Hainan Chicken and Rice Recipe (Com Ga Hai Nam)

Since we've been talking about what is authenticity in Asian food and mixing things up, it got me thinking about a great dish -- Hainan chicken and rice. The one dish wonder comes from the island of Hainan off the coast of China. Called Hai Nam in Vietnamese, the surrounding waters of the oil-rich island has been the subject of maritime dispute was disputed territory between China and Vietnam for years ago and Vietnam skill keeps its eyes on foreign oil contracts related to the territory.

Chickens are precious in Asian kitchens so take a whole one, poaching and eating it is saved for special occasions like Tet in Vietnam. For that reason, a dish like Hainan chicken and rice is a grand thing indeed. It's a resourceful dish because practically all the parts of the bird are used!

First the chicken is gently poached and then the cooking broth is cooked down a bit and used to cook the rice, which is fried in a little chicken fat. The chicken is cooled to room temp and cut up to be served with the flavorful rice.  A dipping sauce flavored with the broth and sometimes gilded with chicken fat accompanies the chicken. The leftover broth is served as soup on the side.

In Vietnam, we typically poach chicken and serve it under a layer of super finely shredded tender lime leaves. The sauce is salt, pepper, lime juice and fresh chile. Hainan chicken and rice is just a few steps further beyond that. I ate many versions on my recent trip to Asia and the best rendition was in Singapore. After returning home, I replicated it, but added my own Viet touch, a bit of nuoc mam in the broth.

Typically, there's a fresh ginger dipping sauce. In Singapura, they serve a sweetened soy sauce and a super duper spicy chile sauce. I've offered all three below for you to choose. You can make these sauces 1 or 2 days in advance to cut down on the work. In developing this recipe, Singapore food expert Christopher Tan's book Shiok!  was quite helpful.

Find a good chicken for this dish. I used a Buff Orpinton raised by Deep Roots Ranch in Watsonville, and the fat that I got was oh so yellow and flavorful. It's lean bird, what you'd say is chewy in Vietnamese terms. Chinese markets have terrific whole chickens, with the head and feet attached. Or just go to your grocer and find the best your pocketbook can afford.

And, that shocking in ice business after poaching? It firms up the skin and puts a great layer of gelatin underneath. The process is a little secret among master chicken poachers. Enjoy.

Hainan Chicken and Rice
Com Ga Hai Nam

Serves 4 to 6 as a main course

For the chicken:
1 whole high quality chicken (about 31/2 pounds)
5 quarter-sized slices ginger, peeled or unpeeled, crushed with the broad side of a cleaver or chef's knife
1/2 medium yellow onion, sliced
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon fish sauce

For the rice:
2 cups raw long-grain rice, such as Thai jasmine
4 tablespoons chicken fat (take from poaching liquid) or peanut oil
1-1/2 tablespoons finely chopped garlic
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh ginger
1 tablespoon finely chopped shallot
4 fresh or thawed pandan leaves, tied together in one loose knot (optional)
Salt, to taste

Sauce option 1: Ginger sauce
2-inch chubby section ginger (about 2 ounces), peeled and thinly sliced
1 1/2 tablespoons peanut oil
1/4 teaspoon salt

Sauce option 2: Singapore chili sauce
2 or 3 large red chiles, such as Fresno, cayenne, or long chile, coarsely chopped
2 or 3 hot Thai chiles, coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon finely chopped garlic
1-1/2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon hot chicken poaching broth

Sauce option 3: Sweet Soy Sauce
1 tablespoon light (regular) soy sauce
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
1 -1/2 teaspoons unseasoned rice vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon Asian chili sauce, such as Sriracha

Sauce option 4: Salt, Pepper, Lime Dipping Sauce (an easy no-brainer)

Garnishes
1/2 English cucumber, peeled, seeded and thinly sliced
1 tomato, thinly sliced or cut into wedges
4 or 5 sprigs cilantro, coarsely chopped

1. Rinse and pat the chicken dry with paper towel. Cut off the head, neck, wing tips and feet - extraneous parts that are on your chicken. Use a heavy cleaver to cut the neck and wings into halves or thirds. Aim to cut through the bone. Set aside.

