A number of people from Indonesia have told me that they love our Singapore Chicken Rice. It is tasty and fragrance; and it always makes you wanting to eat more of it. Indeed, the Hainanese chicken rice that is sold here is unique and internationally well-known. I have tasted chicken rice that were sold in the food courts in Jakarta. Most of them claimed that it is the authentic Singapore Chicken Rice. But upon tasting it, it is just fake. The taste is flat, the rice does not have the same aroma that makes Singapore chicken rice distinctive.

I have decided to put up  a simple recipe for those wanting to prepare chicken rice. I must admit that I am not a great chef but I do cook whenever I have the time. You can follow the recipe here or change its variation to suit your taste. Cooking is after all an art and not an exact science. So here it is:=

1) obviously the first thing to do is to buy a chicken. Get a medium size whole chicken say approx 1 to 1.2 kg will do. You can buy fresh chicken easily in Indonesia. Ask the seller to remove the head (neck) and the rear end. You can of course keep it if you someone who loves eating chicken neck and bottom. Personally, I will skip it.
2) now that you have the chicken, what’s next? Yes, it is the rice. Use about 4 to 5 cups of rice – approx 1 kg. Wash and rinse it properly. Try to use fragrance rice, it taste better.

3)  2 cucumber. I love eating cucumber. Put them in a fridge. For this menu, you need to wash the cucumber and then slice them. Cucumber taste good even when it is uncooked. It taste better when it is just remove from the fridge – totally cool cucumber.

4) The rest of the things that you need are – rice wine (Optional).  Get those chinese cooking wine. You need approx 1 tablespoon Ginger – sliced about 10 of them. Garlic – about 6 – you need to peel and keep them as whole. Red chillies – about 10  pieces. Sugar – 1 tablespoon. Salt – about 1 teaspoon.

Now for the cooking part. The chicken needs to be placed in a steamer. Just add water and steam it for about approx half an hour until the whole chicken is well cooked. Alternatively you can placed the chicken in a pot with about 10 cups of water, add ginger, garlic and half teaspoon of salt and boil it for about 40 minutes till it is cooked. Do not throw away the chicken broth, you need it for cooking the rice.

You can now removed the hot cooked chicken, just rub a little of salt and rice wine ( outside and inside ) and just wait for it to cool. Then you can slice them in portions. Next, heat up the wok – add sesame oil ( just a little), 5 slices of ginger and then the rice. Stirred fry the rice for about 10-15 minutes until the rice seems to look rather light and there is no more moisture in them. Remember the rice that you are cooking here has not been cooked. You need to pour these rice into the rice cooker. Add the chicken broth that you have kept – approx 6 cups, garlic and a little salt and then cooked the rice in the rice cooker. Once the rice is cooked, it has the unique chicken rice aroma, it is then ready to be served.
Now for the chilli sauce. Take 6 to 10 chillies, 3 slices of ginger, one or two garlic, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, 2 teaspoon of lime and 1/2 teaspoon of sugar, add some hot water, blend them until it becomes paste.

Now that the cooking is totally done, you can served the chicken slices with the cool slice cucumber placed at the side. Some people loved to eat chicken rice with dark soya sauce. You can get dark soya sauce from any supermarket. Just add it to the chicken rice itself or placed it in a small sauce bowl as a dip for the chicken itself.

Chicken rice is a simple and yet a delicious meal that the whole family can enjoy. You can prepare a jug of ice lemonade or even fruit juices to go with it. Y Alternaltively, if you are a coke addict just like me, nothing beats a glass of ice cold Coke.

I like to acknowledge with thanks Ms Candy Chai for her valuable suggestion and comments in this preparing this recipe.

For more information about food, lifestyle and everything about Indonesia, please visit our website at – Indonesiapics.com