Malaysian Chicken Rice

Courtesy of Yenli Izzillo: ‘This is a slight variation of the usual Hainanese Chicken Rice recipe, and a favourite of my family. A chicken rice meal in our household always ends with lip smacking ‘ah’s of pleasure and lots of satisfied burps! It’s simple to prepare and is healthy and wholesome. It’s one of my favourite foods – you can get this pretty much anywhere and at any time of the day in Malaysia – and is the food I missed most when I moved to the UK’.

One whole chicken
One cucumber
2 to 3 cups of rice (I prefer basmati or jasmine)
1 chicken cube
½ bulb of garlic
5 slices of ginger (I’ve recently discovered that a couple of shakes of ground ginger powder works just as well)
3 large onions
Cooking oil
Sesame oil
Light soy sauce

1. Chop up the garlic into small pieces (approx. 2 mm square) and fry in about 3 tablespoons of cooking oil until golden brown. Fish out the garlic and keep the oil aside for later.
2. Cook the rice in water seasoned with one chicken cube (dissolved in hot water first), 2 tablespoons of the garlic oil from Step 1 above, and the sliced ginger. Mix the dissolved chicken cube, garlic oil, and ginger into the water before cooking the rice. (To cook the rice on a hob, use 1.25 parts water with every 1 part rice, bring to a boil in an open pot, then cover and simmer on the lowest heat setting for 10 minutes)
3. Fill a large pot half full with water and bring to a boil. Put the chicken into the pot and simmer for 17 to 20 minutes, then turn the chicken over and simmer for a further 17 to 20 minutes. Plunge the chicken into a large bowl of cold water – this seals in the moisture and gives the meat a lovely silky texture.
4. Cut up the chicken into pieces to serve and put the remaining bones back into the broth. Add 3 large onions into the broth for sweetness. You can also add carrots and diced potatoes to the broth.

To serve:

1. Peel the skin off the cucumber and cut into slices.
2. Season the broth with sea salt and black pepper and spoon into small soup bowls.
3. Mix one teaspoon of fried garlic (from Step 1), two teaspoons of soy sauce and a few drops of sesame oil into small sauce dishes.
4. Serve the rice with chicken, cucumber, a bowl of broth, and garlic.

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