in the process.
Felt I needed to respond to your comment as I see some rude ones. Any suggestions to improve an online recipe should be welcome and yours offer just what I agree seems missing in this one. If the author expects readers to do what is not explained, that should be part of the narrative, with links if possible.
The effect using too much water can have on a recipe cannot be overstated and your inclusion of the amount you started with and ended with are most helpful.
The thing is some people really did not read the whole thing carefully. The clear info is there even in the video. Video CLEARLY shows how to section chicken and it was done after the chicken is cooked & remove the scum. And to check for doneness by poking through the chicken or use thermometer if so. All stove works differently. Size of the chicken also makes the time different. All of these we use common sense when it comes to cooking. And again, the info is clear but some people never pay attention to watch or read through the page.
good idea bro, i will make it
Any tips if I was looking to sous vide the chicken?
Hi,
It’s so great that you included nutritional profile for this delicious sounding dish. However I am reluctant to make and eat it if each serving is over 1200 calories.
How can that be?
This was delicious! Really easy to do and my kids love it. Thanks for sharing!!
After rinsing, abs bringing the chicken back to a boil, do I leave the lid on during the next 30 mins or lid off?
I just tried this recipe today. I had to post a comment becos my husband just loves it. Great recipe! Thank you!
Awesome Jade! This is awesome to hear, glad you both enjoyed it!
I love this way of discarding the liquid after 5 minutes of boiling the chicken which gives a clearer broth, and it is so much easier than skimming scum off the top. I love this poached chicken with these scrumptious dipping sauces. Sometimes I use the poached chicken for salads too. Thank you for this lovely recipe!
The main thing missing is pandan. Also the sauce should be made with chili padi or Sambal, not sriracha…
Amazing recipe! My go to when I want Hainanese Chicken!
Oh. My. God. Thank you so much for this recipe. It will be a household favorite for sure 🙂
Hi. Looks great. Is it possible to make it a day ahead and how do I reheat the cold chicken waiting in the fridge? Will it keep its moisture and tenderness? Thank you for a great recipe.
Absolutely! When ready to heat, you can use a microwave to warm up, but please be careful not to over-cook the chicken. You don’t need the chicken to be hot….just warm. For the rice, when ready to reheat, splash about a couple teaspoons of water on the rice, then cover tightly and microwave until very hot. The water will help re-steam the rice (and rice loses moisture in the refrigerator very quickly)
Is the chicken served cold?
Serve warm. At the restaurants, the chicken is always served warm, not piping hot and not cold.
Amazing. I’ve been wanting to make hainanese chicken rice since I discovered it on my first trip to Singapore. Thank you so much for sharing! This was delicious and very accessible. 😀
Very easy to eat and easy to make. I will definitely make this dish again!!!
I grew up eating Hainanese chicken rice in Singapore but have moved away. This recipe is SUPER similar to the type of chicken rice you get from the hawker centers! We’ll be eating this A LOT!
Thank you so much for this recipe, Jaden.
Liz
This recipe was easy to follow and tasted BOMB! Restaurant quality! Thank you
“. . . fry until your kitchen smells like heaven”
An excellent cook gives this kind of counsel!
Thanks Jaden!
Made the recipe last night and tasted like water threatened with chicken flavouring. Not sure where I went wrong as followed recipe to a T. Any tips would be greatly appreciated x
Hi Allie – how was the chicken and the rice?
Excellent recipe. Thanks so much!
Having lived in Singapore, just used to love my dose of Chicken Rice and Duck Rice every now and then. Never thought I could do this at home too. And if I could achieve those same Hawker center flavors.
Loved loved it….
I made some tweaks since I had cut pieces of chicken and being an Indian household, we love spices.
I steamed the chicken pieces and then glazed them with dark soy sauce mixed with the ginger garlic sauce.
Rest followed your recipe to the T.
What delicious aromas and the end result yummylicious..
Thanks again.
Thanks so much Komal! Jaden
I love this recipe! Thank you so much!
Your hainanese chicken recipe is hands down the best. Chicken comes out flawless and rice is a-may-zing. Thanks for sharing, because sharing is caring.
Thank you Brian!
It was so good! My family loved it!
I’ve used this recipe so many times since I found your site. I never even liked chicken but I love this chicken. Thank you.
Thanks so much!! jaden
I’m surprised how easy to follow it is. The chicken was cooked to perfection and the sauce yummy! My fussy two year old loves it! Thank you!
Thank you
I absolutely love chicken rice especially from Singapore. So when I started googling recipes this one came up as the most simple, concise and easy to use and follow. I made this on a Sunday, and the total time with breaks in between probably took about two hours. Once I get the hang of it I could probably do this in about 45 minutes with cooking the chicken and the rice. It tasted outstanding. Believe it or not, just the simple seasoning of the salt, ginger and Green onions made the chicken taste delicious. The second star of the show was the rice. And the part about letting it sit with a lid on is critical. The steam makes it even more moist and fluffy so do not remove the lid. I made this as a make ahead dinner. I will probably reheat the items gently for another day this week. But overall the taste is fantastic and brings me back to Singapore. I opted not to make the chili sauce but will serve it traditional with the cucumber.
Thank you for this yummy dinner. I’ve made this 3 times in the last couple of months. Love the detailed instructions and the result is divine.
This is the best!!!! Thank you so much!
Thank you Bee! Glad you like. jaden
Hi there, just wondering how long do you think the sauce will keep for? Can I make a big batch and put it in the fridge or freeze it?
Hi – you can refrigerate for 3 days…or freeze!
Yum! Loved it! Lots of flavour and the best way to cook rice. Kids goobled it up.
After a disappointing Hainan Chicken at a local restaurant, I found this recipe. It converted my skeptical husband into a fan and we both LOVED the rice as well. I forwarded the recipe link to friends. Thanks so very much for sharing!
Hi from The Netherlands. So glad I gave the chicken a salt scrub, so much gross stuff and loose skin came off. I have no idea how to serve the chicken is it meant to be served cold from the ice bath? Reheated?
It is meant to be served warm, not hot.
some places serve it cold as well. with hot rice
I have to tell my wife about this recipe 😀
Hi I have a silly question about the ratio for the rice. When you say 2 cups, is that 2 cups as in 8 oz. of rice (if I’m using say…a Pyrex measuring cup). Or is it 2 cups like the little plastic cups that usually come inside the jasmine rice bags (which is more like half a cup/4oz)? Thanks!
Hi Lynne, I use 2 cups (pyrex measuring cups) for the recipe.
Awesome recipe l, it’s been a staple in my house for the last 3 months which is why im commenting! I’ve actually been using the leftover broth each time I cook the recipe. When I’m finished I just reduce it down, freeze and reuse next time with a top up of water. The flavor is developing well now as I think I’m up to about 16 chickens.
Tried it tonight. Gave myself extra time since Monday night. Didn’t really need it, did all the other things as chicken was cooking. The broth/soup was amazing and a perfect side dish. I did add dried mushrooms toward end of chicken broth to add to my soup. Then garnished with scallions. The flavors is this dish was so good. Definitely making again
Oh, I hate to say but I don’t think white chicken looks too appetizing. So I popped the finish cooked chicken under broiler for 5 min just to add color, then drizzled with sesame oil and chopped scallions over it. Gave much better appearance at the dinner table. Entire family enjoyed
Thanks so much!!! jaden
Excellent recipe. Very delicious, yummy, and rich in flovour.
hilarious bit about the facial. nice recipe will def try
I just wanted to say that this is THE BEST AND TASTIEST RICE EVER. It has changed my life!! When I tasted a bit to see if it was cooked I ended up eating about half a cup before dinner!
The rest of the recipe was also really yummy too, but after making it a second time I’ve decided I prefer to just poach chicken breast only (I’m usually only cooking for 2 people) and I make my broth from a powder (I know, it’s cheating, and I’m ashamed to say it!). I did really enjoy this when I followed the recipe but it just took me a bit too long for a week night dinner.
BUT THE RICE! That’s really why I’m commenting. I will use this recipe for the rice until I die. I’ve since used it for a base to a fried rice and it made it so much better. I could really just eat a bowl of it on it’s own. So, thank you!
Thank you so much Lauren!
I spent part of my childhood growing up in Singapore in the 80’s and this recipe is truly the real deal and brought back so many happy memories!
The first time I made it, I couldn’t stop eating, and every few hours would open the refrigerator to get ‘a teeny bite’… have made it a few more times since then and shared it with my siblings too !
Thanks Jaden!
You are very welcome Mark! I am so happy you love the recipe! jaden
HI,
You say 2 cups of chicken broth for the rice ,is this 2 cups of chicken broth + 1 cup of water?
or just the 2 cups of chicken broth/ you mention ratio for rice is 1/1
Hi Steve, It is just 2 cups of cooking liquid. In this case, we use 2 cups of chicken broth. If you would like, you can do 1 cup broth, 1 cup water.
Awesome. Thanks. Totally trying this, this week. Toughest part may be finding the right chicken.
Any organic chicken will work great!
This is a great recipe and I love Hainan Chicken and had for the first time at a vendor in Singapore. Question: you list sesame oil under the ingredients for the chicken but make no reference to it in the instructions. When do you use the sesame oil?
Rub sesame oil all over chicken once it is done cooking. This will prevent chicken from drying out.
Wow. This is a great recipe. I watched some people on TV eating chicken rice and suddenly needed it in my life. For a first try, this turned out perfectly and is SO delicious. I also love how the broth from the chicken is used to layer that flavour into multiple dinner components and the ginger garlic sauce-sublime. Even the rice was amazingly tasty! The only alterations I made were to throw in a red chilli and cilantro leaves into the soup broth which were strained out before serving and I used key limes (and I used a bit extra) in the spicy sauce. I will happily make this again. Thanks!
Thanks so much Melissa! – jaden
Thanks for the awesome recipe! It’s really close to how I like cooking it. The exfoliating seems really interesting, but I tore up my chicken’s skin while giving it a rub a few times… Need practice here.
I have a handy suggestion for cooling your chicken: Use cooling pads instead of ice cubes – so easy and you don’t need to refill your ice cube trays 🙂 I made a video about this on my YouTube channel, thanks for the inspiration!
This is one of the most authentic recipes I could find. Was fortunate enough to recently spend time in Singapore visiting Wifey’s family and missing the food there immensely. Especially Hainanese Chicken Rice. Everything turned out perfect! Cheated on the rice though. As I was making it, my wife remembered she had HCR kit made by Prima Taste so I added the packet to the rice instead of the garlic, ginger and sesame oil. It seemed as though the packet contained all of those ingredients with the addition of pandan leaf. It even impressed our Malaysian friend. Thanks!
