White cut chicken rice

This blog is about making white cut chicken rice chicken. Yes white cut chicken as the chicken flesh is white. It’s actually a quick boil chicken than has been cool down. Where I originally come from in Malaysia (well, I have left home more than 20 years!!) it’s also called Hainanese Rice. White cut chicken is also commonly serve a part of chinese new year banquet dish where a whole chicken with its head and tail intact is use.

Obviously after living in the UK for awhile my style of cooking has change over the years as well. There are many versions of this recipe I have along the way. Some serve with quick blanched bean sprouts. Some drizzle the chicken with some sesame oil. So don’t be surprise to find that there are plenty of different versions. I like how the chicken is cook this way as the chicken remains nice and moist. Not overcook at all. The fast high heat boil method then letting the chicken cool down works best. in my personal opinion so try it out for yourself.

I do use different type of rice compare to what you normally get in hawkers (street food in South East Asia). Nowadays when I cook rice I use a mixture of brown rice, back rice, wild rice and some green lentils. Yup lentils as it’s very good for you I just to add more nutrients to my diet. Hence you see lentils in the photos.

So here is the recipe.

Here is recipe to home cook white cut chicken rice. It is a healthy dish with a hint of SE Asian chilli in it

500 grms chicken thigh (Waitrose free range )
3-4 stalks spring onion
3 slices ginger
3 tbsp shaoxing white wine
150 grms rice (plain rice or brown rice)

Dipping sauce

3 red chilli
2-3 cm fresh ginger
3-4 cloves fresh garlic
1 medium onion (brown or any (100 grms))
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp sesame oil

Making the chicken broth
In a pot fill about 1.5 liters of waters. Add the chicken, sliced spring onions, ginger and shaoxing rice wine. Bring to boil and let it boil, covered for 10-12 minutes.Turn the heat off and leave the chicken to cool in the liquid for as long as possible without lifting the lid. At least 30 minutes.

Cooking the chicken rice

After that take out at least 500mls (2 cups) of chicken broth and cook the rice a rice cooker. The method on how to cook rice on a rice cooker is that to put enough stock/water double the ratio of rice. I will do a blog post to illustrate it is not that difficult. If you find the chicken stock is on the low side by all mean use your own stock. Sometimes I keep chicken stock in the freezer for times like this. here is a link on how to make chicken stock.Using a rice cooker to the rice. it just makes life much easier. I got a Von shef rice cooker in which i had for years. just press the cook button and you are good to go. It take about 20 minutes to cook the rice

Preparing the dipping sauce

In a electric blender/ chopper, blend the chillies, garlic, onion and ginger together. One can also use a pestle and mortar instead of electric blender. Once it’s well chopped or blended into a paste. Take them out and put it a small bowl. Add the sesame oil and fish sauce.

Plating up

In a plate put the rice first. Then put the white cut chicken. Take the chicken out of the pot and slice them into slices. Do check the chicken is cook and it’s not raw. It should look like the picture below. Rmove the skin if one doesn’t like eating the skin. it is fatty as well

To save time one can just use ready made chicken broth link to it here from my chicken noodle recipe

Then just slice the chicken thinly on cook it on a steamer with the rice.

Serve with the dipping sauce and slice cucumbers and tomatoes. Any leftover of soup can be serve as accompaniment soup. Enjoy. do let me know on how get on by leaving comment below.

White cut chicken rice