Dinner · 75 min · chinese

Hainanese Chicken Rice

A Chinese dinner built around whole chicken and jasmine rice — on the table in 75 minutes. Each serving lands at 887 calories with 112g of protein, so it eats like a much heavier meal. Simple enough for a Tuesday, good enough to serve to guests — that is the whole idea.

✓ USDA-verified nutrition data

Ingredients

• 3.5 lb Whole chicken
• 2 cups Jasmine rice
• 4 tbsp Fresh ginger
• 6 cloves Garlic
• 4 Scallions
• 2 tbsp Toasted sesame oil
• 3 tbsp Light soy sauce
• 1 Cucumber

Steps

1. Submerge the chicken in cold salted water, bring to a bare simmer, then cook 40 minutes, turning once. Never let it boil — boiling toughens the meat and clouds the broth. The chicken is done when the juices run clear at the thigh.
2. Plunge the chicken into ice water 10 minutes. This shocks the skin tight and silky — the coveted “jelly skin” — and keeps the meat juicy. Pat dry and rub with sesame oil and a little salt.
3. Rinse the rice until the water runs clear, then cook it in 2.5 cups of the poaching broth with smashed ginger and garlic. The rice is not a side here; cooked in chicken broth, it is half the dish.
4. Pound ginger and scallions with salt and hot oil into the classic ginger-scallion sauce — bright, sharp, and essential. Mix a second sauce of soy with a little broth for drizzling.
5. Chop the chicken through the bone into serving pieces (or carve neatly), fan over the rice with cucumber slices, and serve with both sauces. Simplicity this refined takes real confidence.

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