2. Select a pot that the chicken snugly fits into with about an inch clearance between the top of breast and the edge of the pot. Fill it halfway with water and add the extraneous parts that you just cut up, along with the ginger, onion, and salt. Bring to a rolling boil over high heat and add the chicken.

When the pot returns to a boil, lower the heat to gently simmer. Bubbles should softly dance at the surface. Basing your cooking time on the chicken's original weight, poach for 10 minutes per pound (a 31/2-pound fryer takes 35 minutes). Use tongs to rotate the chicken halfway through to ensure even cooking.

Near the end of the cooking time, get a large bowl of ice water ready and set it near the stove. Use tongs to remove the chicken from the pot and plunge it in the ice water. Turn the chicken to expose it to the cold water. Drain and place the chicken on a plate. Let it cool completely before slicing. Leave it at room temperature if serving soon, or cover it in plastic wrap and refrigerate. Bring it to room temperature before cutting.

3. Meanwhile, add the fish sauce to the broth. Boil the broth until it has reduced by one-third, or until its flavor has concentrated enough for your taste. Turn off the heat and, skim the fat - reserving it for cooking the rice. Strain the broth into another pan. Discard the solids. Cover and set aside while the chicken cools.

4. For the rice, rinse the rice and let it drain for 10 minutes in a mesh strainer positioned over a bowl. Meanwhile, bring the stock to a near simmer in a small saucepan, and then cover to keep it hot.

5. In a heavy-bottomed 3-quart saucepan, heat 4 tablespoons of chicken fat over medium-high heat. Add the garlic, ginger and shallot and cook, stirring constantly, until no longer raw smelling, 1 to 2 minutes. Firmly shake the strainer of rice to expel any hidden water, and then add the rice to the pot. Stir constantly with a large spoon until the grains are opaque white and feel light, about 3 minutes. Reduce the heat slightly, measure out 2 1/2 cups of hot broth and add the broth and expect dramatic boiling. Immediately give the pot a big stir, reduce the heat to medium to simmer, add the pandan leaves, then let the rice simmer vigorous.

Cook the rice for a few minutes, stirring 2 or 3 times, until most of the water has been absorbed and the surface looks glossy and thick; small craters/holes may form too. Decrease the heat to low, cover, and cook for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and let it sit for 10 minutes to firm up and finish cooking. Uncover, fluff with chopsticks or a fork, and then cover. Wait 5 minutes before serving. The rice will stay warm for 30 minutes.

6. Make one, two or all of the sauces and set at the table:

For the ginger sauce, put the ginger, oil, salt, and 1 tablespoon of hot chicken poaching broth (take it from the pot) into a small electric mini chopper and process to a fine texture. Taste and add up to 2 more tablespoons of poaching broth. Transfer to a dipping sauce dish.

For the Singapore chili sauce, put all of the ingredients, the large red chiles, Thai chiles, garlic
Ginger, sugar, salt, lime juice and 1 tablespoon hot chicken poaching broth into a small electric mini chopper and process to a semi-coarse sauce. Transfer to a dipping sauce dish.

For the sweet soy sauce, combine the light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, and chili sauce in a dipping sauce container, stirring until the sugar has dissolved.

7. To serve, use a sharp knife to detach each wing at the shoulder joint. Separate the two wing sections and use a meat-chopping cleaver to chop them into smaller pieces. (Or, keep them whole.) Arrange them on one large serving plate or two small ones. Remove the breasts and leg and thigh quarters. Cut the meat off the bone and slice it into bite-size pieces. Add them to the serving plate(s) in a nice arrangement, skin side up for a beautiful presentation. (Guests may remove the skin while eating.) Finish by scattering cilantro on top.

Bring the broth to a near boil and taste, adding extra salt if necessary. Strain the broth into a large soup bowl and sprinkle with black pepper. Serve immediately with the chicken, rice, cucumber and tomato slices, and dipping sauces.

You may have guests eat the broth out of a rice bowl and the rice and chicken from a plate, using fork and spoon as primary utensils.

