Chicken rice chili sauce

[KennethT]

The chilli sauce I made last night for Singaporean Hainanese chicken rice was the best I've done so far, so I figured I'd put it here so I can find it again.

 

4 spur chillies (prik chee faa) - deveined/deseeded

1" or so ginger

4-5 cloves garlic

1/2 t salt

1-1/2 t sugar

juice of half of a lime

1/3C chicken rice master stock (chicken stock refreshed with garlic/ginger/green onion)

1 t sambal oelek (if needed)

dash toasted sesame oil

 

[Shelby]

I'd love the recipe for the chicken rice, too, if you have a chance  

[chefmd]

29 minutes ago, Shelby said:

I'd love the recipe for the chicken rice, too, if you have a chance  

Me too please and thank you 

[KennethT]

3 hours ago, Shelby said:

I'd love the recipe for the chicken rice, too, if you have a chance  

😵  Ay yay yay....  I'll try... making the chicken itself and the stock doesn't really have many ingredients but it's quite a few steps if you do it the traditional way.  Making the rice requires the stock!

 

However, if you already have a decent chicken stock, you can get 95% of the way there by simmering some ginger, garlic and green onion for like a half hour until it's really fragrant. Then remove the solids and discard.

 

Soak however much jasmine rice you want to make in cold water for about 20 minutes.  Then wash the rice thoroughly with 4-5 changes of water until the water is clear.  Drain the rice well.

 

Traditionally, the next step is done using rendered chicken fat, but in the name of my cardiologist, I use a few Tablespoons of rice bran oil and saute about an inch of ginger (small dice) and 4-5 cloves of garlic, chopped - not to browning, but fragrant.  Add the drained rice and toss to coat evenly.  Then add to your rice cooker along with a fresh pandan leaf (I keep them in my freezer) that you can tie in a knot so it fits in the rice cooker easily.

 

Depending on how gelatinous your chicken stock is, add your fragrantized stock to the rice cooker using the same amount as you would water, or in my case, since my stock is really gelatinous, I make it half stock, half water.  Once the rice is cooked and the machine turns to the keep warm mode, let it sit undisturbed for like double the time that it was cooked - this is an important step in getting good rice texture.

 

Edit - add pandan leaf to the rice cooker

Edited January 17, 2022 by KennethT (log)

[Shelby]

10 minutes ago, KennethT said:

😵  Ay yay yay....  I'll try... making the chicken itself and the stock doesn't really have many ingredients but it's quite a few steps if you do it the traditional way.  Making the rice requires the stock!

 

However, if you already have a decent chicken stock, you can get 95% of the way there by simmering some ginger, garlic and green onion for like a half hour until it's really fragrant. Then remove the solids and discard.

 

Soak however much jasmine rice you want to make in cold water for about 20 minutes.  Then wash the rice thoroughly with 4-5 changes of water until the water is clear.  Drain the rice well.

 

Traditionally, the next step is done using rendered chicken fat, but in the name of my cardiologist, I use a few Tablespoons of rice bran oil and saute about an inch of ginger (small dice) and 4-5 cloves of garlic, chopped - not to browning, but fragrant.  Add the drained rice and toss to coat evenly.  Then add to your rice cooker.

 

Depending on how gelatinous your chicken stock is, add your fragrantized stock to the rice cooker using the same amount as you would water, or in my case, since my stock is really gelatinous, I make it half stock, half water.  Once the rice is cooked and the machine turns to the keep warm mode, let it sit undisturbed for like double the time that it was cooked - this is an important step in getting good rice texture.

Many many thanks.  I really want to try this.  

[KennethT]

39 minutes ago, Shelby said:

Many many thanks.  I really want to try this.  

I don't usually make the chicken itself in the traditional way.  Traditionally, you'd use a whole chicken, give it a complete salt scrub makeover, rinse, stuff the cavity with ginger/green onion, then poach gently in a big pot of water, then shock in a big pot of ice water when it done - that sets the gelatin in the skin.  Personally, my wife and I aren't huge fans of the skin for chicken rice (sacrilege!!!) so I'll usually use thighs and cook them SV in a bag of my master stock with the skin in the bag to get more gelatin out of it, but it's then discarded.  Or, since we had an appetizer last night, I took some tenderloins and just traditionally poached them in my master stock that I keep refreshing with garlic/ginger/green onion each time its taken out of the freezer.  To us, the most important things in a good chicken rice is the rice texture, chilli sauce, then chicken.

