A Hainanese Chicken Recipe When I'm Too Tired To Cook

If you're looking for a recipe that's absolutely brain-dead and easy to make, look no further than the Hainanese Chicken recipe which I made in a rice cooker.

Ingredients

• Hainanese Chicken

  • 4 Chicken Quarters (Leg and Thigh)

    • Marinade:

      • 2 teaspoons of sesame oil

      • 1 teaspoon of salt

      • 1 teaspoon of black pepper

      • 2 teaspoons of turmeric powder

      • 1 tablespoon of minced garlic

• Rice

  • 2 cups of white rice

  • 2 cups of water

  • 1 teaspoon of sesame oil

  • 1 stalk of leek, sliced in two

  • 1 1” chunk of ginger - minced

  • 6 cloves of garlic - minced

• 1 stalk of leek, sliced

Instructions

1. Chop the garlic, ginger, and leek.

2. Mix the marinade and then toss the chicken in it. Let it marinate for over an hour in the fridge. The longer, the better.

3. Once that’s done, start making the rice. Wash the rice and mix sesame oil, leek, ginger, and garlic.

4. Place the marinated chicken on top of the uncooked rice. Don’t forget to pour the remaining marinade into the rice cooker.

5. Let it cook for over an hour or hour and thirty minutes. Then, done!

Tips

• When making this Hainanese Chicken recipe, feel free to play around with the rice by adding some dried shitake mushrooms. The umami from the mushrooms will add a steak-like flavor to the rice.

• If you don’t have a rice cooker, a pot will do too. Induction cookers do things faster so keep an eye out.

• If your chicken has been filleted, they’ll definitely cook faster than the ones on the bone. But the ones on the bone offer more chicken essence which is why we steamed together with the rice.

• For the sauce, it’s just finely chopped leek, grated ginger and garlic, sesame oil, and a bit of salt to taste. Some people like eating the Hainanese Chicken with hoisin sauce though.

• If you want to add vegetables, get some bokchoy and use the warmer to cook it. Don’t cook it along with the rice and chicken! It’ll wilt and look sad.

Hainanese Chicken Recipe for the Lazy or Tired

Working and dealing with people emotionally drains me so, there are just days that I have no strength to do anything. So, Hainanese Chicken became one of my healthy go-to’s since all I had to do was throw everything in a pot (or rice cooker in this case).

But I didn’t want a recipe that demanded too many pots, pans, and chopping boards. This Hainanese recipe is for tired professionals everywhere; it’s the kind of dish you can cook and leave alone for the next hour so long as you have a rice cooker.

Enjoy!

P.S. If you want the fried version, I made one here!