Hotel-Style Chicken Rice
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken
- 2 inches ginger
- 4 cloves garlic
- 5-6 shallots
Marinade
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 1-2 tablespoons light soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon sweet soy sauce
- 1-2 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
Rice components
- Fragrant rice
- Chicken fat lumps
- 5 shallots
- 3 cloves garlic
- 2 inches ginger
- 2 pandan leaves
- 1 bay leaf
- 1/4 cup full cream milk
- 1/2 - 1 chicken stock cube
- 1 teaspoon salt
- A pinch of sugar
- 3 star anise
- 4 cardamom pods
- 2 cinnamon sticks
Preparation
Chicken
Blend the ginger, garlic, and shallots.
Marinate the chicken with the blended mixture for 30 minutes or longer if the chicken is large.
Boil water in a pot and add the chicken, then reduce heat and simmer until the chicken is half-cooked.
Remove the chicken, marinate it with the marinade ingredients, coat evenly, and hang it for at least one hour.
Deep fry the chicken in oil until fully cooked.
Hang the chicken to drain excess oil, then cut it into pieces and serve.
Rice
Wash the fragrant rice, drain it, and place it in a rice cooker.
Render oil from chicken fat lumps in a pan.
Pound the shallots, garlic, and ginger.
In the pan with the chicken oil, sauté the pounded shallots, garlic, ginger, star anise, cardamom pods, cinnamon sticks, pandan leaves, and bay leaf until fragrant.
Add half of the chicken boiling water, full cream milk, salt, chicken stock cube, and a pinch of sugar, then bring to a boil and turn off the heat.
Pour the mixture over the rice in the rice cooker and cook until done.
Notes
Do not cut the chicken before cooking; keep it whole and cut after frying or roasting for a better appearance, though it can be cut into 2 or 4 pieces if frying is difficult.
Cutting into fewer pieces saves oil during frying.
Frying is preferred over roasting, and after frying, place on a rack to dry instead of hanging.
