Hainanese Chicken Rice

A super easy take on Hainanese Chicken Rice that you can make in the rice cooker? I'm in!

Recipe by 肥媽 (translated from Cantonese) 

Effort: 1/3

Ingredients

- Chicken stock

- 1tbsp oil

- Salt

- Pepper

- Ginger

- Lemongrass

- Spring onions 

- Pandan essence (leaves are even better if you have them)

- Chicken thighs 

Prep

-  Cut 3 slices of ginger - I'm not a massive fan of ginger, if you are you can add more if you like!

-  Chop the lemongrass into chunks, we only want the bottom half.

NOTE: The lemongrass needs to be picked out later (we don't eat that!) so just chop it in half - I've made the mistake of chopping it too small so you don't have to!

- Take the spring onions and chop off the whites. Don't worry we'll use the greens later. 

- If you have pandan leaves, knot one leaf, if not you can use a tsp of pandan essence like me!

- Make chicken stock. I used about 2 tbsp to about 300ml of water but I will be adding more water later.

- Season your chicken with salt and pepper. I have used thighs because I prefer the smoother texture but you can use whatever cut you like!

Let's Cook!

1. Wash your rice and put everything on top. Yep, that's right! Everybody in!

2.  After pouring in the chicken stock, top up the water like you normally would when you make rice.

3. Make sure you add the tbsp of oil after the water or it'll be a bit gross when you put you finger in to check. I measure the water using the finger method and if you do too, I have once again made the mistake so you don't have to!

4. Lastly, put the chicken in.

NOTE: If you're using boneless, skinless chicken like me I would recommend adding the chicken once the rice is at a bubbling stage as I thought it was a bit overcooked. If you're using chicken on the bone and with skin on, you're probably fine to put it in together.

5. Hit cook and let the rice cooker do it's thing!

NOTE: Keep and eye/ ear out for the bubbling stage if you want to put your chicken in later to avoid overcooking.

This smells AMAZING while it cooks!

6. While the rice cooker works it's magic, finely cut the greens from our spring onions.

Et voila! It is done!

7. Take the chicken out to cut for serving and remove the lemongrass. 

I took the ginger out too because not a huge fan but you can leave it if you like.

8. Heat a little oil to pour over the spring onions (you should get a tiiiiny sizzle!) and add a little soy sauce.

Let's eat!

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Costings

Rice (250g) - 20p

Chicken thighs x3 - £1.14

Lemongrass x2 - 43p

Spring onions x3 - 21p

Ginger (3 slices) - 3p(ish)

= £2.01 AND there's enough rice for tomorrow!