The essence of chicken: Heat up a pan, put one chicken thigh in the pan, skin side down. Fry the chicken till the skin turns golden brown and then turn the chicken around, you should have some chicken oil in your pan right now. Add in choped onion, white part of the spring onion, ginger, Sichuan pepper and shallot in the pot and stir fry until fragrant. Pour in a bowl of water and boil the chicken for about 15 minutes. Fliter the spices out and keep the soup and the chicken. There we have it, the essence of chicken.
Get your chicken ready for the bath: Skin your chicken thighs (you may keep it if you prefer) and marinade them only with salt. Let them sit for about 20 minutes.
Chicken and rice: It’s okay if you don’t have a real rice cooker like the most of the Asian family. Get a big pot made of non-stick material and you are ready to make some steamy fluffy rice. To achieve the Hainanese Chicken Rice, you’ll need a pot that’s deep and wide enough to fit in all the chicken thights and rice that you prepared before hand. Rince your rice and add water to the level of the rice. Add the essence of chicken (the soup) in the rice. Place your salted chicken thighs on the rice. This way, while cooking, the juice of the chicken will double up the essence and the rice will absorb all the chicken oil. Place a few ginger slices over the chicken to eliminate any undesirable flavor. Leave the pot on high fire till boiling point and then turn to medium. Cook for about 30 minutes (or just check from time to time to see if there’s any liquid left). Once there’s no more juice left, stir everything up and keep the lit on for another 15 minutes. Make sure the rice is dry and fluffy. Once finished, you almost have your chicken rice!
One last step: Another thing that makes the already delicious dish even better is a dipping sauce for the chicken. Actually, you might just want to pour the sauce in and mix it up with the rice and the chicken. All you need is to boil a bit of water in a pot, add in about two tablespoons of sugar (preferably crystal sugar). When the sugar’s melt down, add in some light soy sauce (you may put in a bit of dark soy sauce if you have it). Stir them up and add in soy sauce or sugar according to your taste. Once it’s tasty, cool down the sauce and you can now start to feast!