I stir-fry, steam, braised, boiled but never baked before. For the past 2 weeks, I try to bake Chocolate Cookies. Three attempts, the 1st two failed miserably, the last attempts came out quite delicious but a bit too soft. Argghh... the frustration.
After 3 straight failures, I need a "success" to boast my confident before I give up cooking completely, so I decided to cook the oh-so-delicious Hainanese Chicken Rice.
Ingredients for Chicken:
1 whole chicken, cleaned.
4 inch fresh ginger, peeled, bruised.
6 cloves garlic, bruised.
1 stalk of local parsley.
1 tablespoon of salt.
Sesame oil.
Method to cook chicken:
Stuff ginger, garlic, parsley into the chicken cavity.
Boiled enough water in a large pot. Submerge chicken into the water, breast side down. Make sure water is enough to cover the chicken. Cover the pot lid, turn down the fire and let it simmers for 45 minutes. After 45 minutes, prepare another pot with cold water, take out the chicken and immediately submerge the chicken into the cold water, this is to stop the cooking process immediately. Submerge in the cold water for 2~4 minute, and take out the chicken.
Immediately you rub the whole chicken with plenty of sesame oil.
This step is very important, the sesame oil will give extra flavor to the chicken and stop the chicken skin from turning dry and black color. Skip this step and your chicken will look unappetizing.
Ta da! You have cooked the chicken! IMPORTANT: Do not throw away the chicken stock, we need it to cook the rice and prepare the sauces.
Ingredient for Rice:
3 cups of white rice, washed.
4 shallots, finely chopped.
4 cloves of garlic, minced.
2 inch of fresh ginger, peeled, and minced.
2 inch of fresh ginger knob, peeled.
Heat 2 tablespoon of peanut oil in wok, add shallots, minced garlic and minced ginger, fry until fragrant or the mixture turn slightly brownish. Add in the rice, stir-fry until the rice mixture mix evenly for 6 minute.
Transfer rice into a rice cooker, add enough chicken stock to cook the rice. Add in the ginger knob and cook the rice.
Ingredients for Chilies sauce:
8 fresh chillies
2 cm of ginger, peeled, minced.
4 cloves of garlic.
Salt to taste.
3 limes, juice only.
4 tablespoon of Chicken stock.
Method: Blend all the ingredient!
Garnish with parsley and serve with cucumber.
Serve!
