"Almost" Hainan Chicken with Rice 簡易海南雞飯

• Trim fat and excess skin from chicken. Cut fat into small pieces (1-2cm) and put into a bowl If you have time and want to make the skin tighter and nicer looking, you can blanche the chicken legs for 30 seconds at this point. Then submerse it in cold water or an ice bath. This will help the skin stay in shape when you cut the chicken after it’s cooked
  
• If you want to make boneless Hainan chicken, make a cut around the drumstick bone on the inner side of the chicken leg. Do not cut through, only cut to the bone. Repeat for the thigh bone. Detach enough of the meat from the bone so that he bones are exposed. This will make deboning easier after steaming
  
• Coat with one packet of Spicy Bake Mix. Mix well and set aside
• Wash rice and drain water
• Add 1 tbsp of oil into a pan at medium heat. Add chicken fat to render the oil. Once the fat pieces have shriveled, remove them from the pan. This oil will be used for cooking the rice. If you think that there is too much oil, remove some from the pan I like to have 2-3 tbsp of oil
• Add garlic, half the shallots, half the lemongrass, half the galangal, ¼ tsp turmeric powder and 1 tsp salt and stir-fry for 2 minutes I purposely added only a little salt to accommodate for the sauces that go with the chicken. If you are not making sauces and want the rice to be saltier, you can add more
  
• Add rice and stir-fry for 2 minutes until the turmeric powder has mixed with the rice evenly
  
• Pour everything into the rice cooker and add 700ml of the broth or a little past the “4” line (since we used 4 rice cooker cups of uncooked rice) to compensate for the oil and added ingredients in the rice and press “cook”
• Put the chicken with the slit side down in a dish for steaming I didn’t have any pandan leaves at the time, but if I did, I would tie it into a knot and place it underneath chicken legs
  
• Put the rest of the shallots, lemongrass and galangal on top of the chicken
  
• Steam at low heat (82˚C or 180˚F) for 30 minutes or until cooked. Steaming tip for stove top: Boil the water in the steamer first on high heat, put the chicken into the steamer and then reduce heat to low. For 1-2 pounds of meat with bone, cooking time will be around 30 minutes; 2-3 pounds, 45 minutes. Low heat steaming will make the chicken tender and juicy.
• Prepare cucumber. You may choose to spread the slice cucumbers around a serving dish Besides using cucumbers, you can also use lettuce, tomatoes, cilantro or pickled raddish
  
• Once chicken is cooked, let it rest for 5-10 minutes or until it’s cool enough to handle
• Use kitchen scissors to remove the meat from the bones, keeping the meat in one piece is preferable for slicing If you’re not worried about aesthetics, you can just use your hands to tear the meat off the bone…rustic style.
• Cut the meat into desired size and place on serving dish
  

Green Onion and Ginger Oil Instructions:

• Put chopped green onions and minced ginger in a heat-resistant bowl
• Add ½ tsp salt and mix well
• Heat 3 tbsp of oil try to use a flavor-neutral oil
• Pour into bowl and mix well

Chili Sauce Instructions:

• Put chilies, garlic, sugar and vinegar into a food processor, blend and pour into a container If you don’t want to use a food processor, you can put the garlic and chilies in a Ziploc bag, put on a cutting board, and pound with a meat pounder
• Add 2 tbsp of Thai sweet chili sauce and mix well

Thick Sweet Soy Sauce Instructions:

• In a small pot, add 1 tbsp light soy sauce, 2 tbsp dark soy sauce, 2 tbsp sugar on low heat
• In a small container, mix 1 tsp cornstarch with 4 tbsp water
• When sugar is melted, add cornstarch mixture to the pot and mix well
• Once the mixture thickens, you can turn off heat. It will thicken more after you turn off heat