Thank you so much Jason! – jaden
Great recipe. It’s delicious and everyone loved it.
Thanks for sharing this recipe! My friend from Singapore recently visited me and brought a packet mix of this to try, I loved it so am now doing it from scratch! Her kit also contained some sauce to pour over the chicken after cooking, before serving. I believe it is more garlic, ginger and sesame oil. Have you come across this?
Do you have any other Asian recipe that I could serve alongside this for a dinner party? Maybe (but doesn’t have to) something with noodles?
Hi Julia, Yes! Here’s the garlic ginger sauce: (serves 4) 2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger (use microplane grater), 3 cloves garlic (use garlic press), 1/4 cup cooking oil (canola), 1 teaspoon sesame oil, 1/2 tsp kosher salt. Heat the cooking oil in a small saucepan, until very hot. Turn off heat. Add the garlic and ginger – let it sizzle for a few seconds, don’t let it burn. Stir in the sesame oil and salt. Taste and add more salt if needed.
Also, a perfect noodle dish would be Garlic Noodles.
Hi Jaden and Jess!
Thank you for sharing this delicious recipe. I tried this over the weekend and my family loved it! Another dish that I’ll surely teach my kids when they’re old enough. I just have one question. Can you recommend another dipping sauce that would complement this dish other than chili sauce? I have some guests who don’t seem to like spicy dips.
Hi Emily! We also love serving it with a Sweet Soy Sauce. Simmer 1/4 cup water, 2 tablespoons sugar and 1/3 cup low-sodium soy sauce until slightly thickened. The kids love this!
Oh, I’ll try this out. Thanks Jaden!
Thank you so much for sharing these tips with us!! It’s definitely going to make cooking so much easier =)
Thanks for your recipe inspiration. It’s so delicious . My family love it
I just wanted to say thank-you so much for this recipe. It makes me look like pro. I’ve been cooking it for years and everytime I eat it as if it’s for the first time. The yummy taste and lucious, moist chicken with chilli jam and tomatoes and cucumber to balance. I love how you make it so simple, clean and easy to follow and the pictures of the markets add an extra dimension of fun so I feel like it’s a friendly affair but also healthy and filling.
Washing the Chicken with salt first makes such a big difference to the end result giving a nice clean and spectacular broth. I’ve made so many different other recipes but this is ‘THE ONE’. It’s perfect and my family and friends I’ve cooked it for, agree although one person was sure I had bought this from a restaurant because they couldn’t believe I’d cooked an authenticate one. The only thing I add is “duck fat” for the rice to give it depth – I’d seen it on a tv show but other then that this recipe is wonderful. So thank-you again.
Thank you so much Karen! Very happy that you love the recipe. Jaden
Hi,
I tried the recipe. However, perhaps I didn’t cook it long enough.
When I cut the chicken there was blood coming out and also some parts on the breast were raw.
Another problem I had was that I couldn’t cut the chicken into proper pieces because the bones were not quite hard.
So how long should I cook the chicken?
What do you think I did wrong or should do next time I try it?
Hi Naima – next time, cook just for a few more minutes. To cut through the chicken bone, you really need a very sharp Chef’s knife. Sometimes, it’s easier for me carve the chicken American style (not cutting through bone, but between joints).
Hello, I got the chicken from a Vietnamese store here in the US. The guy gave me a female chicken saying it’s tastier but smaller. It’s roughly 2.5 lbs, would this chicken work since it’s about 1 lb less
Hi there – yes, but cut the cooking time down to just 20 minutes of simmering and check for doneness.
What kind of chicken to cook? Western fryers or Asian organic chicken?
Our recipes are created for Western cooks, so if you use Asian organic chicken, which is usually leaner and smaller in size, shave a few minutes off cooking time.
I haven’t tried yet but will. The blog brought back memories of childhood, chickens running around, and catching a chicken, plucking the feathers, and watching my mom hold the chicken over a flame to clean the skin and burn the pin feathers. I think she called it shinging. I think salt might be easier.
Thanks, Jaden! I made this for dinner party and it was delicious, perfectly cooked, a huge success!
Thank you kate!
About how long should the chicken be simmered?
Hi Hazel! It’s right in the recipe (at end of post). Simmer about 30 min, or until thickest part of thigh reads 160F.
Is it possible to crisp up the skin in the oven?
Probably not, because the chicken was cooked in water. You can blot the chicken skin very dry, brush on some cooking oil and attempt to brown slightly, but it won’t crisp up in time to prevent the chicken from becoming overcooked and dry.
Hi Jaden
May I know if you cover the pot when the water is boiling and simmering ?
Sorry, am not familiar with cooking.
Thanks
Hi Fern, I leave the pot uncovered to bring it to a boil so that I can monitor its progress. Then, when simmering, I cover it.
superb recipe! chicken rice has been my favorite during my singapore days! glad i can cook it now myself!
Tried tis recipie 1st time &it turn out realy well.
my husband &parents love it so much.
Thanks for the easy Hainan chicken rice.
Great recipe….just wondering how to make to ginger sauce that eat with the chicken?
Best recipe!!! SO GOOD. and simple.
omg, i made this for the first time for dinner yesterday and making it again today! so yummy! thank you for sharing the recipe!
tried and is super delicious..thumbs up for the recipe
My favret dish I’m so excited to try this recipe. So is the chicken cold when you serve it? Or do you just ice bath it until the skin is tight, and then leave it warm? If I wanted to poach it in advance of serving, would I need to reheat?
Thanks!
Chicken will be warm – it’s meant to be eaten this way!
If I need to warm up the chicken before serving it, what’s the best way to do so while keeping the texture of the meat and skin?
Hi Jennifer – the best way to warm it up would be to cover the chicken, microwave on medium-low heat for a couple of minutes.
Thanks a lot for the recipe. Tried it out and turns out super delicious. With simple recipe and daily ingredient, one can prepare awesome dishes. Looking forward for new recipe in this blog 🙂
There’s a reason why there’s so many comments on this incredible recipe! I spent a ton of time in Singapore and ate this on many occasions from Hawker stands to the “best” chicken rice place in Singapore. And every business lunch or dinner that was brought in (when we couldn’t break) was ALWAYS chicken rice. This recipe/dish was spot on and not only did it make me miss Singapore, but also Singaporeans, a food obsessed culture!
Thank you so much Nicole!
Wonderful recipe. Thank you. It made my day!
seem easy, i am going to try no matter what.
Thank you so much.
Hi tnx 4 the recipe i really miss chicken rice..if we dont have shiracha chili sauce what is another replacement for that..god bless
Any type of Asian hot sauce is fine. You can also make your own Sriracha – it only takes 20 min!
I’ve been craving Hainanese chicken for weeks and when I found your recipe, I knew it was THE one! I made it for Sunday lunch and it was a lot easier that I had imagined, plus I had lots of fun giving the chicken a spa treatment :)) The smells coming from the broth, as well as when frying garlic and ginger for the rice were heavenly! I did not have sriracha for the chili sauce, so I used sambal instead and I loved it, very flavorsome. My husband and son were impressed with the flavors and presentation, and have asked me to make it again. Thank you for the wonderful recipe and for giving me the courage to try my hand at more delicious Asian dishes. I’ve been telling one of my colleagues about your recipe and she is now going to make it as well.
Thank you so much! Happy your family loved it. Jaden
Just one question. How long must i keep the cooked chicken in the icecold water? Will it still be warm/hot when served? Thanks!
Roel – Just long enough to stop cooking. The skin will cool down, but the meat will stay warm. The chicken is served warm or room temp (not hot). You can also warm up the dish before serving, cover plate or dish and microwave on medium for 1 minute. Jaden
I made this for dinner tonight and my husband and I both loved it! I’ll be making the fragrant and tasty rice again soon as a nice side dish. Thanks so much for the recipe and easy to follow instructions!
Thank you so much! -jaden
ThankYou SO much for this recipe! I grew up i betweenSingapore and Oklahoma, the latter of which I currently live. I have often craved this dish. I don’t know why it has taken so long to look up a recipe but tonight I was telling my husband about Singapore and chicken rice, of course, came up and I found this recipe! Hallelujah! Now if only you have a roti paratha recipe? I would be in heaven! You brought an old gal back to a little girl! Thank you!
Wow !! Thank you for sharing the recipe, i just simply duplicate as mentioned, yummy its really works, my wife and kids so much enjoy it.
Tq again
Wonderful recipe. Thank you. It made my day!
Excuse me, pardon me for asking this but for the chili sauce, i am supposed to blend the cucumber too? Thank you in advance for the reply. Oh and the rice taste like heaven ^^
Hi there! No, the cucumber is to be sliced and served on the side.
In Thailand they make a similar recipe called Khao Mun Gai, which is made and served basically the same way, except the sauce they serve is a little different (and delicious :-‘)
INGREDIENTS (3x smaller recipe below):
•150 g. ginger (strong ginger, as opposed to lesser pungent young ginger)
•150 g. garlic (note: I didn’t peel my garlic because I used a certain type of Thai garlic, but if you use normal garlic you should probably peel it before blending so it doesn’t get stuck)
•50 g. Thai bird chilies (20 – 30 chilies)
•4 stalks of cilantro roots
•8 – 10 tbsp. fermented soy bean sauce (เต้าเจี้ยว) – this sauce can be very salty, so better to add less first and then add more
•6 tbsp. vinegar
•3 tbsp. sugar
•1.5 tbsp. dark soy sauce
•1 – 2 cups of chicken broth (start with about 1 cup and if it’s too thick, you can add more broth)
This is the most comforting chicken recipe this side of Jewish Matso Ball Soup!
I LOVED this recipe, thanks Jess and Jaden! The chicken was so tender and juicy. I also really enjoyed the chili sauce– the perfect zing to the more subtly-flavored chicken and rice.
Also, thanks for the tips on picking out a chicken–I got a 2.6 pound organic, locally-raised free range chicken, and oh boy, everything was lip-smackingly Chicken-y with a capital “C”. 🙂
I’ve never cooked with a whole bird before but the instructions were great and made things a breeze. My boyfriend was laughing at me as I was “exfoliating” the bird, but in addition to getting the bird all nice and pretty, I realized it also made my hands super nice and soft– recipe includes bonus spa treatment for the cook, too!
