I’ve been trying to make Hainanese chicken since coming back from Singapore. After watching over 30 YouTube videos and documenting countless blogs for their take on this simple dish I came across the same problem each time.

-No measured ingredients
-Varied chicken weight
-Uneven cooking results and methods

The recipe I came up with after a bunch of random failed results has worked really well for me. I continue to tweak the recipe the more I cook it and will continue to update this recipe as I find better methods. This recipe will use exact water and chicken weight so you have a better idea how long to cook the chicken to give it that ever so perfect texture. Let me know how it works out for you!

The secret to getting the chicken to have the correct chicken-y flavor was to brine the whole chicken in chicken stock and salt, first, for 20 minutes at least. This gives the chicken that wonderful chicken flavor you’d expect from a hawker stall (even though I’m sure they don’t do this step.) The reason you’ll want to brine the chicken first is that the American bred chicken doesn’t carry that same intense chicken flavor as the chickens used at hawker stalls in Singapore. We’re unfortunately limited to what we can get in the grocery store. The brand I’ve had much success with is Jidori chicken. The Jidori chicken I get in my Asian grocery store is usually smaller (most are under 3 lbs) and the smaller size works very well for the particular poaching method needed to get the chicken meat to be the right texture.

There’s seemingly a lot of steps to this but after doing this once, it’s really not difficult at all and it’ll be worth it once you try the chicken!

This recipe is for 5 quarts of water to 2.90 lbs chicken (you can use a 3 lbs chicken to 2.80 lbs and the recipe will still work the same)

You will need:
8 qt stockpot (this was a perfect size for 5 quarts of water covered the chicken nicely for me)
Medium-Large bowl to brine chicken (or a large ziplock works, too)

Ingredients:
3 lbs chicken (Mine was exactly 2.90lbs. 2.80-3lbs is the range to look for) The brand of chicken I used is called Jidori
3TB Lee Kum Kee Chicken Bouillon
5TB Kosher Salt
2, 3-inch knobs of ginger (length is roughly the size of your middle finger)
5 springs of green onion
2 clove of garlic
1/4 Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 tsp Sesame Oil
Kikkoman Sweet Soy Sauce for Rice
2 cups chicken stock

Process:
First step:
-Remove any excess fat on the chicken (usually the flabby skin pieces near the cavity and the very front of the chicken where the neck used to be) cut those off and place to the side for later use for the sauces.

Water Amount:
-In the stockpot, fill it up with 5qts of water (you can go up to 6qts if you need a bit more to cover the chicken)

Brine:
-Place the chicken in medium mixing bowl breast side-down and pour 2qts of water (of the 5qts of water you just measured out) over the chicken. It should cover the chicken, use more of the water from the big pot if necessary. (I used a medium-size mixing bowl for this)

-Add in 3 TB of the bouillon and 4TB of the salt. Give it a mix as best you can and let the chicken rest for 20 minutes.

Note: Don’t place in the fridge, the 20 minutes allows the chicken to get to room temp so it can cook more evening when it’s added to the boiling water.

Now with the remaining water left in the stockpot, turn the stove on and start a boil:

1. No need to peel the ginger, use 1 knob and chop it into medallions and add to the water

2. Chop the spring onion in half once and throw in the water pot
-Add in 1 TB of kosher salt. Let it all come to a boil

3. Once the water is boiling and your brine has been going for about 20 minutes. Pour all that chicken brine into the stockpot and let it boil again (but don’t add the chicken just yet). Be sure to get all bouillon particles from the brine bowl into the stockpot.

4. After the water has reached boiling you’ll want to carefully start the dunking process for the chicken.
-I use 2 large spoons to do this, but use whatever works best for you to securely hold the chicken.

5. Holding the chicken securely give it 5 good dunks into the boiling water. It’s similar to how you would dunk a tea bag into hot water, the same idea. The big thing being, you’ll want to get the inner cavity of the chicken full of boiling water and pour it out back into the pot. Doing this 5 times will get your chicken to an even temperature for cooking and will ensure the inside cavity of the chicken isn’t too cold once the cooking process starts.

6. After you’ve done this place the chicken back in the hot water breast side down (it most likely will not be boiling, but still very hot, which is perfect)
The reason you want the chicken to be upside-down will be to ensure it cooks the breasts all the way through. Put the lid back on.
-Set your timer for 55 minutes.

7. Once the lid is on, turn the temp of the stove to a low simmer setting (it does not need to come back up to boil again). The idea being, after about 10-20 minutes you’ll start to see the water start to gently bubble again. Once that happens, you’ll want to turn the stove completely off (don’t open the lid once you turn off the stove!) and let it sit in the hot water for the remainder of the cooking time.

8. Once the chicken is cooking prepare your salt water bath. This doesn’t have to be exact, use enough cold water and ice, and measure out a rough amount of salt to fill the palm of your hand. The salty water will ensure the chicken doesn’t lose flavor.

9. After 55 minutes open the lid, give it a good poke near the thigh and see if the liquid that comes out is clear. If it’s still bloody (it shouldn’t be) let it sit in the hot water or another 10 minutes, then check the other leg.
-If the juice that comes out of the poke is clear, carefully take the chicken out and place it in the cold bath to stop the cooking process.
-locate to a chopping board and let it rest while you cook the rice. Drizzle on 1 tsp of sesame oil to prevent it from getting to dry.

Sauces:
Ginger Dipping Sauce
-Chop the chicken skin into smaller bite size pieces. Pan fry without oil till it looks like pork crackling. Reserve the chicken fat for cooking the rice and place the chicken cracklings in another bowl.

-In a small bowl, take 1 knob of ginger (reserve 1 spoon full for the spicy sauce) and peel the skin. Grind it into a paste along with 2 cloves of garlic. Add in salt to taste

-In the pan used to fry the chicken skin, pour in 1/4 cups of oil into the pan and heat it up just till it starts to smoke, then immediately pour it over the ginger-garlic paste. Give it a good stir and it’s ready!

Savory Spicy Sauce:
-Add in the 1 spoon of of reserved graded ginger to a bowl
-Add 5 chopped red bird eye chilies to the bowl
-add in 1 tsp of sweet soy sauce
-Spoon in 2 TB of chicken stock into the mix
-Mix and set aside

Sweet Soy Sauce Dip“
-Pour in 4 TB of Sweet Soy sauce into a small bowl
-Add in 2 TB of the cooked chicken stock into the bow
-Mix and set aside

Cutting the Chicken:
Start by removing the legs of the chicken, then cut the breasts and place on a serving platter. Remove the bones in the thigh and legs, and place on serving platter.
Right before bringing out to the table, drizzle the Kikkoman Sweet Soy sauce on top of all the chicken meat to give it a beautiful golden color and that authentic savory sweet flavor that they do at the hawker stalls before serving.

Enjoy!!!