Cơm Gà Hải Nam ) Plus 4 Sauces, Cách Nấu Cơm Gà Hải Nam Cực Ngon Và Đơn Giản
I used to be able to get two big meals from one whole chicken, but recently, one whole roast chicken lasted four or five meals for us. Granted, we’re a small household, but we find ourselves consuming more vegetables these days than animal protein. As a result, I started cooking half chickens. Last week, there was a chicken sale and I was all over it. But instead of one dish, I figured I could make two, maybe three dishes from a big bird weighing nearly five pounds. I asked the friendly butcher to cut the chicken in half and remove the backbone for me. My goal was to turn one half of the bird into Hainan chicken and rice, a favorite in Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. In Vietnamese, it’s called cơm gà Hải Nam. (What to do with the other chicken half? Grill, roast or braise it! Make a totally different dish.)
Hainan is an island off the southeastern coast of China. Tradition cooks poach a particular breed of chicken called the Wenchang chicken that seems to be akin to a stewing hen; it”s bony and tough. Chickens are precious in Old World cuisines (one bird is better off laying eggs than being serve at the table!), so a dish that sacrificed a chicken was special. As Hainanese people migrated throughout Southeast Asia, so did their chicken and rice traditions. Here’s a brief history from Singapore; there”s more information in this article on Next Shark.
Đang xem: Cơm gà hải nam
I’ve eaten the gingery poached chicken and rice plate at Singaporean hawker centers (Tian Tian is good as they say) and at Nong’s Khao Man Gai, a famed Thai food cart turned brick-and-mortar mini chain in Portland, Oregon. But I also make Hainan chicken and rice at home. It’s time consuming because of all the sauces, but it doesn’t require many ingredients. And you can cook the chicken up days in advance. Ditto for the rice and sauces. Just bring everything to room temperature before serving.
Bird Notes
The conventional version of Hainan chicken and rice goes down like this: poach a whole chicken till it’s slightly pink at the bone, use the broth and fat to make a gingery, garlicky rice, and serve extra broth as a soup. Thick slices of cucumber and wedges of tomato add refreshing notes.
My problem has been that the broth isn’t that flavorful. That”s because the bird is very gently cooked and then hacked up for serving. The cooking liquid is exceptionally light. The advantage to cooking with half a bird is this: whatever spare parts you have, put it into the broth to create good flavor. (See the photo above for what I put in; I omit the liver because it can add an off flavor.) Once the chicken is done poaching on no-heat, reheat the pot to simmer the broth a little extra for deeper savory goodness.
Ice down the chicken when it”s done. That arrests cooking but also creates a firmer finish on the skin. Few people enjoy flabby greasy boiled chicken skin. If you don’t like the skin, you may harvest it and fry it up into chicken fat and cracklings.
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Sauce Options
You only need one or two sauces. I got carried away this week and made four (4) sauces: a fresh ginger sauce, spritely chile sauce, savory-tangy-spicy fermented soybean sauce, and rich green onion-ginger sauce.
There’s also a sweet soy sauce that you may opt for too. just head to this Hainan chicken and rice recipe that I wrote up years ago.
The sauces are not difficult to prepare and you can do most of them in a small food processor like this one.
Prep Smart
Do NOT be daunted by the long recipe. Many ingredients are repeatedly used, but I have to list them so you may easily work through the recipe. These basic ingredients are what you need:
Half large chicken plus back bone, about 2 3/4 pounds (cut from a 5-pound chicken)4 ounces ginger, peel using a vegetable peelerCloves from 1 head of garlic1 bunch green onions (about 6 medium ones)Fine sea saltHandful (1 ounce) cilantro sprigsAbout 1/2 cup semi-refined peanut oil or neutral oil, or a 1:1 combination of unrefined peanut and neutral oils2 medium summer squash, or 1 small seeded opo squash, cut into 3/4-inch chunks
Peel the ginger and garlic to start with so you don’t get cranky later on. Since a half chicken doesn’t yield enough fat for the rice, I use oil. I like semi-refined or unrefined peanut oil for fragrance. Asian markets, particularly Chinese ones, sell the semi-refined kind; Lion and Globe as the go-to brand. For unrefined peanut oil, like Spectrum brand, head to a regular supermarket. Unrefined oil can’t be heat too high, which is I blend it with a neutral oil.
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If you want to perfume your rice with pandan, sold frozen or fresh at Southeast Asian and some Chinese markets, go for it! Otherwise, your rice will still be marvelous. Depending on your sauces, you may need all or some of these optional ingredients:
4 fresh or thawed pandan leaves, tied together in one loose knot2 or 3 large moderately hot chiles, such as Fresno or jalapeno3 or 4 hot Thai chiles1 lime1 1/2 tablespoons coconut, apple cider vinegar, or rice vinegarRegular oy sauceHoneySugar
So here you go! If you have a Hainan chicken and rice tricks to share, please do. We’re all here to learn.
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