The Hainanese chicken rice experiment

Having a grandmother and a mom who are both Home Economics teachers, it doesn't come as a surprise that me and my sister love to experiment with recipes. We're a team when it comes to recreating our own version of any dish that catches our fancy. I prepare, she cooks. It's both fun and time-consuming but we enjoy it a lot.

Just last Sunday, we decided to try our own version of the famous Hainanese chicken rice. I had been craving for it after I read about it on some blogs and the Kenny Rogers experience did little to satisfy my palate. So off I went to the grocery to shop for ingredients.

You'll need:

1 whole dressed chicken
onion
garlic
lemon grass
spring onion
ginger
4 pcs. chicken bouillon cubes
calamansi
soy sauce

We decided to create our own broth to boil the chicken in. Just mix the onion, garlic, lemongrass, spring onion, ginger and bouillon cubes in two liters of water. Bring to a boil. After which, add the chicken (breast down) and let it boil again for 25 minutes. Turn the chicken upside down when the time is up and add another 20 minutes of boiling time. Once it's done, we placed the chicken in a bowl of iced water to tighten up the skin. Iced bath it is!

After ten minutes or so, it was time for the chopping. Sheila realized she sucked at it as she carefully hacked the chicken's appendages. But practice makes perfect, right?

As for the rice, we decided to cook it the usual way but using the broth for the chicken instead of water. The sauce was another thing we decided to improvise on. We simply mixed grated ginger, calamansi juice and soy sauce.

Needless to say, we were in a food comma after dinner. Too bad for my brother since he doesn't eat chicken so he wasn't able to enjoy the dish we prepared. I can't wait 'till my mom gets to try this out. Dad's excluded since chicken's off-limits to him because of his arthritis.