Thank you so much KP! Re: soft hands – I never realized that since when I’m cooking, I’m soooo focused on the food! LOL!
Hi Jaden,
how about cooking the chicken with presure-cooker; as I can recall after preparing they put whole bell pepper, garlic, ginger, spring onion ; I do not know the others.
can you please correct or your comment.
Thank you and God bless,
Willie
Hi Willie – garlic, ginger, sping onion and red chili peppers (not bell) are used sometimes. I have tried this in pressure cooker, but with inconsistent results. I’ll continue testing recipe until perfect! Jaden
Tried the recipe yesterday and my family enjoyed it very much. Thanks for the detailed recipe.
The sirachi sauce, use fresh raw garlic&ginger?
Yes! Use fresh garlic and ginger.
I so love this recipe. I call it my Asian “chicken soup” – good for the soul. I love to make it if I am feelng a bit run down or getting a cold as all that tasty goodness picks you right back up. It has become a family favourite.
Thanks a lot very simple and great fun adding lime leaf and lemon grass. Also made a honey drizzle over the portioned chicken and roared for five min…. Very close to something I had at far east plaza.
Keep them coming
I am from Madagascar and like eating chicken. This recipe is new to me, but I can imagine how delicious !
Thanks for the recipe… Already done it.. Superb…. I’m malay and i love hainanese chicken rice…. Nowi can cook myself cos not all hainanese chicken rice shop are Halal… 🙂
Thank you so much Jess.
Today our band of brothers had a nice chicken rice.
🙂
this is similar to nilagang manok a filipino dish
I made this tonight with short grain brown rice instead of jasmine rice (it was all I had) and it was really good! I’ve made it before, but don’t remember it being as good as it was this time. The combination of all the elements is what makes it good (although the rice is good on its own).
Hi Jaden,
I would love to say that your chicken rice is splendid. Did my first attempt today and it turns out pretty good. Looking forward to try your other recipes.
With love,
Shaz
Thank you for this amazing recipe. Turns out amazing each time, my husband always asked me to prepare this. I look forward to trying out the other recipes posted here.
chicken rice is yummi ..
Thanks for the recipe. it turned out pretty well!
Her’s a photo of it I posted on instagram
http://instagram.com/p/n0NzgENer1/
I look forward to trying your other recipies
Jon
Hi, Jess
Thank you for sharing this recipe on steamy kitchen. I will try to make it tonight. I’m a Malaysian, living in Norway now. I never attempted to learn dishes that are at our door step in Asia but I now have learned to make more Asian dishes that I have taken granted for.
I like your sense of humour.
Cheers
Jaime
Thank you for sharing your recipe! I love this dish and I hope it’s as easy to make it!
Hey lah,
You forgot to add the pandan leaf into the water as the rice cooks. It makes it just that much better.
Umm, Hi. Im doing a cooking test and would like to do this.
However, there is a time limit of an hour. Can somebody please tell me how long it takes?
It takes longer than an hour. You better get a pressure cooker and see how fast you can make it with one. Otherwise bring some pre-made chicken broth from a can. Also the chicken is supposed to be cold so you will also need a blast chiller to have it made in an hour.
btw, she also dislikes white cooked squid in dishes — but she loves breadcrumbed and fried calamari, or similarly, battered and fried as in Chinese Salt and Pepper Squid. It’s a texture thing,aggravated by the colour, as far as I can see. Was it the same for you? And how did you get over it?
Interesting, your comment — this is the first time I have read a discussion of the Western appreciation or lack of it of the texture of the skin and the cold chicken. My wife is Ang-Moh from English stock via Ontario, Canada. She doesn’t like the “rubber-chicken” feel of the cold chicken skin and that’s it. The pale coloration (as opposed to the brown of a crispy fried or baked chicken) doesn’t help. The interesting thing for me is that for you “by the end of the meal I was in love with this dish”. My wife has had this chicken a few times and still doesn’t like it much. She’ll only eat it if I take the skin off. I take it that, for you, now the cold skin texture is a positive eating feature. What’s the allure ?
Just got back from a business trip to Singapore where I had “chicken rice” for the first time. Being from the West, the texture of the skin and the cold chicken took a little getting used to, but by the end of the meal I was in love with this dish. I tried your recipe today and the results were fantastic. Possibly even better than the “real thing” from a hawker stand in Singapore. I used store bought low sodium chicken broth instead of water to poach the chicken, and added a little soy sauce and rice vinegar to the soup to enhance the flavor. Other than that I followed the recipe closely and could not be happier with the results. My wife raved about it and has already claimed the leftover broth for a chicken vegetable soup later this week. And the rice was amazing too — not just as a vehicle for other flavors, but delicious all on its own.
Your point about the quality of the chicken is critical. I bought a 3.5lb “pasture raised, organic” chicken from Whole Foods which was around $20. Pretty expensive for a relatively small bird, but when there is so little for the chicken to hide behind, quality is key. Definitely a new favorite for the whole family.
02/02/14 Monday
Hi Ms Jaden,
I am so glad to see what you put up! Yippee! It is Singapore Famous Hainanese Chicken Rice Yeh!
I was an ex Singapore, lived in the State for a good ten years. I loved cooking/baking and all things
challenging in cooking food. I can make a mean Ah Cha – the Peranakan style. Which mean super
sour and spicy! I am also a Nonya. in which I used to make Nonya dumpling (sticky rice version wrap
in a bamboo leafs. Each time I make them, I alway give some to the dialysis center in which I goes for my treatment. I am born with ESRD – Polycystic Kidney disease. Which means those tubes that suppose to bring down the urine to the bladder were not born straight! But instead by nature it goes curly and wickley. Thu the urine is not able to fully flushed down to the bladder. Instead it reflexes back into the kidney thus killing it.
Other than the dialysis I am in perfect health. Cooking as usual and going for my dialysis by myself.
I am also a born again Christian , a New Creation and the Righteousness of CHRIST.
So, everywhere I go either for a major operation, I just went right after the dialysis session without my husband or friends nor family. M family consist of my fresh man son who is in 8th grade. He is a God-sent super smarty kid who got into the gateway to medicine. So he needs to complete a 3 years for the high school down in Manhattan. My husband who is unemployed at the moment because he had a lung operation just 2 years ago. I am sorry not to know whether you be interested in my story. But just want to get to know you. another fellow Singapore! Thank you even though you may not be interested to be my friend it is ok. till then Bye GOD BLESS. LOVE ALWAYS LYNN SIM.
Hi!! I tried this for CNY after my dad’s disastrous attempt at poaching chicken. And I loved it!! Of course first attempts are always slightly off (slightly too salty, I didn’t read the part about the sesame oil, chicken slightly undercooked – coz i didn’t have a thermometer to check the temperature – and i poked the wrong part of the thigh to check for blood :p).
But all in all it was a good attempt and we’re having it tonight!! Feels accomplished 😀
I love your recipes coz they’re easy to understand, and maybe coz we write in the same way, using all sorts of descriptions. Thanks again, and will be browsing through for all your recipes and delightful instructions!
A lot of great reviews! definitely trying this!
Thank you for the info. Will be trying this recipe later. Happiness.
Superb. Turned out well. Delicious. Hubby enjoyed it. Thank you for sharing.
Appreciate for the generous information…
Amazing recipe! Thankyou so much for making it so simple
Thank you for the very detailed steps by steps procedure.So easy to follow. And it’s a great dish to boot!
ThankYou SO much for this recipe! I grew up i betweenSingapore and Oklahoma, the latter of which I currently live. I have often craved this dish. I don’t know why it has taken so long to look up a recipe but tonight I was telling my husband about Singapore and chicken rice, of course, came up and I found this recipe! Hallelujah! Now if only you have a roti paratha recipe? I would be in heaven! You brought an old gal back to a little girl! Thank you!
Hi,
I did prepare two days back after reading the recipe
Trust me it was yummy and tasted heavenly
Regards
I’m CRAVING Hainan Chicken Rice! Either I make it myself, or drive for an hour each way to Alhambra. Next week, before the turkey, I’m making my own! Thanks for the recipe. Oh – and I’ll try the exfoliation method. My mom singed the feather off and washed it clean. Looks like you’ve created a new art form!
is that in ghim moh market in singapore?
i live in houston, but am from singapore living around that area. my all time favorite chicken rice stall!
The recipe looks very good. I used to live in Singapore for 40+ years and visited the Ghim Moh market several times each week for meat, vegetables and makan. I now cook Hainanese Chicken, Hokkien Mee and various curries (including fish head curry) in San Francisco. Please publish more Singapore/Malaysian-inspired recipes.
Great recipe! Turned out nicely. I added twice the amount of ginger and scallions to be the stuffing. Also an awesome, awesome sauce: 4-5 green onion stalks, 1/4 cup of peanut or canola oil, 1/4 cup sesame oil, 1.5 inches of ginger blended till smooth. Amazing with this chicken!
I’m so excited to try this recipe. So is the chicken cold when you serve it? Or do you just ice bath it until the skin is tight, and then leave it warm? If I wanted to poach it in advance of serving, would I need to reheat?
Thanks!
You can serve the chicken warm. The ice plunge is just for a few seconds to tighten the skin, it shouldn’t cause the chicken to get too cold!
Hi,
I did prepare two days back after reading the recipe
Trust me it was yummy and tasted heavenly
Regards
Amazing recipe! Thankyou so much for making it so simple. Was delicious and everyone at the dinner party loved it 🙂 it is now definitely on the ‘special occasion’ cooking roster!
Thank you for the very detailed procedures you made on HAINANESE CHICKEN RICE.
You made it so easy to follow the steps by steps procedure..
Pls. post more Asian dishes..thanks !!!
hi! i wanted to say thank you for this wonderful recipe! i tried it today and it turned out awesome! i did put a little too much salt in each component so when I eat those together it’s a little bit too salty. but that’s my first try, i’ll make it better next time. Anyway, i’m surprised that making this hainan chicken rice isn’t so hard. thank you for your recipe, i’ll definitely make this again!
Hey there! Thanks for sharing such a wonderful recipe! Just tried it out earlier.. dinner was awesome and everyone wanted more! The rice is perfectly packed with fragrance… Usually I will steam the chicken.. but poaching seems to have it cooked better as a whole.. very succulent and tastefull!! Thank you so much!!
My fb friend from Singapore said this is her FAVORITE Spore dish. She now lives in Japan but still fixes dishes from home.