 

There's also a debate among Singaporeans as to the best way to eat it.  If you look at my singapore blogs, you'll see how it comes when you go to my favorite place, Wee Nam Kee.  The chicken arrives room temp, covered in what seems like a mixture of stock/soy sauce and sesame oil.  The plate of rice comes separately.  The chilli sauce is in a container on the table - take however much you want.  Also on the table are containers of grated ginger to add to the sauce (I like my sauce really gingery) and sweet soy sauce.  I like to add the sweet soy sauce (kecap manis) to the chilli sauce and mix thoroughly - then scoop a bit of combined sauce with each bite of rice and chicken.  Other people like to drizzle the sweet soy sauce over the rice, and some will even drizzle the chilli sauce in the same way.  To each his own.  Sometimes you get a friendly local at the table next to you, and if they think you've never been there before, they will insist on telling you how they like to eat it and why everyone else is wrong.

[Shelby]

25 minutes ago, KennethT said:

I don't usually make the chicken itself in the traditional way.  Traditionally, you'd use a whole chicken, give it a complete salt scrub makeover, rinse, stuff the cavity with ginger/green onion, then poach gently in a big pot of water, then shock in a big pot of ice water when it done - that sets the gelatin in the skin.  Personally, my wife and I aren't huge fans of the skin for chicken rice (sacrilege!!!) so I'll usually use thighs and cook them SV in a bag of my master stock with the skin in the bag to get more gelatin out of it, but it's then discarded.  Or, since we had an appetizer last night, I took some tenderloins and just traditionally poached them in my master stock that I keep refreshing with garlic/ginger/green onion each time its taken out of the freezer.  To us, the most important things in a good chicken rice is the rice texture, chilli sauce, then chicken.

 

There's also a debate among Singaporeans as to the best way to eat it.  If you look at my singapore blogs, you'll see how it comes when you go to my favorite place, Wee Nam Kee.  The chicken arrives room temp, covered in what seems like a mixture of stock/soy sauce and sesame oil.  The plate of rice comes separately.  The chilli sauce is in a container on the table - take however much you want.  Also on the table are containers of grated ginger to add to the sauce (I like my sauce really gingery) and sweet soy sauce.  I like to add the sweet soy sauce (kecap manis) to the chilli sauce and mix thoroughly - then scoop a bit of combined sauce with each bite of rice and chicken.  Other people like to drizzle the sweet soy sauce over the rice, and some will even drizzle the chilli sauce in the same way.  To each his own.  Sometimes you get a friendly local at the table next to you, and if they think you've never been there before, they will insist on telling you how they like to eat it and why everyone else is wrong.

Thank you so much for going into detail.  I have read every word of your blogs but it would be hard for me to find specific posts lol.....again thank you so very much.

 

I am excited to have a project to do and this is it.  

[TicTac]

Ken - curious, I have had this at a few local Malaysian places and never detected garlic in the chilli sauce (I do not tolerate garlic very well, so I would know!).  Always tons of ginger, but never garlic.  Is garlic traditional or just in your preferred iteration?  

[KennethT]

12 hours ago, TicTac said:

Ken - curious, I have had this at a few local Malaysian places and never detected garlic in the chilli sauce (I do not tolerate garlic very well, so I would know!).  Always tons of ginger, but never garlic.  Is garlic traditional or just in your preferred iteration?  

I don't know about Malaysian chicken rice - like most things there, the same dish in Malaysia is usually a bit different from the version in Singapore.  But traditionally, in Singapore at least, there is a lot of garlic in chicken rice - it's in the stock, rice and the chilli sauce!  But I don't know if your local Malaysian places are making their own chilli sauce or using a bottled product.  Once you get to having traditional dishes outside of their homeland, all bets are off!