The Good Host | Hainanese Chicken Rice
Learn how to make Singapore's national dish and discover its fascinating origin story, one of struggle and controversy.
Welcome to The Good Host, the newsletter you won’t want to share.
This week, impress your guests with Hainanese Chicken Rice, a traditional Singaporean dish as rich in flavor as it is simple in appearance.
Bon appetit!
A Taste of Singapore
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The best gift to receive is the kind you didn’t know you wanted. No, hold on, needed. That’s how I feel about this week’s edition of The Good Host—you probably have no idea that you need chicken rice in your life, but trust me, you do.
The history of Hainanese chicken rice in Singapore is complicated, so I’ll refrain from sharing inessential details. Just know this: like all interesting things, chicken rice is a product of struggle.
Hainan is the island province right at the bottom of mainland China and Hainanese is the word that describes things—often people, in this instance food—that come from that island. The Hainanese began trading with Singapore in the 1820s but only started emigrating to the country towards the late 19th century. When they arrived and began to settle, other Chinese immigrant communities had already established themselves in the more lucrative industries. Their late arrival and difficult-to-understand Hainanese dialect made seamless integration unachievable—they were relegated to less glamorous jobs, often working as servants for British colonialists.
The dish uses every conceivable part of the chicken because back then, it needed to. Chicken rice was a staple during difficult times for working-class Hainanese households where nothing went to waste.
It was not until after World War II that the dish emerged into the mainstream. The Japanese invasion and subsequent occupation of Singapore destroyed the island's economy and scared off all the Brits. The precarious situation and job scarcity got the Hainanese thinking about how they could make ends meet. Having made it for years, chicken rice seemed like a sensible solution. They started selling the dish from two baskets balanced on a bamboo pole slung across their shoulders. Chicken in one, rice in the other. Genius.
Eventually, the influence of other immigrant groups in Singapore, notably the subtle-flavour-loving Cantonese, transformed the dish into what it is today. It is now Singapore's national dish, and it’s not hard to see why: it is Singapore’s history incarnated into food form. Who knew a dish with only two major components, chicken and rice, could be so rich?
Because the Hainanese travelled so widely, almost every country in Southeast Asia has its own version of chicken rice. This has caused some controversy. In a debate that stretches back decades to 1965, when the two countries split, Malaysia and Singapore both lay claim to the dish.
In 2009, Malaysia’s Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen reignited fury with Singapore when she claimed several dishes that are uniquely Malaysian were being appropriated. “We cannot continue to let other countries hijack our food. Chilli crab is Malaysian. Hainanese chicken rice is Malaysian. We have to lay claim to our food,” she boldly told media reporters.
Singapore was not too pleased—a tug-of-war and threats of food patents ensued. For my part, I think I’ll stay on the fence and enjoy both renditions of the dish.
So there you are, that’s the skin, so let’s get to the fleshy bit… Here’s your perfect Hainanese chicken rice recipe, straight from the pages of Pearlyn Lee’s cookbook.
Pearlyn (or, as she prefers, Pearl) is the Singaporean co-owner of Southeast Asian restaurant The Hood Paris, which she founded in 2016 alongside Khanh-Ly Huynh, the 2015 winner of Masterchef France, with the goal of bringing under-represented flavors from South / Southeast Asia to the French capital.
Recipe of the Week 💌
Hainanese Chicken Rice, the Pearl way
for 4-6 people
For the Chicken
Ingredients
A whole chicken
A large piece of ginger
3 spring onions
8-10 pandan leaves
1 lime
Kosher salt
Preparation
First of all, clean your chicken, rinsing it well inside and out. Then pat it dry with some paper towels.
Remove any excess bits of fat from the chicken and set aside for later.
Take some kosher salt and massage the whole chicken — inside the cavity too!
Rub the whole chicken with a piece of ginger.
Stuff the cavity of the chicken with a couple slices of ginger and 3-4 pandan leaves folded into ribbons.
Chop off ends of the spring onions and stuff the stalks inside the chicken as well.
In a large, tall pot boil enough water that it will cover the whole chicken (preferably legs up!)
Add the remaining pandan leaves, some ginger and abundant salt to the boiling water, then submerge the chicken.
Simmer on low to medium heat and for 50 minutes.
💡 Tip: You can add carrots and onions to the broth for a little extra sweetness!
Ice Bath (this step is key to ensure the tenderness of your chicken!)
Fill a bowl either with ice (preferable) or with VERY cold water from your tap.
Once the chicken is cooked, remove it from the pot and place it in the ice bath. Let it cool for 10-15 minutes (until chilled).
Slice the chicken into strips (roughly the size of a finger).
For the Rice
Ingredients
500g of Thai long-grain rice (you can make more if you’re a big rice-lover!)
A piece of ginger
A couple cloves of garlic
Preparation
Grind the ginger and garlic.
Take the excess fat from the chicken that you set aside at the beginning and fry it in a large pan with some sesame oil, the minced ginger and garlic, and some salt.
Add the rice to the pan and fry it for 5 minutes (until slightly brown).
Then pour the rice into the same broth that you used for the chicken and let it simmer until ready.
For the Sauces
Chili Sauce
Blend a couple chilis, some lime juice, a bit of onion and a few spoons of your chicken broth!
Alternatively, you can just buy some sriracha (preferably The Hood’s own 😉).
Ginger Paste
Combine a 2-3 spoon-fulls of grated ginger, some lime juice and a couple cloves of garlic.
Blend everything together with a pinch of salt.
Shining Sauce
Mix soy sauce and sesame oil in equal parts.
To Serve
Place the cooked rice and sliced chicken on a plate side by side.
Drizzle the shining sauce over the chicken.
Add a spoon-full of the chili sauce and ginger paste to the plate.
Garnish with spring onions, coriander, and 3-4 slices of fresh cucumber.
Five Minutes with Pearl
Pearlyn Lee (aka Pearl), co-founder of The Hood Paris
Do you remember the first time you had chicken rice?
Chicken rice is a dish that I grew up with. I think my earliest memory would be from when I was in high school. Chicken rice is conveniently all around in Singapore. You walk five minutes and you find a chicken rice store. So it was my go-to after-school spot for a late lunch or early dinner.
What does chicken rice evoke for you now?
It really resonated with me when I moved to Geneva 12 years ago. There was no Asian food or Singaporean food to speak of there. And you know, when you’re in your early 20s, you want to host dinner parties and bring something authentic to the table so you kind of force yourself to learn your national dish, which for Singapore is chicken rice. So I learned to make it from scratch, and I got so used to cooking it that when The Hood opened I knew it had to be on the menu.
How do you think a dish that is so simple can be so good?
It tastes so good even though it’s such a simple dish because there’s actually so much extra work behind it. People don’t see it because it’s such a basic dish. Just rice, chicken, sauce and cucumber. But it’s all about the chicken flavor. The rice is cooked in the same broth that cooks the chicken, the chili sauce involves the broth too. And it’s deemed to be a good chicken rice if the chicken is super tender. The key to its simplicity is that it’s actually not simple at all.
What has been the reaction to chicken rice in France?
When we first started at The Hood, we didn't really have a team of regular staff and it was a small team, so there were occasions where someone wouldn’t show up. I didn’t want to not have food in situations when that happened. And I knew that there was one dish that if nobody showed up, that would be the only dish I could make. Chicken rice. So that’s why it was added to the menu. But people loved it. Now it’s our most popular dish. It’s a must-have!
Just like our mind-blowing Chicken Rice recipe, this playlist has a bit of a kick.
Thanks for reading and happy cooking!
Gregor Thompson,
The Good Host