Chinese White Cut Chicken (Pak Cham Kai) and Hainanese Chicken Rice

I have been craving for chicken rice and pak cham kai for sometime so I decided to cook it. Although it look and sound tedious but it is actually quite easy to cook. The cooking time looks long but your actual 'performing' time is quite little. Read further to find out why I say so and remember to reserve sometime for this dish :)

Chinese White Cut Chicken (Pak Cham Kai)

Ingredients:-

    Marinate 

• 1.2-1.5 kg whole chicken
• 3 cloves garlic, halved
• 2 stalks spring onion, cut 10cm
• 1cm knob ginger, sliced
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp rice wine
• 1/2 tsp ground white pepper
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil

•  a large bowl of ice water

    Rub over chicken

• 1 1/2 tsp sesame oil
• 1 1/2 tsp soy sauce OR to taste
• ground white pepper

Method:-

1. Remove chicken fats and reserve for chicken rice. Put chicken under running water and pat dry. 
2. Place garlic, spring onion, ginger, salt, soy sauce, rice wine, white pepper and sesame oil into the chicken cavity and let it sit for an hour. 
3. Bring a large pot of water to boil. Make sure it is enough to submerge the entire chicken with lid on. 
4. When the water has boiled, remove pot from heat and place the chicken into the water, neck first. Put lids on and leave the chicken in for 1 hour.
5. After 1 hour, lift the chicken out of water, set aside and bring the water to boil again. Remove the pot from heat again and put the chicken in for 50 minutes.
6. Remove chicken gently from the pot and place it on a serving dish to cool down. By this time,  if you have not notice, the POT of water has turn to a wonderful pot of chicken stock. The chicken stock can be use to make chicken rice and soup.
7. Discard the mixture in chicken cavity, combine sesame oil and soy sauce and rub over the chicken. Let it rest for awhile and slice the chicken accordingly.     
8. Garnish with red chillies, spring onion and a generous dash of ground white pepper. 

Hainanese Chicken Rice


Ingredients:-

• 2 tbsp oil + chicken fats
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cm knob ginger, sliced
• 3 cups rice, washed and drained
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 cups chicken stock (from the chicken stock above) 

Method:-

1. Heat up oil and chicken fat in a pan/wok at medium high heat. Once the chicken fat dissolves, saute garlic and ginger until fragrant. 
2. Add rice and salt. Combine well. 
3. Remove rice mixture to rice cooker, add chicken stock and more salt if required and cook like how you cook rice (press the cook button) and wait till it is dry and fluffy.