Hainanese Chicken

Back in early march I read the Kitchn review of Mark Bittman's Hainanese Chicken and I had to make it.  It looked so darned good.  I mean look at it:

Just look at it.  I made that and it was as delicious as it looks.  I guess I'm proud of myself because I had to poach a chicken to make it.  I had never poached a chicken before.  I can barely poach an egg.  Plus, the method seemed a bit sketchy to me.

My mom taught me to have a good, healthy fear of food born illnesses.  I grew up in a house where we cook our food until it is good and dead.  This recipe calls for you to only boil the chicken for ten minutes, turn off the heat and just let it sit there for an hour.  Just sit there.  This seemed like crazy talk.  But I trusted The Kitchn and the New York Times to not steer me wrong and by golly if it wasn't delicious.  The chicken was nice and juicy, perfectly cooked and it was extremely easy.  What is easier than boiling water?

Here's the chicken when it came out of the pot:

The skin doesn't look great but Brian ate it anyways.  He is strange like that.

Here's a shot of Brian's hands while he pulled the chicken:

He's helpful in the kitchen when you give him tasks where he can steal bites.

Here's my veggies getting ready for the rice:

The finished product again:

Here's the recipe (from here):

Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 whole (3- to 4-pound) chicken, trimmed of excess fat
Several cloves smashed garlic, plus 1 teaspoon minced garlic
Several slices fresh ginger, plus 1 tablespoon minced ginger
1/2 cup peanut oil, or neutral oil, like corn or canola
3 shallots, roughly chopped, or a small onion
2 cups long-grain rice
1/2 cup minced scallions
2 cucumbers, peeled and sliced
2 tomatoes, sliced
Chopped fresh cilantro leaves
2 tablespoons sesame oil.

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it. Add chicken to pot along with smashed garlic and sliced ginger. Bird should be completely submerged, but only just. Cover, reduce heat to medium, and cook for 10 minutes. Turn off heat and let bird remain in water for 45 minutes to an hour, covered, or until it is cooked through.

2. Remove chicken from pot, reserve stock, and let bird cool to room temperature. Put half the peanut oil in a skillet over medium heat; you may add trimmed chicken fat to this also. When oil is hot, add remaining garlic, along with shallots; cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add rice and cook, stirring, until glossy. Add 4 cups reserved chicken stock and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and cover; cook for about 20 minutes, until rice has absorbed all liquid. Stir in salt and pepper to taste.

3. Make a dipping sauce of remaining oil, ginger, half the scallions and a large pinch of salt.

4. Shred or chop chicken, discarding skin. Put rice on a large platter and mound chicken on top of it; decorate platter with cucumbers, tomatoes, remaining scallions and cilantro. Sprinkle sesame oil over all and serve with dipping sauce.

Yield: 4 to 8 servings.

Like The Kitchn suggested, I skipped the sauce part of the recipe and just put soy sauce and sesame oil on it.  This was a great recipe.  I highly recommend it.