The frustrating part of learning how to blog is figuring out how to make user-friendly posts and also how to use blogger. I just wrote a post about tonight's dinner and ended up deleting the whole thing by accident. It's probably the most frustrating thing that could happen to you while blogging, besides losing your entire blog!
Back to the topic at hand - Hainanese chicken! I have no idea where it's from--Hainan?--haha--but it is practically a national dish in Singapore. You take a whole chicken, poach it and then cook rice with the chicken stock from the poaching. It's typically served with sliced cucumbers and tomatoes, but we had some baby bok choy and pea pod shoots that Ben picked up from the Allston farmer's market, so we sauteed those instead and served them on the side.
You start with a whole chicken -- ours came from Whole Foods. They carry a line of whole organic chickens from Petaluma, CA (awful food mileage, I know) that comes with all the bells and whistles -- organic, free range, hormone free. You poach it and shred/slice the chicken. The rice is cooked with shallots and garlic, and the chicken stock is used as the cooking liquid. The result is an intensely chicken-flavored rice, and delicious, perfectly cooked chicken. The chicken is served with cilantro and a salt-scallion-ginger dipping sauce. All we have to do now is strain the leftover stock and freeze it for next time. Tonight's chicken started with leftover stock from the first time we made it :) The theory, according to the NY Times, is that the chicken flavor gets more intense as you repeat. The recipe is below -- courtesy of Mark Bittman of the NY Times. Ben is a little obsessed with Bittman and his "The Minimalist" series. We even have his "How to Cook Everything" cookbook. I think a lot of his ideas/recipes are overrated, but this recipe was one I picked out and it's a home run! The picture above is from the first time we made it.
Ben wants to add that when you cut up the chicken on a cutting board and leave the carcass, the juices congeal and the remnants are so rich it tastes like turkey. Yup, that's my husband.
RECIPE: The Minimalist: From a Chinese Island, a Chicken for Every Pot (September 17, 2008)
Ingredients:
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 whole (3- to 4-pound) chicken, trimmed of excess fat
Several cloves smashed garlic, plus 1 teaspoon minced garlic
Several slices fresh ginger, plus 1 tablespoon minced ginger
1/2 cup peanut oil, or neutral oil, like corn or canola
3 shallots, roughly chopped, or a small onion
2 cups long-grain rice
1/2 cup minced scallions
2 cucumbers, peeled and sliced
2 tomatoes, sliced
Chopped fresh cilantro leaves
2 tablespoons sesame oil.
1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it. Add chicken to pot along with smashed garlic and sliced ginger. Bird should be completely submerged, but only just. Cover, reduce heat to medium, and cook for 10 minutes. Turn off heat and let bird remain in water for 45 minutes to an hour, covered, or until it is cooked through.
2. Remove chicken from pot, reserve stock, and let bird cool to room temperature. Put half the peanut oil in a skillet over medium heat; you may add trimmed chicken fat to this also. When oil is hot, add remaining garlic, along with shallots; cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add rice and cook, stirring, until glossy. Add 4 cups reserved chicken stock and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and cover; cook for about 20 minutes, until rice has absorbed all liquid. Stir in salt and pepper to taste.
3. Make a dipping sauce of remaining oil, ginger, half the scallions and a large pinch of salt.
4. Shred or chop chicken, discarding skin. Put rice on a large platter and mound chicken on top of it; decorate platter with cucumbers, tomatoes, remaining scallions and cilantro. Sprinkle sesame oil over all and serve with dipping sauce.
Yield: 4 to 8 servings.
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