Hainanese chicken rice is one of the favourite dishes of local Singaporeans as well as tourists, some of whom visit the little red dot with a purposeful intent to try out this dish. What makes this dish special is the simplicity in its taste – soft, tender chicken skin and meat decked out on a plate of fragrant, oily rice cooked in chicken stock. This simplicity parallels the minimal amount of effort that goes into preparing the dish. In fact, what matters most is not the amount of time spent cooking the chicken and rice, but the skills required to cook them – knowing how long to cook them (especially the chicken) and how. Once you get the chicken and its stock right, the other steps would fall into place quite naturally – the rice would smell aromatic; the garlic chilli would be tart; the soup would be savoury too.
I hope you’ll find pleasure in making (and eating) this dish, just like I did.
