Hainanese Chicken and Rice

Hainanese chicken and rice is a delicate dish, perfect for someone who's under the weather or when you just want a comforting and healthy chicken dish.  Chicken breasts are gently poached/steamed over rice until they're moist and tender, while the fragrant rice is scented with ginger and a touch of soy sauce. I think steaming the chicken on top of rice is genius because it's an incredibly simple one pot wonder.   Green onions and toasted almonds add flavor and texture as garnishes, and the dipping sauce are important as well because the chicken is, well, chicken.  That's the basic dish.  From there, you can choose the fast and simple route to the finish line, or the slightly more complex but interesting route.

For the fast and simple route, slice up some fresh cucumbers and serve the dish with soy sauce, sweet chili garlic sauce and pickled ginger on the side.  You can pick up both the sweet chili garlic sauce and pickled ginger in the Asian section of your grocery store.

For the slightly more complex route, start by making quick pickled cucumbers (below) before you make the chicken and rice so they have time to marinate for a little while.  Make the ginger sauce (below) while the chicken and rice cook.  Serve the pickled cucumbers, pickled ginger, sweet chili garlic sauce and ginger sauce with the chicken and rice.  Even with making the cucumbers and ginger sauce you can still have dinner on the table in under an hour.

You can never have too many chicken and rice recipes, right?

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Hainanese Chicken and Rice

Serves 4

10 oz rice

1 ½ cups chicken broth

1 tablespoon minced ginger

1 tablespoon soy sauce

2 teaspoons butter

1 tsp salt

½ large carrot, shredded

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts (lightly pounded if uneven in thickness), seasoned with salt and pepper

2 green onions, sliced

3 tablespoons toasted sliced almonds

Sweet chili garlic sauce (comes in a bottle in the grocer’s Asian section)

Ginger sauce (below) or soy sauce

Pickled cucumbers (below) or fresh sliced cucumbers

Pickled ginger, optional

Cilantro sprigs

Wash the rice with cold water and put it into a pan. Add the chicken broth, ginger, soy sauce, butter, salt and carrots. Mix the ingredients thoroughly before placing the chicken breasts on top. Press gently on the chicken to partially submerge in liquid. Put the lid on the pan and let simmer on low heat for 14 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the pan sit covered for another 10 minutes. 

Remove the chicken breasts from the pan and slice crosswise into ¾” slices.  Stir the green onions into the rice, reserving a few for garnish. To serve, divide the rice between plates and top with sliced chicken.  Garnish with cilantro sprigs and reserved green onions.  Add pickled cucumbers and pickled ginger on the side.  Serve with ginger sauce (or soy sauce) and sweet chili garlic sauce for dipping.

Ginger Sauce

1/4 cup chopped onion

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger

½ lemon, juiced

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon white vinegar

Combine all sauce ingredients in a small food processor and process until smooth.  Serve at room temperature.

Quick Pickled Cucumbers

½ seedless cucumber, very thinly sliced

¼ cup rice wine vinegar

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon sugar

½ teaspoon toasted sesame oil

In a medium bowl, whisk together all ingredients except cucumbers until the sugar is dissolved.  Add cucumbers and toss well.  Marinate for at least 15 minutes and up to a day.

Coconut Chicken Fingers

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If you've ever enjoyed coconut shrimp, you'll like this recipe.  It's very easy to make - just cut up boneless skinless chicken breasts, bread them, brown them until golden, then bake until cooked through.  If you want to save calories and fat you could skip the browning step and just bake them for 20 minutes, flipping halfway through, but the pan browning step gives you a browner and crunchier coating.  Your choice.

Coconut shrimp (and chicken) are traditionally served with a dipping sauce that's both sweet and spicy.  The two most common versions are a spicy orange sauce (recipe below) and sweet chili sauce, which is a bottled sauce found in the Asian aisle of most grocery stores.  The sweet chili sauce is actually pretty mild right out of the bottle, but here's a secret that a chef once told me - if you warm it on the stove, it gets progressively hotter in terms of spice level so you can adjust it to your preference.  We chose the sweet chili sauce this time around because we already had a bottle open (and didn't want to open another jar of marmalade since The Lawyer already had three open in the refrigerator, which is another story entirely).  He like the chicken so much that at one point he asked "just where did you get this recipe?" which was pretty funny at least to me.  By the way, sweet chili sauce also makes an excellent dipping sauce for spring rolls or eggs rolls if you're wondering what to do with the rest of the bottle.

You could use unsweetened coconut if you prefer, but we liked the subtle sweetness from using sweetened coconut and felt it went well with the sweet and spicy sauce.  Again, it's your choice.  Isn't cooking great?

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Coconut Chicken Fingers

Serves 4

1 ½ pounds skinless, boneless chicken breasts or cutlets

1 cup sweetened shredded coconut

¾ cup Panko bread crumbs

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon black pepper

2 eggs

¼ cup canola oil

½ cup sweet chili sauce (found in the Asian section of grocery stores)

-  or Spicy Honey Orange Sauce (below)

If using chicken breasts, pound to an even thickness.  Cut chicken breasts or cutlets lengthwise into several long strips.

Preheat oven to 400d and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Set aside.

Pulse the shredded coconut in a food processor to make smaller pieces.  Combine with Panko in a shallow bowl.  In a second shallow bowl, whisk the flour, salt and pepper together.  In a third shallow bowl, whisk the eggs.  Line the bowls up in order:  flour, then egg, then coconut/Panko mixture.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.

Coat each chicken strip in flour, shaking off excess.  Then, dip in egg and let excess drip off.  Finally, generously roll in the coconut mixture and place on a clean plate or baking sheet.  Repeat with the remaining chicken pieces prior to putting any in the pan.

When all chicken pieces are ready, place them in the pan (may be done in batches if the pan isn’t large enough).  Fry until the first side is golden brown, about two minutes, then turn and fry until the second side is golden.  One each piece is done, place on the prepared baking sheet.

When all pieces are done, place the baking sheet in the oven for 6-10 minutes until chicken is completely baked through.  Serve with sweet chili sauce or Spice Honey Orange Sauce for dipping.

Note:  baked coconut chicken freezes well for 2-3 months.  Bake frozen chicken in a 350d oven for 20 minutes or until warmed through.

Spicy Honey Orange Sauce

½ cup orange preserves/marmalade

¼ cup honey

3 tablespoons Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

 Salt, to taste

Combine all ingredients and add salt to taste.