Recipe: How to cook Chinese steamed chicken rice

By Mary Winata

JAKARTA (JP): Steamed chicken rice is one of the most popular Chinese delicacies. The list of ingredients may be long, but they are all commonly used in the kitchen and the recipe is not as difficult as you might imagine. Try it and serve it as a meal for either breakfast or lunch.

Steamed Chicken Rice

For boiling the chicken: * 1 kg chicken * 1.5 l water * 1 cm ginger root * 1 leek

For cooking the rice: * 600 g white rice * A dash of salt * 2 tbsp oil

For stir-frying the chicken: * 1 can of button mushrooms, thinly sliced * 2 tbsp chopped spring onion * fresh coriander leaves or mint leaves * 2 cloves garlic, finely crushed * 2 shallots, finely chopped * 1 tsp ginger, finely chopped * 1 tbsp soya sauce * 1 tbsp sweet soya sauce * A pinch of salt and white pepper * 1 tsp sesame oil * 200 ml chicken stock

(Makes 10 servings) 1. Place chicken in a pot containing enough boiling water to cover it. Add ginger and leek, and bring to the boil for 15 minutes. 2. Remove the chicken from the pot and shred it. 3. In a cooking pan, heat the cooking oil, add garlic, shallots and ginger, stir fry until fragrant. Then add shredded chicken, button mushrooms and spring onion, season with soya sauce, sweet soya sauce, salt, pepper, sesame oil and chicken stock, cook for 2 minutes. 4. Cook rice with salt over a medium heat, add cooking oil and enough chicken stock until dry. Set aside for 15 minutes. 5. Take a serving bowl, cover the base with the stir-fried chicken mixture with 2 tbsp of its sauce. Spoon the rice on top of the chicken mixture. Repeat the step for the remaining ingredients. 6. Steam the rice for 20 minutes. Place on a serving plate. 7. Decorate with coriander leaves or mint leaves. Serve warm.

Mary Winata is the writer of the Chinese cookbook Seri Masakan Cina Halal. This recipe is published in another of her titles Ragam Hidangan Nasi.