If a tourist has only one day in Singapore and asks for suggestions on what to try from Singaporean cuisine, my first response would be “Is there any way you can extend that to a few days?! Stay! At least to eat” 🙂 There are soooo many dishes one should try in Singapore. 🙂 However, if extension is not a possibility, I’d say “Kaya Toast for breakfast, Hainanese Chicken Rice for lunch and Chilli Crab for dinner!”

Considered the national dish of Singapore, Hainanese Chicken Rice (often referred to as ‘chicken rice’) is widely popular in the country. You will find this classic dish in most, if not all, food courts and hawker centres. The dish consists of succulent poached chicken and richly flavored rice served with chicken broth soup, chilli-garlic sauce and a sweet-ish soy sauce. It is the combination of all these elements that make the dish complete. Some also serve freshly ground ginger alongside.

You will find Hainanese Chicken Rice throughout South East Asia – Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and so on. Each country has its own version – the accompanying dips, condiments or garnishes may differ. However, Hainanese Chicken Rice is most often associated with Singaporean cuisine. The dish is well-known internationally, thanks to celebrities like Anthony Bourdain and Gordon Ramsay who have praised it. CNN has listed chicken rice as one of the 50 best foods in the world in 2019.

What makes chicken rice special is its simplicity. You don’t need to master complicated techniques to prepare it. Nevertheless, I’d say it is not an everyday dish if you want to make from scratch because of the cooking time. You have to slow cook the chicken, and then use the resulting broth to cook rice. In all the years I lived in Singapore, I never cooked Hainanese Chicken Rice. It was easier to just walk to the hawker centre near my apartment and buy it. It is tasty as well as cheap! A chicken rice meal costs you as little as $2 – $3 (USD)! But after moving from the country, I occasionally make it at home and every single time, chicken rice takes us back to Singapore. 🙂

This recipe evolved from trials and errors to recreate the hawker-style Hainanese Chicken Rice I was used to having. My first trial was a disaaaster – both the chicken and rice were so bland! But with more trials, tips from several recipes on the internet and my own tweaking, I can say I am finally happy with the Hainanese Chicken Rice I make. Hope you guys like it too!

History of Hainanese Chicken Rice

Hainanese chicken rice was created by early Chinese immigrants from Hainan, a tropical island in southern China. They adapted their much loved dish from back home ‘Wenchang chicken‘ prepared with a smaller and bonier variety of chicken also called Wenchang chicken. It is believed that in the Ming dynasty era, an official brought chickens from his home town Wenchang and gifted them to the emperor, who fell in love with the dish prepared with this chicken and named it ‘Wenchang chicken’.

When people from Hainan migrated to different parts of South East Asia, they adapted Wenchang chicken using locally available and affordable ingredients. It is said that the immigrants, out of frugality, tried to stretch the flavor of chicken through this dish. With Cantonese influence, the dish evolved to use white cut chicken instead of Wenchang chicken. Another major difference between Hainanese chicken rice and its original version is that the latter is cooked in a broth made from pork and chicken bones, but Hainanese chicken rice avoids the pork base. The accompanying dips are different in different regions of South East Asia. The Singaporean / Malaysian version of Hainanese chicken rice is always served with chilli-garlic sauce and sweet soy sauce.

Following World War II, Japanese troops occupied Singapore. The British were forced out of Singapore and their Hainanese servants lost their livelihood. This was when the first Hainanese Chicken Rice restaurants were opened in Singapore. Ever since, chicken rice has become an indispensable part of Singaporean cuisine. These days, you will see many variations of this dish – the chicken may be roasted or braised in soy sauce, sometimes it’s fried and sweet lemon sauce drizzled over it, and so on.

How do we prepare Hainanese Chicken Rice?

A Hainanese Chicken Rice meal consists of four elements – chicken, rice, soup, and the dips. All of these complement each other, and it is the combination of these elements that make the dish spectacular.

