Hainanese Chicken Rice | Cơm Gà Hải Nam

Step 1

Clean the chicken inside and out and thoroughly pat it dry with paper towels before seasoning it with salt and pepper. I usually clean my chickens by rinsing them with water, but I recently read that chickens should be cleaned by rubbing them with lemon juice or vinegar. Since the FDA advises against the method I use, I’ll have to test the citric method the next time I cook chicken. Once the chicken has been cleaned and seasoned, you can cook it immediately or allow it to marinate in the fridge overnight.

Step 2

Cut each of the pieces of ginger in half, and place 2 of them in the chicken’s cavity. Then, place the chicken, salt, black peppercorns, onion, remaining 2 pieces of ginger and water in a sauce pan. I usually pour hot water boiled beforehand over the chicken. Allow the water to come a gentle boil. Cover and continue cooking the chicken for about 40 minutes. Occasionally check on the chicken to make sure that the water never heats up to more than a gentle boil, otherwise the broth will become cloudy. To check if the chicken is done, insert a chopstick into the drumstick and if the liquid coming out of the chicken is clear, then it’s done. Or, you can insert a cooking thermometer to verifyy that the internal temperature of the chicken has reached 165°F. Remove the chicken from the stock and allow to cool.

Step 3

While the chicken is cooking, prepare the dipping sauce. Mix lime juice with sugar until it becomes a syrup like mixutre. Add the fish sauce and taste to make sure that the mix is well balanced. If it’s too salty, add some sugar, or if it’s not salty enough, add a little more fish sauce. Mix in the minced garlic, ginger and chili pepper, which will give the sauce a thick, dense consistency. The dipping sauce should not be runny like regular nước mắm sauce, so add more minced ginger if it’s not thick enough.

Step 4

Rinse the rice clean with water. Steam the rice with the poaching stock and a dash of black pepper in a rice cooker*. I have never measured out the amount of water I add when cooking rice. My mom taught me to insert my index finger until it touches the surface of the rice and add enough water until reaches the first line on my finger. That has always worked for me, but I’m well aware that everyone’s finger length differs. So, a good ratio to use is 1:2 rice to water, or in this case, broth.

Step 5

After steaming the rice, fluff it up in the pot with chopsticks. Heat up about a tablespoon or so of cooking oil in a sauté pan. Add the minced garlic and ginger and sauté until fragrant. Add the fluffed rice to the pan and sauté until the garlic and ginger have flavored the rice (about 4-5 minutes). Add a dash of freshly ground black pepper and give it a final stir.

Step 6

Once cooled, chop the chicken into serving size pieces. Pack a rice bowl with the sautéed rice and invert it over a plate. Assemble the chicken around the rice with sliced cucumbers. Serve with the nước mắm gừng dipping sauce and a small bowl of the chicken broth garnished with chopped cilantro.