One Day at a Time: October 2014

It was in my first visit to Singapore in 2007 that i was officially introduced to this hainanese chicken delight. Back in Daly City they call it "white chicken with ginger sauce" , it is was my favorite take out food from a meat store then, were we call the owner "Pangyao" for he is a Cantonese.

So, although it's most popular in Singapore, this also of Southeast Asia origin.

I started cooking this recipe after my children liked this hainanese chicken very much when we had a vacation in Singapore in 2010. Can you just imagine, they ate a meal of hainanese chicken every single day of our 8 day trip!

It's a little tedious to do at first , the trick here is to prepare all ingredients beforehand and then you can multi-task preparing everything for this wonderful dish.

This recipe is for 6-8 servings. cooking time is about 1 hour.

Ingredients:

1pc chicken or leg quaters ( 1.2 kg. or approx. 3lbs)

150g ginger

100g spring onion or onion leaks

100g cilantro/coriander

4-5 pieces of lemon grass

2 pcs med size cucumber

200g lettuce

8 cloves garlic minced

2tbsp chicken stock or powder (optional)

500g jasmine rice
pandan leaves

sugar

coarse salt

sesame oil

light soy

chili sauce

Procedure:

In a stockpot bring to a boil about 3 liters of water.

While waiting for it to boil. coarsely chop 70g ginger

and smash it. add this to the stockpot together with

70g onion spring or leaks , 70g cilantro 2, 5-6pcs of

lemon grass, 2 tbsp chicken powder, 1 tbsp coarse salt.

Clean the chicken of small hairs and feathers by

rubbing it off with a coarse salt. Take the fat off and set aside.

3. Fry the chicken fat until oil renders, add 8 cloves garlic, 20g onion, and 20g sliced ginger continue to fry until fragrant. Separate the fragrant oil and set aside. Pour the fried ingredients in the stockpot to add as poaching ingredient.

4. When the stock boils, add in the chicken, make sure the whole or all chicken are submerge.

Poach for 20 mins if the chicken is from room temperature and 30 mins if the chicken is chilled. Start the timer once the stock starts to boil again, lower down the flame to a simmering level.

5. While waiting for the chicken to cook, prepare the ginger sauce, the sprinkling sauce and the garnish.

For the ginger dip; mince 60g ginger, 20g onion spring and 20g cilantro, add in olive oil and a dash of salt.

For the sprinkling sauce; stir together 3tbsp fragrant oil, 2tbsp sesame oil, 2tbsp sugar, 3tbsp soy sauce and 100ml poaching stock.

For the garnish peel and slice the cucumber, wash the lettuce.

6. Before the end of poaching time, prepare a basin with ice and water in it. Dip the chicken once done and wait 5 minutes before taking it out, this step will stop the cooking and will firm up the chicken meat.

Wash rice cook, in rice cooker with equal amount of poaching stock, 20g of sliced ginger , 1tbsp sugar and pandan leaves

7. Rub the chicken with sesame oil and chop according to desired portion.

8. Plate with rice, garnish and sprinkling sauce.

Serve with dipping sauces, Enjoy!

If you want to add or suggest ways to improve this recipe, you're most welcome, feel free to post comment below. Thanks!

I first tasted this popular Malaysian rice noodle recipe at then Garden Café, the former coffee shop of Edsa Shangri-la Hotel, and since then, it has been one of my favorite rice
noodle recipe .My Uncle Angel who is a Sous Chef at that place taught me how to cook this Southeast Asian origin rice noodle recipe . It's very similar to Hongkong's popular street hawker food "Char Siew rice noodles " which my kids also loves to eat when in Hongkong.

It's not complicated to cook this rice noodle recipe , you can add different kinds of seafoods, pork, chinese sausage as you like or just stick with the basic pork, chicken, shrimp and egg which what I did for this recipe.

The method of cooking this rice noodle recipe is “stir fry” so you have to set the flame of your stove into high. Heat the wok and stir ingredients one by one rapidly over a high heat.

Ingredients:

for chili Paste:
(you can use a ready made chili paste if you have one)

3-5 small red chilies
3 small shallots diced
1 teaspoon oil
A pinch of salt

for sauce mix :

(blend all ingredients together)
1/2 cup soy sauce
1tbsp oyster sauce
1tbsp thai fish sauce

4 tbsp sugar
dash of white pepper

400 grams rice noodles cooked according to package direction

10-12 pcs white shrimp shelled

100 grams chicken strips

100 grams pork strip

2 eggs scrambled and fried

5 small shallots chopped

1/2 cup chopped chives

3 tbsp garlic minced

1 cup bean sprout

Procedure:

Mince or chop the chili and shallots and saute until soft.

Set aside.

Heat the wok over high flame until you see smoke evaporates from it. Add 2 tablespoons oil then stir in half of chopped garlic, and shallots.

Add in half of the pork, stir for about 20-30 seconds and then add in half of the chicken and half of the shrimp. Stir until the prawn starts to turn orange