@Rich:
Yes there is another variation to this dish but it won’t be called Hainanese Chicken anymore. It is drunken chicken. Preparation is pretty much the same for the chicken. But once you are done with the chicken and have de-boned, carved it up, set it in a deep bowl. Mix 1/4 a cup of Shaoxing wine, 1/8 cup of rice wine, 1/4 cup of chicken soup, 1/4 cup of regular soya sauce (not the dark one). Double the amount if required. Once done, pour over the chicken to make sure it covers all the chicken meat. Cover the container with clingwrap and put into refrigerator – this is so the cooked chicken soaks in the marinade. Let it sit and best overnight. If you don’t have luxury of time, make sure it sits marinating for at least 4 hours so prepare way in advance. When serving, just add a few sprigs of spring onions, cilantro (or chinese parseley) and red chilli strips.
Thanks Nomad. Glad you liked it.
@Rich:
Typically, the chickens are plunged into extremely cold water and left there for about 15 minutes to stop the continued cooking from the residual heat. This also helps firm up the skin so that during the process of de-boning, the skin stays in tact for a better presentation. After 15 minutes, the chicken is then taken out of the ice bath, hung and left to return to room temperature. It is normally only cut up and de-boned prior to serving. That is the most authentic way to do Hainanese Chicken Rice. The chicken is almost never served warm – only the rice – which tends to warm up the room temperature chicken a little if placed on top of the rice.
Hey
Thank you for the reply. I’ve just tried it today and I, and my wife, wasn’t disappointed. Very nice indeed.
I’m guessing there’s variations on this dish?
Hi
Can anybody tell me, is the chicken served cold (after being plunged), or is it reheated in anyway?
Thanks
Rich
It’s served warm – after the ice plunge, the chicken isn’t “cold” but should be still hot on the inside.
Just curious — I am impressed that your home cooked chicken rice matches the taste of the “professionally cooked” sellers. I am trying to get my own version up to par. But why bother in Singapore, if the hawkers are so conveniently available (unlike for us in North America, for example)?
This is an amazing recipe! I used it often when my family was living in Luxembourg, and my children really missed their favourite food 🙂 but now that we are back in Singapore, where chicken rice is so easily available, I find that this dish still wows when I cook it! Thanks for sharing 🙂
To Bazzabuzz: I tried your chicken rice chilli recipe. It was ON POINT! Tasted just like any hawker center chilli, almost better. Thanks for sharing it with all of us!
I used to live in Singapore and my favourite place to have chicken rice was The Mandarin Hotel. I now live back in Yorkshire UK, but have many happy memories of eating in the food courts and resaurants on the fibulas island of Singapore
Haha;
I live in Suburban Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Nice idea, but I checked, Calgary Bye-Law specifically has addressed the issue of raising chickens within city limits. Sorry, no ayam. Not even if you call them pets lol. Too bad. Gotta depend on Safeway, as usual, for quick-grow chicken, no doubt laced with steroids and growth hormones.
This is a great article with all the pictures to eliminate guess work.
Keep up the good work.
(Malaysian here, but living in America with some backyard meat chickens)
One comment though, kampung chicken are brown feathered chickens which are smaller because they take a longer time to grow. The chickens in your pictures are a Cornish Hen Variety which are the cheap chickens in Asia. They take about 5-6 weeks to grow to maturity age. Yeah that fast. So their meat is softer. (Pak Jum Kai-Cantonese). Only way to get real true kampung chicken is to raise one your self. Those take 4-6 months to mature.
Awesome! I made this tonight and my whole family loved it. We have our favorite restaurants that have this dish and this was just as good. Thanks!
Omg… I made this for lunch and it tasted amazing!! Better than some hawker stall selling chicken rice in sg. I used the rice cooker to cook the chicken and it came very tender and juicy!!! Other than that i followed the exact recipe given.. Two thumbs up!!!
A note to the author. Great stuff and thank you for helping spread the news about Singapore’s ‘national dish’.
Have a recommendation about the chilli…I used to work in a chicken rice stall back in the day. Here’s what I used to do and still do when making Hainanese Chicken Rice Chilli Sauce.
5 Large Chillies
1 Chilli Padi (for punch)
Ginger the size of 3 thumbs
4 – 5 cloves of Garlic
2 – 3 Green Limes (the little ones you find in Asia…not Kaffir lime though)
Chicken Stock you kept from boiling the chicken
Skin the ginger, take out the garlic from its ‘skin’, squeeze the lime juice ensuring no seeds and just slice of the green parts on top of the chillies (large and small). Put it all into a blender and blitz it to a pulp…it’s quite thick at this point. Then add in the chicken stock slowly until it becomes a semi-watery consistency. Shouldn’t be too watery but then it shouldn’t be too much of a paste either.
The portions are just a guide and feel free to adjust according to individual preferences.
Hope someone will try this out and let me know if this has given your chicken rice a booster.
Cheers!
hey, ive tried your recipe before and it really reallly nice! but i overly put the chilli paddy so very spicy. However, it is really nice to eat it with the chicken rice. nyum nyum.. Now im going to cook this recipe again and do the same chili again.. Hopefully this time it works! Thanks!
Hi Jessica,
thanks for your comments. Glad you tried out the chilli and hopefully it lived up to expectations 🙂
The one you made was too spicy coz of chilli padis eh? No worries, that happens coz of the varying degrees of heat the chilli padis give out. Instead of just throwing it out, what we do is we pare it down by making a whole new portion but this time, remove the chillis altogether and halve all the other ingredients. When done, we then combine the original spicy version with the non chilli version. Still the same effect we get.
I made this tonight, it was absolutely flavourful yet simple. It reminds me of a true village style dish. I’ve never been to Singapore, but my partner loves any Asian food, he is Indonesian. His eyes lit up like a Christmas tree when I served this up to him tonight. Lovely, thank you for the delicious homestyle and authentic recipe, I enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed eating it! Will definitely be making this more often 🙂 I might have to go and have the Kampong chicken in Singapore.
Hey Jess!
Love your post. I left Singapore in the mid-70s and have lived in Calgary in Canada since, otherwise I could well be your Grandpa!! You got the whole ambience of the Hawker food shopping and the tender unwrapping of the bought food at home just right!! Love your recipe, although I have been using variants of that theme, myself, for years. For those having never experienced the original, it might be worth mentioning that the chicken doesn’t have to be hot, or even warm; cold from the ice-bath would be too much, I guess, but room temperature is ok or slightly warmer than that, maybe. The real warmth comes from the hot rice. Secondly, the instructions say “carve” the chicken for serving. Well, I guess that’s probably recommended for white guys — my wife can’t stand bones in her mouth — but for me, (if you recall the true Singapore version) nothing beats the way they did/do it there, chop the chicken up neatly into standard sections, then chop the sections up into bite sized pieces right through the bones and all. And you never mentioned the body parts — liver, heart, gizzards, which I love. Particularly, I bet they don’t sell the chicken intestines in Singapore any more, too gross, and certainly not in Canada and USA!! lol.
Wow, this recipe is absolutely delicious and authentic! I tried a previous recipe with store-bought chicken broth and it just wasn’t the same. Chicken rice should have an oily sheen to it, which this one did :). It’s crucial to render down some chicken fat to fry the rice grains in. We followed the recipe exactly, except for the chili sauce – instead we opted to make a sauce from minced green onion, minced ginger, salt, and hot oil (yum!). Also, we ended up leaving the chicken in the ice bath too long, and it wasn’t very warm afterwards … so we microwaved it right before serving. In the future, I think a minute in the ice bath will do.
Kecap manis (thick sweet Indonesian soy sauce) is another popular accompaniment to chicken rice. Try it!
Nice! I was in Singapore last summer and had Hainanese Chicken Rice at Tian Tian’s in the Maxwell food court. It tasted amazing!!!
I noticed when I had it, and it is also visible on one of the pictures in this article, that there was a light brown, slightly thick, and very pleasant sort-of-gravy over the chicken. Not much, but it added to the experience.
I do not see that address here in your article/recipe.
I followed your recipe and method described here and it came out delicious and just as tender and juicy as I remember the chicken (and flavorful rice) when I had it at Tian Tian’s.
I did two modifications, though, one of them to address the gravy I mentioned above:
a) I cut off a little bit of fat from the chicken and preserved it. I used it to fry the rice in before adding the broth (naturally, I melted the fat in the pan before adding the rice).
b) To make the gravy (you need very little), I scooped out a couple of laddles of the broth into a sauce pan and brought it to a simmer. I then added to the broth about 1 tablespoon corn starch dissolved in 1/4 cup water. This made it have the right thickness ala gravy (although not very thick!). To give it a better and more appetizing color (plus, enhanced flavor), I gave it a few drops of dark soy sauce, and whisked it well.
This really came out to resemble what I had in Singapore, whether I made it the right way or not…
I live in Orange County, California, and for the chicken I went to Dakao Poultry Store in Westminster (Little Saigon area), they have fresh (!!!) chicken there and they taste so much better than regular supermarket bought chicken.
Thanks for a great article!!!
I would like to share this recipe to my mother in law, i am staying in pakistan with my husband’s family,my husband and me want to serve simple and nice chinese foods for them, thanks for share.. because i was thinking which type of food can find the ingredients easity here, thanks god here can find sesame oil, but light soya sauce dont have taste sell here… but might be i can try to cook in pakistan here
This recipe is great, delicious, and authentic. Really brought me back to my time in Singapore. The chili sauce is especially good – just like the stuff at the hawker centers. Thanks!
Hi! I just wanted to say that I have been using this recipe often for about a year. I tweak it sometimes and change up the sauces but your core explanation of techniques rocks! I have quite literally changed peoples whole perspectives on what flavors and textures they thought they liked in multiple countries because of this recipe. So I guess that means that you did that too. Good job and thanks a bunch!
Hi – we just tried to make this recipe but the time you put on (30 minutes) to poach the chicken was completely wrong. It looks like it will have needed more like an hour to be cooked through. We used a small chicken so we don’t know why it didn’t cook through at all. Renny
Greetings,
I thank you for your sharing of the Chicken Rice Recipe.
However, may I ask, how long do you immerse the chicken in the ice-water bath, please? Then, do you serve the chicken cold or you reheat the chicken? If so, how do you do that?
I hope to hear from you soon. Once again, thank you very much!
GOD BLESS!! ORA Et. Labora!
Hi Jess, THANK YOU SO MUCH for this recipe. I’m pregnant and living away from asia so it was very difficult for me to get a pack of chicken rice when the craving starts! Love the recipe, great work and thank you for sharing it!!
