Ingredients
Serves 41 x 1.5kg free range chicken
Salt for rubbing
2 coriander bulbs (leaves as well, washed well)
2-3 celery leaves
3 spring onions, cut into 2-3 pieces
½ tsp whole black peppercorns
2 tbsp salt
Rice:
500gr long grain rice
2 tbsp peanut oil
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 tbsp grated ginger
1 onion, finely sliced
Dipping Sauces:
1 tbsp ginger, finely grated
1 tbsp sambal oelek
1tbsp Chinese rice wine
1 tbsp chicken cooking liquid
½ spring onion, chopped finely
4 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp sliced small red chilli
Method
Remove any excess fat from the cavity and the fatty tail end of the chicken. Rinse and dry the chicken well. Rub inside and out with salt.
In a saucepan just big enough for the chicken (it should be a very snug fit), put 8-10 cups of water, coriander, celery, spring onions, peppercorns and salt. Bring to the boil and lower the chicken carefully into the pan with the breast facing downwards. When the water returns to the boil, lower heat so that it is only just simmering. Cover tightly and simmer for 25 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to stand for 40 minutes without uncovering to allow the chicken to finish cooking.
Wash the rice and allow to drain for 1 hour. In a heavy based saucepan, heat both the oils and fry the ginger, garlic and onion over low heat until soft and golden, but not brown. Remove 1 tablespoon of the oil and set aside for one of the dipping sauces. Add rice to the pan and fry over gentle heat for 2-3 minutes or until the grains are all well coated with the oil. Cover with 4 cups of the chicken cooking liquid, stir in 2 teaspoons salt and bring quickly to the boil. Cover with lid (and foil if necessary to get a tight seal), lower heat and cook very gently for 15 minutes.
Remove from heat and leave covered for another 10 minutes.
Remove chicken from stock and cut, Chinese style into serving size pieces. Serve with the dipping sauces and rice with an additional bowl of stock if desired.
Dipping Sauces:
Combine reserved oil, ginger, rice wine, spring onion, stock and sambal oelek for one sauce and soy and chilli for the other.
Notes:
This is a favourite recipe, especially for people who may have grown up with the dish as a child and then moved elsewhere in the world. It is definitely the Asian equivalent of comfort food, just like chicken soup for many cultures.
Brought to Singapore by the people of Hainan (an island off the southern-most coast of China), this has become a national dish, loved by Singaporeans. Visitors from Southeast Asia have been known to fly into Singapore especially for a taste of this gourmet boiled chicken and rice cooked with chicken broth. Freshly ground chilli and garlic sauce, flavoured with chicken stock, add that touch of finesse.
Chopping a Chicken Chinese Style
1. Place the chicken, breast side up, on a wooden chopping board. With a cleaver cut through the centre of the chicken, just to one side of the breast bone. The-chicken should now be divided into two equal portions.
2. Take one side of the chicken, cut in half, between the thigh and wing section.
Remove wing, by pulling back and cutting through the joint, cut into two pieces.
3. Cut the breast section (after the wing has been removed) into three equal pieces.
4. Remove leg, by pulling back and cutting through the joint, cut into 3 equal pieces.
5. Cut the thigh section (after the leg has been removed) into 3 equal pieces.
6. Repeat with second side. The chicken should now be cut into twenty-two pieces.
The Chinese cut the chicken in this manner for two reasons: The chicken is cut into small pieces, which allows it to be eaten with chop sticks, and the chicken can be re-assembled into chicken shape on the serving platter.