Chicken

Traditionally, a whole chicken (with skin on) is rubbed with coarse salt to remove loose skin and hidden guck. This exfoliation step should not be skipped as this is what makes the skin sheeny shiny! It is a bit awkward for first timers to get used to this step because it’s almost like you are giving the chicken a massage! Haha! The chicken is then poached in water with green onions and ginger stuffed-in for seasoning. I just throw in the seasonings, though. It is cooked at sub-boiling temperatures making the meat tender and juicy, while producing the stock simultaneously.

Once cooked, the chicken is immersed in an ice bath. This step is crucial for the skin to get the jelly-like finish that Hainanese Chicken Rice is famous for. The ice bath stops the cooking process and locks in moisture. The chicken is then glazed with a mixture of sesame oil and salt for the golden color. Some vendors, instead, pour a mixture of turmeric powder and water onto the chicken. This is why the chicken is more yellow in some stalls than in others.

I generally don’t use a full chicken when I make Hainanese Chicken Rice at home. Instead, I use chicken thighs with skin on. I find this easier, and chicken thigh has a good amount of fat, making it perfect for Hainanese Chicken Rice. Thighs are also good when preparing the dish in smaller quantities.

Rice

Each family or chef has their own signature recipe and proportions of ingredients to cook the rice. The ultimate aim is that the rice should be delicious on its own.

You can use any variety of white rice. Since I am Indian, the rice I most often have in my pantry is Basmati rice. So, that’s what I use. The rich flavor of rice really comes from first sautéing the rice grains in chicken fat and then cooking the rice in broth that remains from cooking chicken. The cooking liquid is seasoned with pandan leaves, garlic and ginger. The resulting rice is rich with flavor and also a bit oily. If you are in a place where pandan leaves are not available, just skip it. It is definitely more authentic with pandan leaves, but it is not available in some places. So, I have cooked rice without it too and it was still very close to the authentic taste.

Soup

For the soup, reserve a portion of the broth remaining from cooking the chicken. If you like it to be a little sweet, add some radish or carrot while cooking the chicken. Garnish the broth with freshly chopped green onion and/or cilantro leaves and serve warm.

Dips

There are two dips you should absolutely not skip when making Singaporean Hainanese Chicken Rice: chilli-garlic sauce and a sweet soy sauce.

The chilli–garlic mixture can be prepared ahead of time. When you have cooked the chicken, take a few spoons of the broth and mix it into the chilli-garlic mixture to make the accompanying sauce for Hainanese Chicken Rice.

The sweet soy sauce tastes mildly salty and sweet. It is simply a blend of soy sauce, sesame oil, shaoxing wine / oyster sauce / rice vinegar, sugar and broth. I mostly add only rice vinegar because I don’t always have the other two, but feel free to try adding them.

Some people also serve a ginger-garlic sauce with Hainanese Chicken Rice. This sauce is made of freshly ground ginger and garlic in oil and broth. Those who don’t like the raw flavor of ginger and garlic fry the mixture gently before adding the liquids. I haven’t included this sauce in the recipe card because it is not as common as the other two sauces.

Serving suggestions

Hainanese Chicken Rice is generally served at room temperature, but the soup is warmed up. Cut the chicken into thin long pieces and serve over rice or on a separate plate. Either way, don’t forget to pour some of the sweet sauce over the chicken.

Serve Hainanese Chicken Rice with soup, cucumber slices, chilli-garlic sauce and more sweet soy sauce on the side. To recreate the food court or hawker-style Hainanese Chicken Rice, drizzle some of the sweet soy sauce on the cucumber slices 🙂

Enjoy this delightful dish and embark on a culinary travel to Singapore. Another must-try recipe from Singaporean cuisine is Lamb Rendang – my favorite lamb recipe yet!

More East-Asian Recipes:

• Rendang
• Chinese Pork & Cabbage Dumplings
• Thai Fried Rice (Khao Pad)
• Thai Chilli Fish Sauce (Prik Nam Pla)