Spot on! I bought some chicken rice soy sauce last time I was in Singapore so that I could try this recipe when I got home. Followed the recipe as written and everything came out just right. Thanks!
hi i will try it , looks so yummy, thanks for the info. . . love it!
So impressed by your post. As i read on is like also following along with the process. Liked!!!
Absolutely delicious, the sauce was wonderful and the instructions were foul proof. I trim some of the excess skin from the chicken’s rear to sautée which created instant chicken oil for the rice 🙂
this looks AMAZING. thank you for the detailed steps, im so gonna try out this recipe!
Thanks! You completed several nice points there. I never thought I’l be getting the right info here when I was searching the net for a month now.
Those pics make me so hungry!
Thanks for this recipe! I don’t normally eat rice since I do Paleo, but I’ll have to try it out on my cheat days.
Wow! these recipe will be great, and looks like it’s really delicious I really want to try these..
I feel hungry while reading this post. It looks so delicious.
There is no such thing as Hainan chicken in Hainan. I have been to the island 6 times and Wenchang is one of the counties in Hainan, the north east corner, near Haikou, the provincial capital.
Wenchang version is considered the best in cooking chicken and Wenchang is where majority of the Hainanese in Singapore and Malaysia came from – Their ancestoral home about 90% of them.
The township of Tan-niu is where the best bred chicken suitable for the cooking so called the Hainan Chicken. In Haikou, I have umpteen pictures about eateries selling Wenchang chickens, and Tanniu chickens but no Hainan chicken, If you see Tanniu, the the price goes up, for real or not. The name Tanniu fetches a higher price
This dish sounds so delicious. The photography is also really gorgeous!
This was an amazing recipe! Some friends who recently visited Singapore just gave their approval
Loved your story! And recipe! Very fun. Keep up the good work Jess!
Hi, Jess, thanks for these recipe and the lovely direction. I’ll try to cook it this week end with my daughter.
Regards, from Germany,
Tomaculum
This is my husband’s favorite dish, and he made this tonight for me/us – I’m pregnant. I was so impressed by how it came out. I see my husband in a whole new light now! Your recipe is certainly a keeper.
Thank you for your article post. Significantly thanks once again. Really cool.
This is a great recipe indeed. Tried it today, loved it, going to repeat many times now. Thank you for such detailed instructions.
This is an awesome recipe! I’ve used it like 4 times now and it still surprises me everytime. Gotta go… going to make this recipe again!
That looks amazing! And I love the little salt exfoliation you gave the chicken. 🙂 My grandfather used to take any fatty chicken bits and toss it in with the ginger and garlic during the browning process. He used to tell me that a little oily “sheen” on the rice was a good thing. I will have to try your recipe sometime soon!
i’m a malaysian student in the states and just tried this last week. it tasted GLORIOUS. thanks so much for sharing! it was very comforting to taste home food 🙂 i mixed some soy sauce, honey and sesame oil to create a sauce and covered it all over the chicken, as mentioned by a previous commenter. adding this recipe on pinterest and hoping this spreads. 🙂
Just made this tOnight and it turned out great! Hard work but certainly worth it! Thanks for the post! This reminds me of Singapore when we got stranded during the icelandic volcano erupted in 2010.
This is my mum’s specialty!
I would watch her make this style of chicken and chicken rice when I was a kid!
And when I moved away from home to Europe, I was making this dish for my friends!
So now my friends in Europe know how to make this dish too!
Great post!
Thank you so much for this recipe! I stumbled onto your site via Foodgawker and I am so glad I did. Never in a thousand years would I think to “exfoliate” the chicken with salt (even though I exfoliate ME with salt and olive oil). I absolutely hate that yellow gunk on chickens so I wash and wash with marginal success. I also always brine my Thanksgiving turkeys in a salt solution, but now I will give it the spa treatment before it gets brined! Thank you so much!!
Thanks “SteamyChicken” for your excellent recipe, but tried mine with pig and found the kitchen too small to hang. The roof was too low and the snout was touching the floor. Please warn your readers not try pig for chicken dish, not same. Also, cannot find pot big enough, another problem. Hope the helps.
Kevin Dang.
The salt isn’t for seasoning. It’s a vehicle to rub (clean) the yellow stuff off the skin or get the slimy stuff out from inside the chicken. It also gives you enough grip to pull fat off easier.
Thank you for this great article. I’ve made boiled chicken before but not the Hainanese rice. I’ll try it the next time I make rice.
I love your description about cleaning the chicken. My grandmother used salt, my mother uses salt an I use salt. My chickens (and Thanksgiving turkey) get cleaned inside and out.
If I talk about cleaning chicken with my caucasian friends they give me an odd look. No grody things on my chicken.
I love your Hainanese chicken recipe. Thanks for sharing. Do you think this recipe can be adapted to turkey?
This recipe is a keeper! Chilli sauce is awesome, very impressed. Would like to get my flavor out of the rice though… Maybe will add more salt and use chicken fat instead of veg oil. Thank you so much!
Making this tonight. will post how i like it. looks great.
Hi, as someone from the region, can i just add something…
the chicken is usually served on a plate with cucumber and a sauce whose recipe i’ve recently discovered.
here’s the recipe for the sauce:
5 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons sugar
1.5 tablespoons plain oil (anything goes, olive oil, vegetable oil)
1.5 TEAspoons sesame oil
chicken stock to dilute to taste
add the first four ingredients together and heat in a sauce pan making sure not to boil them.
add chicken stock to dilute it to taste (usually around 8 tablespoons for me)
spoon sauce over finished chicken dish.
enjoy with chilli sauce.
I am going to make this tomorrow night for a dinner for my boyfriend’s family. They don’t put salt on their food so I am really hoping this will work well even without the salt. (Planning to use salt to cleanse the chicken though) Well, wish me luck everyone, I so need it. Will update you as to how it turns out. Cheers!
I am making it just now. Wonderful, its going to be absolutely delicious. Took pics, wish I could post them for you. Mail me if you are interested. Thank you so much for this lovely recipe with the comments and pics. A pleasure cooking after it!
Hei,i was so absorbed with all this imformation.I thank you so much.May i ask about how much oil you use to fry the rice so to make the rice soft and moist? Yes,i can get
the correct tase but my rice texture is a bit dry.
Thank you in advance.GBU.
Not much oil at all. If your rice is dry, add more water, not oil!
can i subtitute the sriracha chili sauce wth my dried chillies..as i doubt u can find that sauce in romania..so if i subtitute it to my grinded dried chillie paste..do i need to cook it?? n this a great site..n tqs again for sharing it
Ok.. i learnt alot from that maiden cooking experience (My wife never allowed me into the kitchen back home thats why). Anyway there was no Sesame oil, so i just use another vegetable oil. And no celery around. But the rice was fantastic and the sauce even better. I added real lemons during the marinating. Chicken tasted nearly original but my hosts prefer it to be cooked longer. For me i think its slightly too long in the boil, and i can’t seem to get the yellow oily skin that i see in restaurants. Also my hosts remarked that the soup tasted undramatic. I have to explain to them the three contrasting ethnic tastes from Malaysia.
My favorite is the frying the rice part.
Thanks a lot again. I will always say that i learnt this from here!
I am visiting a Hamburg friend here and thought about making them a treat (after successfully terrorised them with my own concoction of Bak Kut Teh), i got some inspiration to try this recipe. So i googled for it and this is the first link i found. Now, i never heard of this approach to doing it. I thought it has always been just steaming the chicken with ginger and taking the fat to make the soup. Ah well, here goes another terror filled moment today in cold Hamburg. Will keep you posted on the hosts’ facial expression. 🙂
Danke schon, cheers!
Oh come back and let me know!
I really love the chickenrice. I live in Europe and I notice that the sauce they serve with the chickenrice in chinese restaurants is made of chopped ginger, green onions and lots of oil. Yours really looks different and I have never tasted before will try your recipe myself.
Rene Fong
HAINANESE CHICKEN IS GREAT! SO TASTY AND HEALTHY. IT CAN LIKEWISE BE SERVED WITH SOME DEEP-FRIED BREADED CHICKEN.
love it! this is my favorite chicken dish. will try to cook it. thanks for sharing. :))
chicken rice is my most favourite quick food.
thanks for sharing this awesome recipe. :))
Yeah i love chicken rice. anyways why is it called hainanese??
I just completed the chicken portion and WOW it came out soooo yummy. I was a bit skeptical that just scallions, salt and ginger could give it enough flavor but they brought out the natural chicken-y taste. This recipe is now in my permanent rotation.
I shall try to cook it soon, Choy x
Hello Jess, thankyou for sharing the hainanese chicken receipe.
It looks really yummy. I shall ,web site. You are quite
funny and entertainin with it.Love it Choy x
I’m so glad that your recipe came as the first few on search engine when I searched for Hainamese chicken rice. The steps are so clear, and the best part it comes with pictures. Thank you very much.
I followed every single step carefully, including giving a spa for the chicken. and everything turn out well. yay!
it’s just that I don’t know how to dissect the chicken, so it doesn’t turn out to be as aesthetically pleasing as yours.
Love your blog, Jaden! you rock!! i’m definitely visiting this site regularly. x
thanks for ur awesome recipe! it’s really foolproof! one thing, i think the origins of this dish is not from hainan, but that the people who invented it are hainanese who started it in singapore when they moved over 🙂
I love ‘Chicken Rice’……When I lived in Singapore I used to have it every other day from the nearby ‘Hawker Centre Food Court’. It tastes heavenly with the chilli sauce. I missed it when moved to Ireland and now to the States. Your post brings fond memories of my years in Singapore. I’ll surely prepare this recipe and surprise my husband. He thinks Chinese food here in the states tastes best. He has to taste some real food from Singapore and Malaysia, especially from the hawker centres. Do you have the recipe for Kway teow without pork. Thanks a million…you made my day 🙂
This is great, I absolutely loved the details.
Thanks for sharing!!!!
Wow! Your post inspired me to make my own hainanese chicken. I followed your recipe, making just a few minor changes. It was so good and my friends really enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing!
Great lookin’ recipe! But I wanted to know how you kept the chicken warm while you prepared everything else.
The chicken is generally served warm, not hot, so it’s perfect by the time I’m ready to serve
One of my cousins recently moved to Singapore and she keeps posting these amazing pictures of Chicken Rice and she writes to us about how delicious this dish is. I have been so curious and now, voila! I stumble across this recipe. I will be trying it out immediately. Thanks for the great attention to detail that you use when writing, it will help me make the dish properly.