Comments

[anh]

This is fantastic!!! Can't wait to make this dish at home. Thanks so much for the recipe =)

I use a different dipping sauce for this dish. I make it by sauteing gralic, chilli and lemongrass in a pan until they turn brown, and then add soy sauce and sugar. Yummy

[Marvin]

Wow, that is really getting the most use out of a chicken! I've seen rice cooked in chicken broth before, but never with chicken fat! Such a great idea. Thanks for this recipe.

[Nate]

I love Hainam Chicken Rice! Even thought I'm partial to Malaysia, I have to say that Singapore really does have some "shiokalicious" Hainam Chicken Rice.

I grew up eating it with the ginger sauce, Annie's mum makes it with the dark soy sauce, but I really think the Singapore chili sauce is where it's at.

[Joel]

In David Thompson's Thai Food there is a Thai-style dipping sauce that is served if you order the dish in, say, Bangkok:

yellow bean and ginger sauce

2 coriander (cilantro) roots, scrapped and chopped
pinch of salt
2 garlic cloves, peeled
3 tbs chopped giner
pinch of ground white pepper
1 tbs castor (superfine) sugar
1 tbs white (rice) vinegar
1 tbs yellow bean paste, rinsed
1 tbs light soy sauce
1 tbs dark soy sauce
1 long red chilli, cut into rounds
1 tbs chopped coriander (cilantro) leaves

pound coriander roots, salt, garlic, ginger, and pepper into a paste. Season with sugar, vinegar, yellow beans and both soy sauces, then add chilli and coriander. The main flavours are hot and salty, with only a slight sweetness and tang.

[Andrea Nguyen]

That's quite a sauce, Joel. Looks great. Funny, I had great Hainan Chicken and Rice in Kowloon in a packed place run by Thais.

Oh...a great accompaniment to the chicken and rice is a simple green like choi sum, baby bok choi, kang kong (water spinach).

[Joel]

Andrea, it is a very popular dish at roadside eateries, although I personally like boat noodle more. I remember reading somewhere that claims the noodle soup and Hainan chicken rice in noodle joints in Kowloon City is about as authentic as people can get outside Thailand.

Interestingly in contemporary China plenty of people in the Hainan province say they have never seen Hainan chicken rice, and say it is a dish that originates in Malaya/Singapore.

[Chris Tan]

Nice one, Andrea! I will try spiking my broth with a little nuoc mam the next time I make this. And let me add something I left out of the recipe in Shiok! - cold chicken rice eaten out of the fridge at an unearthly hour simply can't be beat.
As far as I know, the chicken-and-rice cooked back on Hainan Island has only vestigial similarities to Singapore Hainanese chicken rice - the latter seems to be an evolved Singaporeanised descendent. Apparently it has even been re-exported back to Hainan, under the name 'Singapore chicken rice'!

[Andrea Nguyen]

Joel and Chris, That is so interesting -- the notion that Malay, Singaporean and Thai (I say this b/c of the Kowloon City population of Thais -- Joel correct me if I'm wrong) -- have made this Chinese dish theirs. That's totally cool, the importing of a dish back to its place of origin but it's now called by some other name out of respect. But then is Hainan Chinese or Southeast Asian? Yes, looks like it ought to be called Singapore chicken rice!

[Russell]

Interesting article about Chicken Rice. A few points. You write:

"... the oil-rich island was disputed territory between China and Vietnam for years." This may not be correct. Hainan has always been part of China and has never been a disputed territory. I checked all my sources and they confirm this. Could you be thinking of the Spratleys?

Being a Chicken Rice addict all my life, I went to Hainan last year and tried their chicken rice called Wenchang Chicken. I was a bit surprised as it wasn't as popular as I thought it would be. After four meals of Wenchang Chicken, I now know why. The chicken are very lean, not quite skin and bone but almost there. As such, there isn't much flavour nor meat. Now I'll stick to the Singapore version, plump and meaty.

[Joel]

I looked at a 1970s/early 1980s Chinese cookbooks from Hong Kong on rice recipes, and there is a Wenchang chicken rice. The recipe's dipping sauce is a usual Cantonese spring onion (scallion) and ginger dip, but other than that the rice and chicken are prepared in the same way as the recipes above.

