Hainan Chicken Rice

It was Monday of week 9, two more days until Thanksgiving break and i was running out of food to make.  I mean, I had food to make for the various potlucks to come (another story for another time) but as for food for myself, I wasn't sure what I wanted to make except I wanted some chinese home cookin' (perhaps it was my subconscious that was slightly homesick not being able to wait till I get to go home to family).  So inspired by a friend of mine who actually lives only a few minutes away, I decided to take a stab at making Hainan chicken rice, one of the main comfort foods I was so lucky to grow up with.  Just as a disclaimer, this is by no means the traditional way to make it. I cant tell you how much I respect and value the traditional way and would love to learn how to make it traditionally but I just dont know how.  So, I came up with this recipe with a college student mentality in mind who wants home food that's easy and tastes good. For those of you who dont mind the lack of tradition, I think this will suffice.  Approval from several apartment-mates, and foodies so I hope you can all agree with me that this isn't bad for the first try :].  Please enjoy,  Cook Eat.Love.Smile. 

11.21.11: Hainan Chicken Rice

Hainan Chicken Rice

1 lb or so of frozen chicken thighs or ¾ lbs of fresh chicken thighs

2 cups of rice

¼ cup of vegetable oil

4 stalks of green onion

2 large cloves of garlic

2 table spoons of fish sauce

¾ tablespoon of salt

1 tablespoon of honey

1 tablespoon of grated ginger root (peeled)

Prep-work for Chicken:

1.     Take the chicken thighs and thaw them in the refrigerator in a gallon Ziploc bag

2.     When thawed, pour the fish sauce and honey into the bag for at least 4 hours and marinate over night

Prep-work for Green onion-ginger sauce

1.     Finely chop all the green onion and set aside

2.     Finely mince the garlic and set aside

3.     Grate the ginger root if you haven’t done so already. 

Procedure

1.     Heat a large nonstick pan that has a good lid on medium high heat

2.     Meanwhile, start cooking the white rice in the rice cooker

3.     Meanwhile, heat the vegetable oil in a small sauce pan on medium high heat

4.     When the pan for the chicken is heated through, pour a little vegetable oil (not the one in the sauce pan) to lightly coat the pan and pan fry the chicken. 

5.     When the chicken is almost cooked through, add about a ¼ cup of water into the pan and put the lid on it to steam the chicken until it’s done. 

6.     By now the oil should be very hot.  To test this, place a wooden chopstick into the oil and if small bubbles immediately appear and the oil has ripples it is hot enough.  Then place the ginger in the oil to cook through

7.     Then add the garlic and salt and continue to stir so both the garlic and ginger are mixed well and saturated in oil

8.     Lastly add the green onion and cook briefly for only 4 minutes or so. 

9.     Take the sauce off the heat and place into a bowl for later use. 

10. When the chicken is cooked through, turn off the heat and leave the chicken on the pan to remain warm, don’t throw out the juices. 

11. When the rice is ready, take out the chicken from the pan and scoop the rice into it to coat all the rice with the chicken juices. 

12. Once thoroughly mixed, place the rice onto a place. 

13. Take the chicken, chop into strips, and place it next to the rice. 

14. Then, pour the green onion-ginger mixture on the chicken and rice or dip on the side.