…one of the best recipe illustrator and writer I have ever come across. Three thumbs up;)
thanks for this. After living in kl for 3 yrs – i return home to australia tomorrow. Im making this!
I am single, male, middle age, and make a trip to a trip aboard every Summer for the joy of it. Alien worlds and all. Singapore this August is where I am going. I watched Tony Bourdain’s episode on Singapore. Chicken rice is a big story. I want to try it when I get off the plane. I am a foody, and I love cooking myself.
Love this post! One problem. The myth of “organic.” Sure a free to run chicken left to eat grubs, wild seeds in the ground etc. will taste better than the Tyson mass produced chicken. Just like a truly wild caught out the Columbia River salmon will be more fatty and better tasting than all the dyed color and farmed salmon. What people should be aware of is that the USDA regulation of organic or “free range” chicken only requires a visible ambient light source to the chicken has to be within 10 feet. Tyson simply uses the same giant huts with windows. The same feed, the same dense packed chickens, same antibiotics to protect them from the disease being so dense packed.
Is organic foods better for your health? The scientific evidence shows no benefit to human health. TASTE yes. Another myth about “organic” is that it is not from a local small farm romanticized by Grant Wood’s American Gothic of the old man with his pitchfork and his wife. It is actually produced by the same Conagra, Monsanto companies. They are happy to take the cash from consumers. It an overcrowded ever hard to feed planet is “organic” what we can afford? When “organic” iceberg lattice takes 5X the water and 3X the land space to produce than the same amount of non-organic?! “Organic” is actually bad for the environment.
Love it! Hoping to make this today
LOVE THIS RECIPE. A bit time consuming but so worth it. Thank you.
I will definitely try to cook this! My wife and I Loves this food. We always have this every time we visit Singapore… We rarely miss this food now since Wee Nam Kee has opened here in the Phil. Anyways thanks for sharing this… Mabuhay!
How long do you leave it seasoned with salt? Sometimes I leave meats seasoned too long and it gets too salty!
It really doesn’t take too long to salt and clean the skin. Just a few minutes.
Hi, wondering why you dry the chicken inside and out and then put it in a pot full of cold water?
LOL well I guess it’s out of habit to dry before seasoning with salt – but you’re right! Doesn’t make much of a difference. I’ll edit that step out.
I tried this recipe a while back and it was good. The chili sauce was good too, but too spicy for me. Happy that nothing splattered when I pulled out the chicken out of the ice bath.
I was just wondering…how do you cut the chicken?? I’ve never cut a whole chicken before. In chinese restaurants they always lay it out so neat..like in your pictures!!! I’m going to make this tomorrow!!
Sorry in advance for the dumb question, but do you serve the chicken cold?
It’s served warm. I’ve always had it warm, not hot. And the chicken can also be served cold as well, but I don’t like the texture of cold chicken.
How much salt do you put in the chili sauce?
what can I replace the siracha chili sauce with if some in my family cannot eat spicy foods?
Looks delicious!Love your book + website.
Salt to taste. Start with just a pinch, maybe 1/4 tsp
Just leave Sriracha chili sauce out.
Wonderful! I’m going to make this for the Lunar New Year!
As a Singaporean I have my own recipe for the chicken rice but just wanted to share a tip on what you could with the broth – we add cabbage, boil it till it’s a little soft, and top it with a little pepper. Simple and lovely.
I really liked the sauce, will make it again with other dishes. But I loved the rice! I may never make plain old steamed rice again. The ginger, garlic, and sesame oil were subtle enough so this can be served anytime “steamed rice” is called for as an accompaniment. It was wonderful, and keeps well for reheating in the microwave. P.S. to Joanne: in step 4 your are instructed to rub the poached chicken skin with sesame oil before carving it. I think this would be good with a rotisserie chicken, too, if you were short on time, and just use a good quality broth where called for. I was wondering about the dark soy—is it for whatever strikes your fancy (dipping the chicken and drizzling on the rice?)
Hey Jess,
That looks like a recipe I can follow! 🙂 In the ingredients for the chicken, you have written sesame oil, but I don’t find that in the instructions. What do I do with the sesame oil?
Thanks for a great recipe. Thats what I’m having for dinner tonight!
Greetings from Seattle,
Joanne
i missed a good hainanese chicken rice. am anxious to try it out. i grew up on this stuff, but rather that my kids grew up in a democracy. Hence .. a small sacrifice. So, came here or ocllege and stayed – yes it was “New York or bust” since i was a 15 yo kid. Thanks Jess
what an amazing reciepe and way of displaying it! cant wait to try it!
Thanks for the recipe and cooking instruction.
This is a big help as I would be preparing this dish for our New Year meal with my family. Just to have a change from our usual dishes during New Year celebration. She-she (Thank you!). God bless.
from what I understand, the chicken rice found in Hainan island is called wen chang ji fan 文昌鸡饭, not hainanese chicken rice. Hope this helps.
Jess- “this recipe is really only authentic when made with a chicken from the village: the kind that roam around in the sun and eat whatever grubs and grass and scraps of rice are available. These kinds of chickens look pretty skinny by our standards, but they have an amazing flavor that I can only describe as “extremely chickeny.”—-your Mom was absolutely right. THANKS
Jaden, what do i do with the stuffing that went into the chicken?
Discard the stuffing. Thanks for asking – recipe edited!
Hello Jess and Jaden, thank you for the great recipe! I`ve tried making it recently, but with a lot of modification. You probably won`t call it a chicken rice, lol. Do you mind if I link this page to my post? Thanks!
Thank you Roana!
Thanks for posting this recipe! It was so easy to follow with your pictures. I made this for the first time for my parents last night. They LOVED it! I didn’t make the chili sauce, I decided to make “chinese pesto” (minced ginger & green onion with hot oil).
Cant wait to try other recipes on your blog!
Thanks for your delicious and simple recipe! It was perfection. I made it last night and was surprised how easy and quick it was. I shredded the chicken because I don’t have a good cleaver. The two sauces were just amazing together. My favorite part, was there was no waste! And I threw the bones back in to make more broth for another meal.
Is the ice water bath just to cool the chicken down or does it seal in juices? I didn’t do this part…but wondered if I should have!
Thanks, that looks delicious, would love to try one day.
Thanks so much for the recipe, I made it and cut it up like I was deboning a chicken then cut up the chicken breasts into portions just like your photo. Loved how simple and delicious this was.
Instead of rice, I substituted Quinoa and it tasted delicious with the chicken poaching broth.
Fantastic! Love that you used quinoa for healthy version.
Thanks so much for the detailed instructions and pictures!! I’m going to try this out on Friday and am so excited already!!!!! Is there a certain wait to cut up the chicken to serve?
Hi Thu, yes, there is a specific way Chinese carve chicken, but I can’t seem to find photo tutorial online. Will have to find some time to make photograph soon.
great recipe and pictures. novice friendly
Anyone has a great recipe for the green sauce served with Hainan Chicken?
This recipe sounds delish and Do-able! and love the salt exfoliating tip! but i’ve had hainan chicken rice at a chinese restaurant and they have this ginger/butter-like sauce? are you familiar with that sauce? i am curious how to make that sauce.
Hi! I tried the recipe and followed Mrs. Kolca’s advice to add leeks and lemon grass! Outstanding!!!!
I am a fan of Hainanese Chicken Rice. I super love those tender chicken pieces, juicy and full of flavor.
I already tried cooking Hainanese Chicken Rice in my kitchen twice. The difference of my recipe is the usage of leeks and lemon grass for more aroma and flavor.
I stumbled upon this entry and tried out using the step-by-step instructions. Absolutely benefitted much from it! Thank you so much!
Was just watching Anthony Bourdain’s episode in Singapore and wanted to find a recipe for Hainanese chicken rice. Glad to find this! I tried your recipe for chicken pho — it was awesome — so I’m sure this will be great, too.
Was craving for chicken rice for a long while. We get normal chicken rice as well as Hainanese Chicken Rice back home in Malaysia. Now living in London, one can’t find chicken rice easily. I tried this and it’s SUPERLICIOUS! Thank you for sharing. And I shall improve on the chicken facial too the next time 😀 hahaha…
Jess, let me tell you, it was BLOODY delicious. Thanks a lot for this recipe.
I just made this recipe and you’re right, it was extremely simple and easy!
Just wanna say THANKS!
(I am in HK so it’s a bit ridiculous I should be making it when it’s in most restaurants but it definitely tastes better when made at home with an organic chicken.)
this recipe was the closest to the chicken rice i had in singapore; thank you!
i’ve tried it twice, once with organic chicken and the other with tyson chicken. the flavor was the best with the organic chicken. now if only you could post a tutorial on how to cut up the chicken…
what I meant by my comment is that I travelled from Haikou (the north tip of the island – the provincial capital) right down to Sanya (the southern tip of the island) where the Miss Universe Pagent once held, I tried to look for a eatery shop with the Chinese characters ( Hai Nan Ji Huan”, I did not find one.
So if any of you did find it and please let me know, I will be on my next plane back to see for myself. I will extremely delighted if someone finds it for me.
Cheers,
Karam
I am an electronic engineer by profession. I like to experiment with food. I am from Canada and many years ago, I brought my wife to Singapore and we had Hainan Chicken rice.
She loved it.
Upon return to Canada and I told her, is that the kind of taste you like.
Then I concoctede my own version of “Hainan Chicken” without knowing at all how the chicken is cooked, no recipe, no nothing. No steamy wok, no cold water. Just off the cuff, just off my head.
Then several years later and we went to Singapore to have Hainan Chicken again. She said, she prefers my version.
She said mine has both taste and texture.
One day I hope to open one Hainan Chicken Rice Restaurant in Singapore, the second home of Hainan Chicken and Rice.
Best Wishes.
Karam
Anyone finds Hainan chicken in Hainan, Hainan island in China
please email karamtang@gmil.com and I will go again to taste it
FYI
there is no such thing as Hainan Chicken.
I went to Hainan one year ago and stay in Sanya for a week
trying to find Hainan Chicken, there is no such thing.
Anybody cares to comment on this.
Just like Sing Chou chow mei, in Hong Kong or any other Chinatown in North America or London, (singapore fried bee hun)
there is no such dish in Singapore, Believe me.
This is a South East Asia Concoction.
If anyone do find Hainan Chicken in Hainan , please email
me and I will go again to taste, so called the home of
Hianan Chicken, the orgin of such dish.
