Gerry Godley shares his recipe for a spicy Singapore chicken rice dish on The Brendan O'Connor Show on RTÉ Radio 1.
Ingredients
Serves 6
Ingredients:
- Medium size chicken (1.5kg approx)
- Kecap Manis (Sweet dark soya sauce, available in Asian shops)
- 1 bulb Garlic
- 6 red chillis
- 3 scallions
- Large piece of ginger,
- 3 cups of jasmine rice
- Rice vinegar
- Sesame oil
- Juice of 1 lime
Method
Bring a pot of water large enough to comfortably accommodate the chicken to the boil, and add three spring onions and a three-inch piece of ginger, sliced, to flavour the stock. Trim any excess pieces of fat from the chicken and reserve these.
Lower in the chicken, bring it back up to the boil. cover with a lid, turn down the heat to the very minimum and allow the chicken to poach very gently in the stock for 45 minutes.
Lift out the chicken, draining as much of the cooking liquid as possible, and immediately submerge the bird in an ice bath. Retrieve the bird from the ice bath after 15 minutes and hold until you're ready to serve. It should be served room temp or just warmed gently.
Finely chop the reserved chicken fat, and render it down in a wok or skillet. Add 3 cloves of finely chopped garlic, then add 3 cups of washed jasmine rice and fry off for 3-5 minutes as if you were making a risotto. Transfer to a rice cooker or pot, add 6 cups of the chicken cooking liquid and cook the rice.
Make your condiments:
Ginger garlic sambal
Whizz a 3-inch piece of the ginger and 2 cloves of garlic in a food processor. Gently fry the ginger and garlic in three tablespoons of a neutral oil until aromatic and taking on just a touch of colour. Add salt to taste and transfer to a sauce dish.
Chilli sambal
Deseed the 6 chillis and whizz to a fine paste in the blender along with a 3-inch piece of ginger and 3 cloves of garlic. Add 1 tablespoon of rice vinegar, the juice of a lime, half teaspoon of sesame oil, half teaspoon sugar and 1 teaspoon of salt. Add a splash of the chicken stock to loosen the consistency and transfer to a sauce dish.
Serving suggestion
Joint and slice the bird to your preference, on the bone is best, serve it with the chicken infused rice, with the two sambals and some of the kecap manis on the side for dipping.
