Harper's Kitchen: Chicken Rice!
Jun. 12th, 2007 09:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kniteracyWow! It really tasted like Singapore.
I took a whole chicken and rubbed it with salt, soy sauce, and sesame oil. I stuffed it with shallots, green onions, garlic and ginger. I put a big stockpot of water on until it was at a rolling boil, then immersed the chicken and turned off the heat. I let it steam for an hour. At the thirty-minute mark, I heated up the water again to make sure I still had enough steam. I took the chicken out and cut off the wings and legs, then added them to the stock and put it on to a hard boil until it was way boiled down, two or three hours.
Then I took Thai jasmine rice and rinsed it, rendered the chicken fat (just a few tablespoons), and cooked sliced ginger and garlic in the fat until the saucepan was nicely smelling of garlic. I added the drained rice and stirred it around in the pot until it felt all covered with oil and spiciness, then removed the bits of chicken skin that were left. Then I added about three cups of chicken broth, just a little more than would cover the rice, and brought it all to a boil. I stirred and stirred until the water level was below the top of the rice, then covered it tightly and turned down the heat. I let it simmer for 10 minutes, then turned the heat off completely and gave it another 10 minutes to steam.
I cut the chicken off the carcass and cut it up into bite-sized pieces, then served it over rice with the actual, real Singapore dark soy sauce my husband found at a London Asian market, hooray! If anybody had wanted it, I would have produced Thai sweet chilli sauce, because I didn't feel like making my own chilli/garlic/ginger sauce (it's too hot for me!). I was going to serve the rice with little sprigs of coriander, but by the time it was done, everybody was so hungry I didn't even cut up the cucumber to serve with it: guess we'll have cucumber for salads later this week.
Success!
To answer an earlier question: In Singapore and I would assume in other Asian countries as well, there are several different grades and varieties of soy sauce. The kind most commonly called "dark" soy sauce is not only very dark but also quite thick. It has some added sugar and is used both in the preparation of food and as a dipping sauce.
I took a whole chicken and rubbed it with salt, soy sauce, and sesame oil. I stuffed it with shallots, green onions, garlic and ginger. I put a big stockpot of water on until it was at a rolling boil, then immersed the chicken and turned off the heat. I let it steam for an hour. At the thirty-minute mark, I heated up the water again to make sure I still had enough steam. I took the chicken out and cut off the wings and legs, then added them to the stock and put it on to a hard boil until it was way boiled down, two or three hours.
Then I took Thai jasmine rice and rinsed it, rendered the chicken fat (just a few tablespoons), and cooked sliced ginger and garlic in the fat until the saucepan was nicely smelling of garlic. I added the drained rice and stirred it around in the pot until it felt all covered with oil and spiciness, then removed the bits of chicken skin that were left. Then I added about three cups of chicken broth, just a little more than would cover the rice, and brought it all to a boil. I stirred and stirred until the water level was below the top of the rice, then covered it tightly and turned down the heat. I let it simmer for 10 minutes, then turned the heat off completely and gave it another 10 minutes to steam.
I cut the chicken off the carcass and cut it up into bite-sized pieces, then served it over rice with the actual, real Singapore dark soy sauce my husband found at a London Asian market, hooray! If anybody had wanted it, I would have produced Thai sweet chilli sauce, because I didn't feel like making my own chilli/garlic/ginger sauce (it's too hot for me!). I was going to serve the rice with little sprigs of coriander, but by the time it was done, everybody was so hungry I didn't even cut up the cucumber to serve with it: guess we'll have cucumber for salads later this week.
Success!
To answer an earlier question: In Singapore and I would assume in other Asian countries as well, there are several different grades and varieties of soy sauce. The kind most commonly called "dark" soy sauce is not only very dark but also quite thick. It has some added sugar and is used both in the preparation of food and as a dipping sauce.
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no subject
Date: 2007-06-12 09:13 pm (UTC)I wonder if they'd have that soy sauce at one of the markets locally. If it is used in more places than Singapore, I bet they would. (The University brings in a lot of people from many Asian countries, and we have more than one international food store.)
no subject
Date: 2007-06-12 10:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-13 02:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-13 03:29 pm (UTC)