Cheers,
Karam
Study food history a bit and you’ll find that Hainanese Chicken originated in Hainan, and through travels, it became a popular dish in Singapore. You’ll find it all over as authentic street food in Singapore. I’m sure you’ll find Chicken Rice in Hainan, my mom is from that region and she’s had it all her life.
great. i was looking for a hainanese chicken rice recipe for the longest time. thank you for sharing your recipe.
Hi
Thank you so much for the info!
Me and my hubby love the hainanese chicken rice and i really want to make this at home, we can only eat this when we were going to Singapore and Hongkong,but now finally i can make the hainanese chicken rice at home!I just found this site so thanks alot i will try to make now when my hubby coming back from overseas,im sure he will love me more!!!
I made this tonight and it was absolutely awesome. My kitchen was indeed steamy even with the central air on — and we have had tornadoes all around us tonight (we live in Indiana). I am Chinese and 1/4th Thai and saw the No Reservations episode where Anthony Bourdain was lauding the Hainese Chicken at a food court in Singapore. I even taped it and tried to recreate it. It looked amazingly like the Cantonese style boiled chicken my mother used to make — it was a summertime dish (I grew up outside of Phoenix but my family was originally from SF/Sebastapol) and we dipped the cold chicken in oyster sauce and then in a green onion/chopped garlic (LOTS)/peanut oil/salt/cilantro relish. I adored your rice — it reminds me so much of my childhood as well as when DH and I were in Chaing Mai. My Irish DH loved this recipe and especially the chili sauce. He took me to Beijing for our 25th anniversary and subsequently to Thailand twice. After growing up on Irish cooking — garlic powder is considered ‘exotic’ — he is quite adventuresome and loves Chinese and Thai food as much as I do. And so do our 5 kids! I could just eat the rice! In fact, I got the crispy rice at the bottom of the pot — we called it “fan ju” — not sure of the exact spelling. Divine! Thank you so much for sharing this!!!
Great Chicken Rice, I have been to Singers and I must say this recipe is better than any I had in Singapore, my ex was from Malaysia and if I had found this recipe before I found her I would have married it. Keep up the good work both of you.
its so amazing..the recipe done so detailed and likable..u make me convinced to try this one..hope it turnm good as what i have tasted before in hawkers..thanks and keep this kind of post..its so convincing and delightful.thanks..keep it up!!
I LOVE THE WAY HOW YOU GUIDE US STEP BY STEP TO MAKE THIS WONDERFUL RICE! YOU ARE AMAZING. .! AND SO IS YOUR CHICKEN RICE!
Hmm…chanced upon your incredible website when I was looking up chilli sauce recipe for chicken rice, and was fascinated by your account of how to cook the dish. Sounds most authentic, mouth-watering and simple! Haven’t heard or seen sriracha chili sauce yet though-where can I get it in Singapore? Thanks so much for sharing all you know about this dish, and the tip on the scum skimmer is just great! 😀
Once i tried this food in Melaka.So it eagers me to know thae ecipie.Than i saw your web & print down the recipie.So I’ll ask my mom to make me the food.Thanks for the recipie.T/C
I’m in love with this dish mainly because the recipe is so easy to follow. I’m no the best cook in the work but this looks easy even for me.
WOW! You are my Hero! I made this and it took me right back to Okinawa and Hong Kong…Thanks
hope your cooking show comes through jaden! thanks u jess too for sharing the recipe to steamy kitchen. i wonder if this hainanese chicken is the same at the steamed white chicken recipe, that is served cold and is crusted in clear gelatiny substance from fat?
This recipe is so easy to follow, and I haven’t even made the dish yet. I can imagine the taste in my mouth!!!
Thanks for posting this, and thanks to Jess for suggesting.
I have been thinking about making this for a while and after seeing this post, my craving for it soared! This is a dish that I have long missed. Your version is the simplest that I’ve seen and looks delish!
The chicken came out phenonmenal!!! The rice is missing something but very close to hainanese chicken rice.. i’ll have to test it out and see what’s missing.
Thank you very much for sharing this recipe!!
I have just finished reading this post (both the host and interns contributions) and am absolutely enthralled!! What can I say? I have a chicken in the fridge, ready to go… the only thing I am missing is the green onion, so for today only I might substitute with brown.
Having eaten Hainese chicken rice all over Malaysia/ Singapore, as well as in the homes of various friends, I have always wanted to have a go at making it myself. However I cannot resist but make a few modificiations – just to suit myself – namely, I am going to take the drumsticks and wings off the chicken before I poach it. I figure that these are better used for something else anyway, as the lovely meat comes mostly from the breast and upper thigh. Also I don’t think my big pot is quite big enough for the bird as is!
I’m salivating at the thought. I’ve also already used up the extra soup/stock several times in my head already! lol.
Keep up the great work guys.
Bella.
Thanks , best on the web !
Regads ,
David
Hi there!
Studied in Singapore for a few years and just finished uni here in LA. A friend cooked Hainanese chicken rice a couple of nights ago using the Prima Taste packet and while it tasted good I’m a purist at heart. I think that it’s cheating if you don’t make it from scratch. Thanks so much for the recipe! I’ll try it in a couple of nights once I get my hands on a nice chicken. It’s so sad that I don’t think that I’ll be able to get my hands on an authentic, delicious kampong chicken here.
Made this last week and it turned out excellent! Making it again today. Thanks for the receipe!
I had browsed through a few recipes for Hainanese chicken rice but I found yours to be the simplest and the easiest to follow. It doesn’t hurt that the finished product tasted great too! 😀 thanks for putting this online!
As ex-pats in Singapore in the mid 90’s we were hooked on this. I have been looking for a good recipe for ages. It looks so plain but as anyone who has ever eaten it knows – it is just heaven on a plate! It is addictive. Trust me. Thanks Jess & Jaden
Quite possibly the yummiest dinner I have ever made. I so wanted chicken rice again… sans the long trip. Thanks!!
I just made this today and it is delicious!
The chili sauce is spot on…exactly the kind I had in Singapore.
Thank you so much!
Just found this site and made this dish – it was wonderful! Here in the UK we have free-range chickens that are fed on corn, producing a very flavourful bird with an orange-ish skin. They are a wee bit pricey, but this recipe lets all that flavour come through. Thank you!
First time in here, and am absolutely in love with your site. The preparation looks so awesome, I’ll definitely try this one. Though may be I’ll get the chicken cut into pieces from the shop. I’m a little uncomfortable seeing a whole chicken on my kitchen table.
this is so generous ! thank a lot for posting wonderful hainanese chicken. well loved by the whole family. we love you steamy kitchen
omg, the scum skimmer advice = *best* purchase EVER. making broth is such a breeze now. i tried to tell my mom (who taught me how to make broth) about the scum skimmer, certain her life would also be transformed by this device and she just said, “oh, yeah…i own three of those.” thanks a lot for holding out on me, MOM. anyway, thank you for the tip!
Oh My God! My wife and I just finished this Hainanese Chicken it was so good, my wife kept saying, “It’s a keeper!” between bites. The only thing we didn’t have was the cucumber slices which would have been an added bonus to balance out the hot of this dish. The rice came out perfect and the house does smell like heaven. But the coolest thing is going to be the morphed soup that we’ll have tomorrow night from this dish of combined leftovers. We just added the leftover chicken and rice right into the stock and we’ll use the leftover chili sauce as a condiment as well.
I want to give you a very special thank you because I have been looking for this recipe ever since I saw a episode of “NO RESERVATIONS” with A. Bourdain where he consumes a dish that her referred to as (memory lapse here) Shanghai Chicken or Singapore Chicken. Whatever the name, the cooking style and condiments look almost identical yet this was the first place that I have ever been able to find it. Thank you again!
Hi,
I’ve read recipes by others and most of them use the ‘dunking’ (the chicken is lifted out of the water and put in again a few times) method which I think is rather troublesome! Your method is super easy by comparison and doesn’t make cooking hainanese chicken intimidating at all, well, except for the lifting of the chicken out at the end. I can imagine it slipping out of my spatulas and dropping in again with a splash!
Do you think you’ll be able to give a tutorial on how to carve the chicken for serving too?
Thanks! 🙂
Great chicken rice recipe!
I’m from Malaysia and seems that we have some difference in the way this is prepared. At home, normally we steam the chicken, not poach it. But I can’t wait to try this out to check out the difference in texture & taste
In addition to ginger & garlic, we also use lemon grass & a knot of pandan leaves in the rice which impart another dimension of aroma & taste to the rice.”
I’m SO excited to have stumbled across this recipe!! I lived in Singapore for ~5 months last year and Chicken Rice was a staple. I think I probably had it 2-3 times a week. Thank you for sharing! I cannot wait to try this recipe.
For me Jasmine Long Grain rice is a must when cooking Hainamese Chicken Rice, I use 1 : 1,5 ratio for rice and chicken stock and it come out beautiful, and I use pandan leaves in the rice too, it really make a difference 🙂
Another thing, normally they prepare soy sauce + Chicken Stock + sesame oil mixture to pour on top of the chicken.
Hey Jaden! I just tried this recipe out tonight. Super yum! You’re recipe broke it down so it was easy to follow. Thanks to you and Jess for this post 😀
Thanks for the recipe, I am far away from home and staying in latin America for a long period. Wont be able to eat good Asian home made food. As all the ingedients I will be able to find here.. I will try to cook Hainanese Chicken with the help of this recipe. Thank you Jess, because everything is so clear, and I had to laugh at that part of the Chicken drumsticks..As I am imagining myself doing the same thing.. hahaha… 🙂
looks so yummy and moist and tender. i’ve been trying to find a good one around Sydney. 🙂
Nice photos and recipe for my most favourite recipe from home ever. I swear I eat it everyday when I go back to Singapore. I got such a craving reading this page that I made this yesterday, albeit with brown jasmine rice and leg quarters rather than a whole chicken.
How do you recommend eating the leftover chicken? Cold? OR do you warm it up slightly? I’m already looking forward to lunch 🙂
Just wanted to say, my pregnancy has really tripled my cravings for Singaporean food. Thank you for such an easy to follow recipe. I gobbled down 2 bowls of rice and 2 bowls of soup all by myself.
Thank you for making a pregnant lady very, very, very happy!!!
