In Asia, it is common for many families to prepare 3-4 healthy dishes for dinner as everyone in the family eat together at the end of the day. In each meal there will be a soup, a meat dish, a vegetable dish, and a side dish which may consist of seafood , egg or tofu or even an additional vegetable.
Hainanese Chicken Rice is dish that is found all throughout Singapore and Malaysia hawker stalls and eateries. You can also find other versions around the Chinatown of Thailand and Indonesia.
This dish was brought over from Hainan Island in China. Thus the name Hainanese Chicken Rice. However, you’ll probable never find this dish in Hainan Island because it was inspired by the Wenchang Chicken.
This dish normally involves poaching the entire chicken. With the huge amount of stock, it is use to cook and flavour the rice. As stall owners serve up the meat only, the bones will be thrown back into the leftover stock make soup. A lot of chicken rice seller serve the stock as it is, plain. There are also some who choose to add in additional root vegetables such as carrots or daikon.
However for small family like ours, I prefer using the thighs only. The leftover stock will be use for a soup. As for the rice, I chose to use Woh Hup Chicken Rice paste for flavour.
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Let’s dive right into the recipes
Menu of the day
- Poached chicken thigh
- Hairy Gourd Fish Ball Soup
- Poached Vegetable
- Beansprout in Shallot Oil
Poached Chicken Thigh
Equipment
- 1 Medium Size Stock Pot
Ingredients
Chicken
- 2 pieces Chicken Thigh
- 5 cups Water
- 2 stocks Spring Onion
- 1 Stock Coriender
- 1 small Ginger
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1 tbsp Shaoxing Wine
- 1/3 piece Chicken Stock Cube
- 1 bowl Ice Water
Sauce
- 3 tbsp Chicken Stock
- 1/2 tbsp Oyster Sauce
- 1 tbsp Light Soy Sauce
- 1 tsp Sugar
Instructions
- Bring the 5 cups of water to a boil in the stock pot. Prepare the herbs by rinsing off the dirt and chop into 5-6cm in length. Slice up the thumb size ginger. once the water boil, add in the aromatics together with salt and the Shaoxing wine. Bring everything to a boil again and simmer for about 35 minutes until the chicken are cooked through.
- Prepare a bowl of ice water. Once the chicken is fully cooked through, dunk it into the ice bath immediately for about 30 minutes.
- Retain the chicken stock but discard all the aromatics that are inside. Mix the chicken sauce together and set aside. Once the chicken is done chop it up if possible, plate it and drizzle the sauce over.
Notes
- Check the chicken is cook using a meat thermometer. If you do not own one, the next best thing is using a stick to poke through the thickest part. If the water runs clear, it’s cooked. If not, there will be tiny streaks of red liquid flowing out.Â
Hairy Gourd Fishball Soup
Equipment
- Stock Pot
Ingredients
- 1 Hairy Melon the smaller the better
- 8 Fishballs
- 1 tsp Sugar
- 1/2 tbsp Light soy
- 1 pot Chicken stock from the poached chicken
Instructions
- Slice up the melon into 0.5cm thickness. Rinse the fishball to remove excess salt if needed.
- Using the stock from poaching the chicken, reheat it to a boil.
- Add in the the hairy melon and cook for 15-20 min. Add in the fishball to cook for another 5 minute until all the fishballs are floating.
- Taste test the soup. Add in a little sugar and soy sauce if necessary.
Blanched Vegetables
Ingredients
- 200-250 gram Vegetables of your choice Eg Choy Sum, Bok Choy but not limited to
- A pot of water
- A pinch Salt
- A drizzle of cooking oil
- 1 tbsp Oyster Sauce
- A drizzle of Sesame Oil
Instructions
- Boil up a pot of water. Once boiling, add in salt and cooking oil, give it a brief stir before adding in your vegetables. Leafy vegetables like Choy sum with thick stems requires around 3-5 minutes depending on the thickness of the stem. If your choice is lettuce, it only required 30s in the boiling water.
- While the Choy sum are blanching, prepare your plate and add in some oyster sauce and sesame oil.
- Once the vegetables are done, mix it up on the plate with the sauce.
Beansprouts in Scallion Oil
Ingredients
- 2 handfuls of beansprouts
- 2 tbsp Fried shallots and the oil
- 1 tbsp Light soy sauce
- 1 tsp Sugar
- A pot of water
- Salt
Instructions
- Bring a pot of water to boil, or use the remaining water from the vegetables.
- Add in the beansprouts to the boiling water. In order to retain the crunch, balance the beansprout for about a minute. Alternatively, you can use a chopstick to bend 1 of the sprout.
- Prepare the a bowl with the fried shallot and the shallot oil, soy sauce, and sugar, add in the cooked beansprouts and give it a good mix.
Conclusion
3 dishes 1 soup often form the backbone of a Chinese meal. Due to busy routine, it is very easy to fall back on easy 1 pot meal for busy moms. While 1 pot meals can be convenient, quick and nutritious, it is very comforting to see a scrumptious dinner in the evening on your dining table.
I totally agree that sometimes it’s a real luxury or even intimidating to have to many different dishes in a meal. But 3 dishes 1 soup doesn’t have to very complicated.
If you give it try, tag me on instagram @itsjust.jadie. Alternatively, you can ‘like’ this article and leave a comment below if you like the simple Hainanese Chicken.