Khao Mun Gai is the Thai version of the Hainanese Chicken Rice, it means that everything is basically the same except for the sauce.
So, what do I need?
- One whole chicken
- Chicken stock (according to the recipe, I need 8 cups of chicken stock, but I did not read the instruction carefully, so I only bought a small carton of chicken stock, which contains only 2 cups of chicken stock, but we will work on that)
- Thai Jasmine rice
- Spring onions
- Coriander
- Ginger
- Garlic
- Salt
- Chicken rice sauce (you can buy this at any Asian supermarket)
Let’s start cooking!
First, I will boil the chicken stock with some more water, just enough to cover my little chicken.
While waiting for the water to boil, I will use a scissor to take some excess fat and skin from the chicken and leave it aside.
After that, I will rub sea salt on my chicken and massage it really well.
Look at that arrogant chicken sitting after I had just given him a massage. He didn’t even say thank you, such an ungrateful wretch!
So by this time, the chicken stock must have boil already, so I will throw that ungrateful chicken into the boiling water along with some slices of ginger and some spring onions that was bruised slightly.
Let it simmer for 1 hour.
Now I will smash some garlic with the chicken sauce bottle.
Here you can use anything you can to smash it, but don’t use canned food like a canned tomato. I tried that, and because the can is too thin, it got dented.
Place the chicken fat and skin from the start in a pan with a little bit of oil and stir under medium-high heat. After a while, you could see that those pieces become golden brown and produce some more fat. That’s what we need! (Be careful, the oil will splash like hell!!!)
Throw the smashed garlic in. I should have chopped it into smaller pieces as well after smash it but I was too lazy. Anyway, it smelled wonderful guys.
Now, to the rice. First thing first, always wash the rice. The rice looks clean but it’s not. Wash it twice (at least!).
Then I pour the rice into the garlic-chicken fat pan and stir it for few minutes. Steal some chicken stock and pour it all over the rice.
Hey man lemme borrow some of your juice I swear I will give it back (or not).
Use enough chicken stock so that it covers up the rice, but not too much. Now here is the confusing step. If you don’t know how much is enough then just pour the stock in until your ancestors say: “Stop! It’s enough!”
Then you can use the pan to cook the rice. However, I never cook my own rice, my rice cooker does that for me 😎 !
Just pour the whole thing in the rice cooker and close the lid and let it does the job and you’re done.
The chicken must have been cooked at this point. Get it out of the pot and chop it. At this step I realized that I had left the chicken simmer for too long that it became too soft and I could not chop it properly.
God bless my chicken and my knife skill!
I think if you can find a free-range chicken, then you can let simmer for 1 hour because free range chicken are much leaner. If you have a small chicken that you bought at IGA or Woolies or Coles or any supermarket then just let it sit in the pot for 30 minutes. Don’t leave it for too long or it will turn our like mine.
So here is the result. I chopped some cucumber to serve with my chicken. They serve it like that in Thai, maybe to create a feeling like you are having the vegetable factor in a balance meal (Even though I think the meat and fat factor has overwhelmed the veggie factor). I used the chicken stock and chopped in some spring onion and coriander and serve it as a soup. Pour the chicken rice sauce in and you are done.
Enjoy!
Xuan Anh Le is an international student from UTS studying journalism with a bold ambition to report on international student issues and topics like it is. She also a MasterCook and creates all her dishes from first principles.
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