Erm the pregnant lady comment is not mine :0 Your blog is ediing our posts in a funny way 😛
Thanks for the inspiring photos & recipes, from a homesick Singaporean. I love chicken rice. Made this yesterday with brown jasmine rice and leg quarters. Do you reheat the leftover chicken or eat it cold?
hey *waves* Singaporean here..haha !Its still really hot here and chicken rice is still well loved !off topic but..er spread the love<:
Oh my gosh, did you take the picture of the chicken heads in Maxwell food court in singapore? I was there just 2 months ago and i can totally remember that horrific thing of beauty. Loved the Hainanese chicken rice there.. and the oyster cakes. Yum!
Haha, yeah I took it back in November of last year when I was out there visiting family. Really puts me in the mood for food!
Hi Jess,
Welcome! You are so lucky to be working with Jaden. She’s amazing and a kind, generous person too! I grew up in Singapore and now live in CA. Chicken rice was definitely a favorite growing up. But I’m partial to the soy sauce chicken version. Now that was yummy!
Welcome, Jess! You’re very lucky to be working with Jaden. She is amazing and a kind, generous person too. I grew up in Singapore and now live in CA and chicken rice was one of my staples at the hawker center. My favorite was the soy sauce chicken though. Now that was yummy!
I know! I feel super lucky to be learning from such a pro and someone who’s so open and willing to share her secrets.
I also LOVE soy chicken. We used to buy 3 or 4 whole ones from the 99 Ranch Market for a picnic on the weekends with my huge family: 17 of us awesome cousins + aunties and uncles!
yum! we eat lots of “chicken rice” in thailand but i never thought it was something i could make at home. great recipe. and welcome jess!
Would love to learn Thai version of Chicken Rice
thanks for the recipe, it was very easy to cook and it came out delicious.
Great! It is easy to cook. Wonder if I can make a crockpot version….
hi
i am from Thailand, and i am looking for “how to cook hainan chicken rice” then i found this web site…. the page is so cool, i can easily learn by the pictures.
But i still have a question on the last stage? how to make the dark sauce that goes over the top before serve??
thank you
Hey Tae! The dark sauce is dark soy sauce (the slightly sweet, thick kind). I’m sure you can buy it in your local market. I think you call it siew dohm in Thai if I remember right from my short time in Chiang Mai?
Woohoo! Just figured out how to respond to comments. It’s a learning process. Very glad you enjoyed the recipe!
holy hell… triple star bookmark!
This reminds me how you make cold ginger chicken…..yummmy
hi Jess, love your post on the Hainanese Chicken Rice.
Just a note here, you mentioned that your 3 must-have food when you are in Singapore are “fried bananas, paratha, and chicken rice” – do you mean prata? The indian fried crispy pancake?
Hainanese Chicken Rice still costs SGD2 at some hawker centres. Some stalls nowadays, apart from the chilli, has 2 other sauces – dark soy sauce to drip over the chicken rice, and a ginger/garlic/oil blended puree kind of sauce for the chicken dip.
p.s I’m a singaporean who stumbled into this food blog today.
Yes! Paratha = prata. Different spelling, same delicious stuff. I ate tissue paratha or kaya toast almost every morning for breakfast when I was back there last. Yum yum yum.
hi
i am from Thailand, and i am looking for “how to cook hainan chicken rice” then i found this web site…. the page is so cool, i can easily learn by the pictures.
But i still have a question on the last stage? how to make the dark sauce that goes over the top before serve?
thank you
steamy, you know i love you, but now i love you more for sharing this step-by-step hainanese chicken rice recipe. i am forever looking for a recipe i can trust, and if you have tried it, i am all for it. of course, thanks to jess too…am envious…wanted to be your intern too *sigh*.
Hi Jess! 🙂 Great post and delicious looking Hainanese checken rice! Love the idea of exfoliating the chicken 🙂
I made this tonight for Sunday dinner. My husband devoured the rice I didn’t finish, and I got myself a second bowl of the soup — it was totally amazing, and with only the two of us, we’ll have amazing, fragrant chicken leftovers all week!
I’ll post a picture on my blog tomorrow, with a linky to you, Jaden and Jess.
Last summer I went to Singapore to eat my heart out. I fell for the chicken rice at the Maxwell food center and I keep thinking about giving it a try here at home. But the best part about the things I had in Singapore was the chili sauces on the sides of everything. I’ve been trying to reproduce them and I’m going to give your recipe a try.
Mmmm… Maxwell’s a good one. There’s an amazing goreng pisang shop there too (fried bananas). My cousin bought me a whole bag for myself last time I was there. YUM.
i made this last night and it was awesome!! that rice…the limey delicious hot sauce, the AMAZING stock leftover…ay. thank you! and i just love the tip about scrubbing down your chicken with salt, just fantastic!
I love the photos taken during preparation. Lovely writing style.
Jaden, I’ve been following your blog for a few weeks now and just read your bio. I just want to say I totally want to be you someday! I am also writing a cookbook and started my blog in hopes of recruiting a few fans so that someone other than my parents will buy my book. So far I have enjoyed food blogging immensely. Good luck with your book!
Thank you for this recipe. My husband is Singaporean and when he misses home, he asks me to make chicken rice. Your recipe sounds great, and I am intrigued by your chili paste. I normally have to seek out hot chilis and try to pulverize them without getting anything on my skin or in my eyes. Not easy. We always have sriracha, so I can make it easily. 🙂
Jaden, Thank you so much for Jess’ recipe. I was absolutely lucky enough to spend 3 1/2 months in Singapore in the late 80’s. Ah, Newton Circus, Satay Club, DimSum houses. And the STRANGEST tradition we found was very hotel in the city had their own fancy/special way of doing Irish Coffee. I kid you not…
Jess is a great writer! And a neighbor of my old hometown of Malaysia. I look forward to some good old home cooking. I make Hainanese Chicken all the time, but never knew about using the salt to clean it. Thanks for the tip.
By the way, I made your tapioca pearls with cantaloupe few weeks ago. It was a great success!
Thanks so much — my parents will be glad to hear that the money they put towards my degree in English was wisely invested!
I am SO going to try this soon. My Thai mother in law makes the best boiled chicken ever; I have no idea why, but it just is. No I will try Jess’ recipe, and see if I can win my mother in law over. I am enthralled by the simple but “duh?!” idea of frying up the rice a bit with the ginger/garlic before cooking. Now why didn’t *I* think of that? I love your website! Welcome Jess!
A great intern you have there! Great recipe and tips!
Welcome to Jess. What a great recipe. Can’t wait to try it.
i want an intern too!
welcome to Jess. you are very lucky to work with Jaden. she’s talented and fun, and her skills and demeanor are so communicative.
I know! I’m already learning tons and tons. It’s really fascinating to get a glimpse behind the scenes. Jaden puts so much work and thought into Steamy AND she seems to be able to have fun doing it. An amazing example 🙂
Hi Jade and Jess,
Love this site. I just wanted to add a trick for the rice that adds extra flavor. While ‘prettying’ up the chicken, grab a few pieces of chicken fat (replaces the oil) to use to saute the rice. For the rice: take the chicken fat and let it render (fat becomes liquified) by cooking on a low heat for a few minutes, then add the ginger and garlic. When I was in Singapore, I noticed that my favorite hawker stall for this dish, did that. I make this all the time and it is one of my favorite dishes.
PS -I recently used your beef pho recipe and it turned out great -thanks so much!
Totally! I use rendered fat in my chicken rice too — one hen here on the farm gives nearly a pint of amazing golden fat which I keep in the freezer for use in all kinds of things. We figured the recipe was already getting pretty complicated and most folks aren’t so used to rendering, so we left it out…
Thanks for the post. This is one of my favorite dish.
How long does the whole cooking process take? Just want to get an idea so I can plan enough time to cook.
Hey Sabrina! It takes me about an hour and a half — I can generally save time by doing prep work while the chicken and/or rice is cooking.
Jess– Can I tell you how much I love you? On a trip to Singapore a couple of years ago I ate Hainanese Chicken Rice basically every single day we were there because it was SO good. I made it once after returning from the trip using an extremely involved recipe. It took so much time that I just haven’t had the oomph to convince myself to make it again. Your recipe is so much more straight forward that I cannot wait to get into the kitchen and make some! I look forward to reading your blog and hearing more about your farming internship–wow! Thanks Jaden for introducing us to Jess!
Exfoliate? Yikes. I can barely stand to snag some of the pinfeathers and rinse it out to begin with…I have some sort of raw chicken touching squeamishness. It looks fantastic though.
Congrats Jess (and Jaden!) Where are you from in OC?! I’m from Irvine/Costa Mesa area. Great recipe (and funny)!
Hey Rose! I’m from Fullerton. My grandparents live in Costa Mesa and I’m down there quite a bit when I’m home. So glad you enjoyed the recipe!
Hi Jess- Thanks for this post. I lived in Singapore for almost 2 years and I loved chicken rice. Thanks for the recipe; I will for sure make it soon.
Take it from me – a Singaporean who is half Hainanese, who *just* had chicken rice lovingly prepared by my 82 year old granny – this dish is amazing. It’s one reason why I would miss home!
Congratulations and welcome Jess! I’ve never thought of exfoliating chicken but it totally makes sense. I’ll try it out next time i have chicken.
This is one of my favorite things to eat. They’re just so comforting. Thanks for the step by step procedure.
Now I understand why salt is so important for almost everything…like Steak Bling Bling which I just made….
Jaden, can you send me an intern! lol! I need help lol!
Gosh! to be frank, we did have such request but infact there is not much to be done! can you believe it! lol!
Cool to see you having great helpers!
I am still thinking what recipe I am going to write next! 🙂
awesome chicken rice! and congrats on the intern 🙂 tht’s so cool.foodblogging is serious business and work. xx
jaden and jess this is great news and a fantastic post. i don’t eat meat but i can appreciate the technique and the yummyness is leaping from the photos and the description.
jaden, another great idea from you. i never thought about interning with a food-blog “great”. hmmm….
Welcome Jess! Looks and sounds amazing! Can you please come and make it for me… it looks complicated. I will try it when I have time to ponder it. Thanks for sharing!
OMG! Now I’m LOL remembering every food-related at-home spa treatment I’ve ever done. The funniest … I used heavy cream as a conditioner. Then I wandered around the house all day thinking, “why in the heck do I smell spoiled milk? where is it coming from?” Yeah, this was back a few years ago before we had the Inn and I was trying to be a hippy. Organic food only goes in my mouth now … and Loreal on the hair.
Love it! So THAT is your secret to beautiful skin. I mean … uh … chicken.