Hainanese chicken - it's all about the chook

For those who are familiar with South-East Asian food, you must have heard of Hainanese Chicken. It is a national dish in Singapore and wildly popular in other parts of Asia also (such as Japan, Malaysia and Thailand). But what most of you may not know is that this is a Chinese dish that originated from the island of Hainan, a tropical island and popular tourist destination. This is a simple, subtle yet flavourful dish commonly served with oily chicken rice, dipping sauces, clear chicken broth and refreshing vegetables such as cucumber. The chicken skin is gelatinous, flesh tender and juicy, the chicken rice full of chicken goodness, the dipping sauces (commonly a garlic and chili one, and a shallot one) add great flavour boosts to otherwise quite a subtly-flavoured dish, the coriander garnish and light soy broth bring everything together.

I like making this dish at home because it is so easy (and healthy too)! Well, I could post my own recipe here, OR I could just point you to a few of the better recipes out on the world wide web. Those who are not familiar with the authentic taste and texture of this dish could easily get lost in the countless Hainanese Chicken recipes out there.  Below are a few good Hainanese Chicken recipes I recommend:

1. Adam Liaw, the winner of MasterChef Australia, has a pretty good recipe found here: Adam Liaw's Hainanese Chicken. I would say that this recipe would get you something fairly close to the Hainanese Chicken and rice sold in the Asian food court under Pittsway Arcade in Sydney CBD. I wrote a passionate blogpost on the chicken rice there called: The best chicken rice for under $10 in Sydney
2. SBS food safari, a cooking/eating show, has a pretty decent recipe found here: SBS food safari hainanese chicken. I like the use of Chinese shaoxin rice wine but not quite sure about serving it with kecap manis, a Malaysian sweet soy sauce with the taste and texture of savoury molasses. I have never served my chicken this way. I am sure you can pick and choose the bits you enjoy.
3. Pailins Kitchen, a YouTube cooking channel, has a good Thai version of the dish: Kao Mun Gai. If you are in Sydney, try out Kao Mun Gai at Yok Yor Thai Food Factory.
4. Ochikeron, a YouTube cooking channel, has a good Japanese version of the dish: Hainanese Chicken Rice - Japanese variation. This is the easiest variation of this recipe, as this entire recipe is cooked in a rice cooker. But you are not going to get the same authentic taste and texture found in recipe 1. 

As you may have noticed, each recipe varies depending on the cultural origin of the chef and individual preferences, so don't be alarmed by the number of variations. As a matter of fact, I would go so far to say that as long as you follow the following basic principles, you can apply your own little 'twist' to this dish as you like:

• Buy a good quality chicken as it is the star of the dish. I always get free-range organic whole chicken as they taste like chicken (unlike the sad caged hormone-pumped 'product' that grow from a chick to full-grown in 2 weeks). It makes a huge difference what chicken you get, trust me.
• The chicken needs to be cooked on low heat. Don't boil the crap out of it.
• The rice needs to be seasoned with chicken flavour. The best approach is to use the cooking liquid or chicken fat or both.
• There needs to be a sauce. Or this dish would be too subtle. Garlic, ginger and shallots are the 'holy trinity' in Asian cooking, and the most common Hainanese Chicken sauce ingredients. You can add them in the cooking broth also to flavour the chicken.
• Garnish the dish with something fragrant and 'crunchy'. Fresh coriander and/or shallots, or deep-fried shallots, or fresh chili, garnish brings the dish to the next level, both in taste and look.

Now that you are equipped with all of this knowledge, I bet you cannot wait to run into the kitchen and try it out yourself. I am going to leave you with a nice picture of the Hainanese chicken rice I cooked the other day to get you in the mood. Happy hainanese chicken eating, everybody!