Hainanese Chicken (海南雞)

24 Sep 2013

海南雞起源於中國的海南島的文昌市．Its origin is based on 白切雞 (boiled chicken) method to cook a specific breed of chicken from Wenchang City (文昌雞). Although since its origin from Hainan, this dish has become especially popular in Singapore and Hong Kong. 這也是我在新加坡的最愛．

Ingredients

• 1 Pre-Brined Chicken (整隻雞) - 4 lb
• 6 slices of ginger lightly crushed (薑片壓扁)
• pinch of salt (鹽 少許)

做法

1. 將雞放置大鍋，水蓋過雞, 大火煮至滾
2. 未滾前將表面浮末撈起，加入鹽和薑片
3. 大滾8分後，滅火，蓋上鍋蓋，放至30分
4. 如果還有看到雞血，再煮滾，滅火，蓋上鍋蓋，放至多5分
5. 把雞撈起，放入冰水冰鎮* (不要雞肉繼續煮硬)*
6. 15分後撈起，跺雞上盤

* 雞熟後一定要放入冰水冰鎮，雞才不會太熟變硬，

Instructions

1. Bring the chicken and water (covering the whole chicken) to a simmering point in a pot.
2. Skim off the scum. Add salt and crushed ginger slices.
3. Bring to a boil and boil for 8 min (5 min on one side, and flip).
4. Turn off heat, cover with a lid and cook chicken with residual heat for 30 min. (thermometer reading 165 F)
5. If the liquid flowing from chicken cavity shows traces of blood, bring to boil again, turn off the heat and cover/cook for another 5 min. Repeat as necessary.
6. As soon as the chicken shows no traces of blood, plunge the chicken in a prepared ice water bath to stop the cooking process for 15 min.*
7. Drain the chicken and chop the chicken when ready to serve.
8. Reserve the chicken stock for the rice.

Sous Vide Instructions

1. Put pre-brined bonless chicken thigh/legs into a gallon size ziplock bag (3 per bag) or use vaccum seal bags
2. add 2 slices of ginger and 1 stalk of green onion
3. Setup sous vide machine at 72 degrees celsius
4. Immerse the bags into sous vide pot and cook for an hour and half
5. Once the chicken is cooked, remove the bags and plunge into a prepared ice water bath
6. Cut and prepare chicken and top with soy sauce/chicken stock/sesame oil topping

* Plunging the chicken in ice bath is critical to prevent the chicken from being overcooked and tough. It also helps to coagulate the gelatin.

Chicken Rice (雞飯)

Ingredients

• 3 cups/杯 long grain rice (絲苗米) - (500 g)
• ~3 shallots, chopped (紅蔥頭, 剁碎) - (150 g)
• ~5 garlic, pound finely (蒜頭, 剁碎) - (50 g)
• 3 cm ginger, pound finely (薑, 剁碎) - (50 g)
• 4 cups/杯 chicken stock from chicken (煮雞留的雞湯) - (525 ml)
• 1 ¹⁄₂ tsp salt (鹽)
• oil for frying (炒油)

做法

1. 紅蔥頭，蒜頭，薑 分別剁碎
2. 炒鍋裡下油，將紅蔥頭，蒜頭，薑炒香 (紅蔥頭變透明)
3. 加入米，鹽，拌均勻
4. 把炒過的米加雞湯放入電鍋蒸熟
5. 雞飯加海南雞辣椒醬ㄧ起食用最佳
6. 用小鍋，加雞湯，醬油，麻油，一點糖 煮滾，淋在雞上

Instructions

1. Fry shallots, garlic, ginger in hot oil in a wok until aromatic.
2. Add rice and salt.
3. Pour rice into a pot, add reserved chicken stock.
4. Steam the chicken rice.
5. Serve the chicken rice with chili sauce.

Final Preparation, Plating of Chicken

1. cut tomatoes in wedges
2. cut cucumber in slices and lay them on top of tomatoes
3. place chicken pieces on top of the cucumbers and tomatoes
4. in a small pot, bring some chicken stock, soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar into a boil
5. drizzle the soy sauce mixture on top of the chicken