today is Jul 06, 2022
One of the food that I miss most from Malaysia is clay pot chicken rice.
As its name implies, this rice is cooked in a clay pot and served hot straight from the stove. The smell is just incredible, and the rice at the bottom of the pot will form a burnt crust, which is pretty tasty actually.
Since I don’t own a clay pot, the best way to replicate this dish at home is to use a rice cooker.
The taste is really close, but the result is sans the crunchy burnt crust, not sure if it is a plus or a minus. I guess, one day in the future when the coating of my rice cooker pot is no longer perfect, I will end up with the said burnt crust anyway. ♥
The first step is to prepare about 1 pound (450 gram) of bite size chicken meat. You can use either chicken thigh, or chicken breast, though I highly prefer chicken thigh since they are so much juicier.
As for the marinade, you will need oyster sauce, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and grated fresh ginger.
I usually use Pearl River Bridge light soy sauce and Pearl River Bridge dark soy sauce.
Simply mix together chicken meat with all the marinating ingredients and set aside for at least 15 minutes.
While the chicken is marinating, proceed to prep the rest of the ingredients:
Once all the prep work is done and the chicken has been marinated, it is time to start cooking.
1. Start on the stove top
Heat some oil in a wok/frying pan and fry garlic, ginger, shiitake mushroom, chicken (with all the marinating sauce), salt, sugar, and pepper. Once the chicken is no longer pink, add rice, mix well and turn off heat.
2. Finish in a rice cooker
Transfer everything from the wok/frying pan into a rice cooker pot, then add water and sesame oil, and mix well. Push the “cook rice” or “white rice” button and let the rice cooker cook the rice.
Once the light turns to “keep warm”, let it rest for another 15 minutes, then open the lid, add scallions, and fluff with a rice paddle/spatula.
The clay pot chicken rice, cooked in a rice cooker, is ready to be served. Enjoy!
