n August last year an unassuming little restaurant in a Singaporean back street just around the corner from Raffles Hotel closed its doors for the last time, one more victim of Covid. Yet Con’s passing is particularly sad. It had been open for 80 years, making it much older than the city state of Singapore. And it was, arguably, the place that Hainanese chicken rice was first cooked up in the version known and loved around the world today.
The Chinese in Singapore, and throughout South-East Asia, came almost exclusively from the provinces along China’s south-east coast, from Shanghai around to Guangdong (Canton). The most southerly of these is Hainan. You can find Hainan easily on any map of China: it’s the large island in the Gulf of Tonkin, off the northern coast of Vietnam. The Hainanese were relative late-comers to Singapore, and their unintelligible dialect led them to be marginalised. They found work as shop assistants and domestic cooks. Come World War II many of their employers left, and the cooks turned to the retail food business.
Many of the Hainanese came from a city called Wenchang. This was home to a chicken dish famous throughout China for thousands of years—as far back as the first Imperial Chinese dynasty, the Qin, around 200 BC. It was their beloved Wenchang chicken that Mr Wong and Mr Moh, at their stall in the Yet Con coffee shop in 1940, turned into the dish that became Hainanese chicken rice.
Thanks to Peter ‘klyeoh’ for the story about Yet Con on the Hungry Onion blog, and the photos of the restaurant before it closed.
I have been cooking Hainanese chicken for years. It was the subject of my very first blog post, on New Year’s Day 2012. Later that year I gave a simple version of the recipe to our daughter Aisha when she went off to uni. She still has it, though meanwhile she has turned into a brilliant cook, and I’m sure would be happy to use the more complicated version.
With Chinese New Year last week—it’s now the year of the ox, wishing you happiness and prosperity, Gōngxǐ fācái—I thought it would be a splendid opportunity to make it at home, and to post the full recipe—as well as the simpler version. This is very much my own interpretation of Hainanese chicken rice. I’m sure it’s quite different to what you’d find in Singapore—but I think you’ll like it.
FIRST, THE SIMPLER VERSION
Ingredients
For four to six people, depending on the size of the chicken—and how hungry you are!
- Whole chicken
- Garlic | 6 lg cloves
- Ginger | 2 thumb-size pieces
- Spring onions | 1 & 1/2 bunches
- Ground white pepper | 1/2 tbsp
- Jasmine rice | 500 g
- Sesame oil | 1 tbsp
- Soya sauce
- Fresh coriander | 1 bunch
- Cucumber | 1/2
(preferably organic or free-range)
(I use Kikkoman)
Cooking
Chicken
- Bash 4 cloves of garlic and 1 piece of ginger (no need to peel either).
- Wash 1 bunch of spring onions.
- Put chicken, garlic, ginger, spring onions (whole), white pepper, and 1 tablespoon of salt into a pan with a lid, or a Dutch pot, big enough to snuggly hold the chicken (so not too big)
- Add 2.5 to 3 litres of water—enough to cover at least half the chicken.
- Simmer, covered, over medium heat for 25 minutes.
- Gently turn chicken over, being careful not to tear the skin, and simmer for another 25 minutes.
- Taste and add more salt if necessary.
- Pierce skin with a knife. Clear liquid should ooze out if chicken is cooked; if liquid is at all pink simmer for another 10 minutes.
- Check again, and if cooked, lift chicken out of the stock, making sure you drain liquid from inner cavity.
- Leave chicken to rest for 10 minutes before carving.
Rice
- Cook in normal way (see my blog on rice), but substituting half the water with stock from chicken pot.
- Keep warm until serving.
Dressing
- Peel and grate 2 cloves of garlic and 1 piece of ginger.
- Wash and thinly slice 3 spring onions.
- Chop coriander coarsely, including stalks.
- Cut cucumber into small cubes (about 1/2 cm).
- Mix all the above into sesame oil and soya sauce.
Serving
- Heat up chicken broth, pour into heat-proof serving bowl.
- Separate the chicken legs, carve the breast meat into large chunks, and arrange on a serving dish. If it’s easier, particularly around the wings, you can shred the meat instead.
- Mix rice well, then transfer to a serving bowl.
- Pour dressing into a serving bowl.
- At the table, place a portion of rice into individual bowls, then add chicken on top, followed by dressing, and finally broth.
There you have it: a delicious meal in a bowl.
Now my own, more elaborate, version
Ingredients
Also for four to six people
- Onions | 2 med
- Garlic | 7 lg cloves
- Ginger | 3 & 1/2 thumb-size pieces
- Whole chicken
- Cinnamon stick | 2.5 cm
- Star anise | 2
- Cloves | 5
- Ground white pepper | 1/2 tbsp
- Sesame oil | 3 tbsp
- Vegetable oil | 1 tbsp
- Jasmine rice | 500 g
- Tamari sauce | 1/2 cup = 100 ml
- Spring onions | 4 sticks
- Fresh coriander | 1 bunch
- Cucumber | 1/2
(preferably organic or free-range)
(Tamari is a darker, richer, less salty type of soya sauce—you should be able to find it in supermarkets)
Cooking
Chicken
- Peel and halve onions, bash 4 cloves of garlic and 2 pieces of ginger (no need to peel either).
- Heat up a griddle or cast iron skillet. Once hot, put onion halves cut side down, garlic, and ginger, and leave until they’re charred. Scrape off any burnt bits to prevent the stock becoming dark.
- Put these charred items with the chicken, the four spices, and 1 tablespoon of salt into a pan with a lid, or a Dutch pot, big enough to snuggly hold the chicken (so not too big)
- Add 2.5 to 3 litres of water—enough to cover at least half the chicken.
- Simmer, covered, over medium heat for 25 minutes.
- Gently turn chicken over, being careful not to tear the skin, and simmer for another 25 minutes.
- Taste and add more salt if necessary.
- Pierce skin with a knife. Clear liquid should ooze out if chicken is cooked; if liquid is at all pink simmer for another 10 minutes.
- Check again, and if cooked, lift chicken out of the stock, making sure you drain liquid from inner cavity.
- Strain stock to remove the spices.
- Before serving drizzle and rub a tablespoon of sesame oil onto chicken’s skin, then crisp up skin under a hot grill.
Rice
- Peel and grate 3 cloves of garlic and 1 piece of ginger.
- Heat a large frying pan, then add vegetable oil.
- Once oil is hot, fry garlic and ginger, and a pinch of salt, until fragrant.
- Mix in rice, coating all grains with oil.
- Transfer rice to rice cooker or saucepan, drizzle over 1 tablespoonful of sesame oil.
- Cook in normal way (see my blog on rice), but substituting half the water with stock from chicken.
- Keep warm until serving.
Accompaniments
- Peel and grate 1/2 piece of ginger, and mix it into tamari sauce, adding 1 tablespoon of sesame oil.
- Wash and thinly slice spring onions.
- Chop coriander coarsely, including stalks.
- Cut cucumber into small cubes (about 1/2 cm).
Serving
- Pour dressing into a serving bowl.
- Put spring onions, coriander, and cucumber in separate serving bowls.
- Heat up strained chicken broth, pour into heat-proof serving bowl.
- Separate the chicken legs, carve the breast meat into large chunks, and arrange on a serving dish. If it’s easier, particularly around wings, you can shred the meat instead.
- Mix rice well, then transfer to a serving bowl.
- At the table, diners place a portion of rice into their own bowl, garnish with spring onion, add chicken, pour on warm broth, top with coriander and cucumber, and finally drizzle with tamari and sesame oil dressing.
It’s a dining spectacle; one which showcases a dish that turns a humble chicken into a banquet.