Search for the Perfect Hainanese Chicken Rice

After moving away from Singapore, we suddenly miss Chicken rice from the hawker center in the Bishan area. Our Singaporean neighbor offered us a packet of spices that makes semi-instant Hainanese chicken rice from Asian Home Gourmet. So we tried it out, and I gathered 3 recipes from the internet, and mashed them together to come up with my own version.

Here's what I did the first time I tried the recipe.

For Chicken:
Boneless chicken thighs
Garlic
Ginger powder - I use powder because I don't stock ginger in my kitchen, and the powder doesn't spoil
Water to boil the chicken in
Salt and pepper

-Place the chicken thighs in boiling water, along with garlic, ginger, salt and pepper. Boil for 15 min and then turn off the heat and let stand in the water for another 10. Save the stock made from cooking for the rice.

For Rice: I used the packet and the instructions on the back, adding the chicken stock from the chicken I cooked. Before using the stock, I re-seasoned it, to make sure it had taste.

For sauce:
ginger
garlic
chicken stock
chili
lime
sugar - to balance the lime and chili.

-Mix them all together and taste. My husband said it looked nothing like the hawker version, but definitely tasted right.


The packet rice came out tasting ok, except it needed more oil. Next time, I will try my own version from scratch. Plus, the packet had no instructions for how to make the sauce -thus, the search for the perfect chicken rice recipe starts...

Here is what it traditionally looks like. But, we really like the roast chicken rice better. I really want to try this one from Wokking mum in SG. It will be in my menu for the coming month. Next time, I'll have a picture of my own Chicken rice. :)

What's your recipe?