Hainan Chicken Rice

Preparation

1. Step 1

   Prepare the chicken: At least 24 hours or up to three days before cooking, season the outside of the chicken with 1 tablespoon salt, and sprinkle the remaining 1 tablespoon salt inside the cavity. Place in a large bowl, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. About 30 minutes before cooking, remove chicken from the fridge.

2. Step 2

   Meanwhile, make the ginger-scallion sauce: Place grated ginger in a small heatproof bowl (be sure to include the juice!). Stir in scallions and ¼ teaspoon salt.

3. Step 3

   Remove any pieces of fat around the cavity of the whole chicken and place the fat in a small saucepan. Add the additional chicken thigh skin and the vegetable oil and turn heat to medium-low. Cook, turning occasionally, for about 18 minutes, or until the chicken fat is rendered and the chicken skin is crunchy. Transfer the crispy skin to a plate.

4. Step 4

   Pour ¼ cup of the hot chicken oil over the ginger-scallion mixture (it will sizzle), and stir in fish sauce and a few dashes of white pepper. (Reserve the remaining chicken oil.) If you’d like, chop the chicken skin into cornflake-size pieces and add to ginger-scallion sauce.

5. Step 5

   Prepare the chicken: In your largest pot (ideally 9 quarts or more, but at least 7 quarts, and large enough to submerge the chicken), combine scallions, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, chicken bouillon powder and 10 cups of water. Bring to a boil over high heat.

6. Step 6

   Holding the chicken by its wings, very carefully dunk the whole bird into the water (with the larger cavity pointing down) so the cavity is filled with poaching liquid. Lift the chicken back up so liquid empties from the cavity, and repeat three more times. On the fourth time, fully submerge the chicken with the breast side up. (The dunkings ensure the inside of the chicken cooks evenly.) If the chicken isn’t fully submerged, add water as needed. When the liquid comes back to a boil, cook for 5 minutes, then turn the heat off (keeping the pot on the burner), cover the pot with a lid, and let the chicken poach in the steaming-hot liquid for 25 minutes.

7. Step 7

   Shortly before the chicken is done poaching, fill a very large bowl halfway with water and add a handful of ice cubes. When the chicken has poached for 25 minutes, insert tongs into the larger cavity to gently lift chicken from the pot to a large plate (be careful not to rip the skin), allowing any liquid to drain back into the pot. Insert an instant-read thermometer into the thickest part of the thigh and aim for at least 160 degrees (if you prefer more well-done chicken, feel free to cook to 165 degrees). If the chicken isn’t ready yet, place chicken back in liquid, bring the liquid to a simmer over medium heat and cook for 3 additional minutes, then check the temperature again.

8. Step 8

   When the chicken is cooked, use the tongs to gently transfer it into the ice bath and let sit for 5 minutes. Pour out the ice bath liquid, pat chicken dry with paper towels and brush sesame oil over the skin. If not serving within 30 minutes, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 1 day; remove from the fridge when you’re ready to cook the rice.

9. Step 9

   Start the rice: Strain the broth through a fine-mesh sieve into a large pot. To cook the rice on the stovetop, transfer 3¼ cups of broth (don’t skim off the fat!) to a large saucepan (for a rice-cooker method, see Tip). (Reserve some of the remaining broth for serving if you like, and save the rest for soup or another batch of rice.) Rinse the rice through the fine-mesh sieve until the water runs clear; add rice to the saucepan. Stir in ginger, garlic, pandan leaves and 1 tablespoon of the reserved chicken oil.

10. Step 10

    Turn heat to medium-high and bring rice mixture to boil. After about 3 minutes of boiling, the rice will puff up and rise to the surface of the cooking liquid. Turn down heat to the lowest setting, cover the saucepan and cook for 16 minutes more, until the liquid is fully absorbed and the rice is tender. Remove and discard the pandan leaves, and keep covered off heat until ready to serve.

11. Step 11

    On a carving board, use your sharpest chef’s knife to slice the wings and leg quarters off the chicken, then separate the legs into drumsticks and thighs. Very carefully cut along both sides of the breastbone, then horizontally from both sides of the chicken to remove the skin-on breasts from the carcass. Cut the chicken breasts crosswise into ½-inch slices, taking great care to keep skin intact over the slices. Cut the thighs in half along the bone. If needed, warm the chicken slightly by placing the meat on top of the cooked rice in the pot and covering with a lid for a few minutes. (You could also microwave the chicken for 30 to 45 seconds instead.)

12. Step 12

    Serve the chicken with cucumbers and rice. (To create a dome-shaped mound of rice, pack a serving of rice into a small sauce bowl and invert onto a dinner plate.) Arrange separate dipping bowls of ginger-scallion sauce, kecap manis and chile-garlic sauce in separate sauce bowls. If you’d like, warm the remaining chicken broth and sip it alongside the chicken and rice.