There is also a similar standard Cantonese chicken rice set: it is basically a white poached chicken served with white rice, and a soup prepared from chicken giblets. Interestingly, if you get served a really bad Hainan chicken rice in Hong Kong, you will get this rice set instead.

[Andrea Nguyen]

Russell, there's oil on Hainan island and the surrounding area. The dispute, and I should have clarified it to greater detail, has been with there does the border between China and Vietnam lie? For offshore oil exploration, the countries have disputed which one ought to be negotiating with the oil companies. Here's an article from 1997:

http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/50/073.html

So yes, the island is China's. But there have been maritime disputes over the territory too.

[Simon Bao]

The oil-related dispute has been going on for a long time. China asserts that because it owns Hainan, its maritime territory extends all the way to the Spratley and Paracel Islands. The area where the undersea oil fields lie. Vietnam also claims exclusive rights to that territory. As does Taiwan. And portions of the Spratleys are also claimed by Taiwan, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

With rising oil prices, rising food prices and depleted fishing stocks, a maritime environment under pretty serious threat, *maybe* everyone will sit down and come to some agreements. Or, they could just keep shooting at one another's boats.

A recent article summarizing things:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080413/sc_afp/oceansenvironmentclimatefisheriessouthchinasea_080413014955

[[eatingclub] vancouver]

Great post!

We use _The Chinese Kitchen_ recipe for Hainan Chicken, but we'll have to try this one, because your pictures look so darn good!

FYI, we'll be linking to your site. I am enjoying your blog very, very much.

Oh, our version of Hainan Chicken is here: http://eatingclubvancouver.blogspot.com/2008/02/hainan-chicken.html

Thank you for all the great blog entries!

[Carolyn Jung]

Hainan chicken! My favorite!! All I can say is whenever I make any version of the ginger sauce, I make at least four times the amount. I can't help it; I LOVE ginger sauce.

[HanoiMark]

Hi Andrea,
Do you happen to have a recipe for Hoi An style "com ga". It's in the same vein as Hainanese chicken rice but also things that make it distinctive. Any recipes you could direct me to?

[Вечерний макияж глаз фото]

I not understend what U want

[Andrea Nguyen]

Hi Mark, I'm not familiar with the Hoi An style com ga. Is it com ga xiu xiu? They steam the chicken for that one, I think. If you have more details, that would be great. It's been a number of years since I've been to Hoi An and didn't get a chance to sample the rice dish you mentioned.

[HanoiMark]

Hi Andrea,
Here's a little article from Sticky Rice about Hoi An Com Ga. http://stickyrice.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/05/post_3.html
It's great stuff!

[Andrea Nguyen]

Mark,

Thanks for the link. It's a highly complicated dish -- with cooking in the bamboo. You could cook the rice like above but add some turmeric for extra color, as that what it looks like in Sticky Rice's photo. The turmeric mimics rich chicken fat.

As for the chicken, looks like it was poached and then hand-shredded like you for for a Vietnamese chicken salad and then mixed with some onions/shallots that may have been marinated/lightly pickled in vinegar. The herb of choice for something like this is rau ram (Vietnamese coriander/hot mint). Now for that chicken blood (tiet)... that's hard to come by unless you kill your own. I don't quite know a good substitute for that? Do you?

Andrea

[Gourmet Traveller]

Great blog, nice to see a foodblog of Vietnamese cuisine.

[Connie]

Thanks Andrea! This recipe is fantastic!!! I'm a Canadian Born Chinese and it's frustrating and challenging to find authentic asian recipes in English. I am definitely going to get your new book and the original one too.

[Andrea Nguyen]

Hi Connie, Greatly appreciate your vote of overwhelming confidence!!! You've made my Monday extra nice!

[Hainan Chicken Rice Lover]

Here is the link to the video to teach you how to cook "com ga Hoi An". It's in Vietnamese though.
http://www.amthucvietnam.com/videos/VideoDetail.asp?VideoID=165&VideoTitle=Cơm gà Hội An

[MK]

Could you add the ginger fish sauce (nuoc mam gung) recipe? My grandfather was from HaiNan and my father used to cook the best chicken rice...but Vietnamese style! With ginger fish sauce -- it's still my favorite despite having the "original" Singaporean style.