Lay The Table

Chicken Rice

A recipe that sure does what it says on the tin. Yes, it looks like the world’s dullest meal, but I’ve been brought up on this traditional Malaysian food and the recipe I’m telling you has been passed down through 3 generations of my family (my Grandma was Singaporian and my mother spent some of her childhood there too). If there was one food I had to live on for the rest of my life (apart from Dim Sum), it’d be this. It’s a reasonably cheap eat, I ate a lot of this whilst I was in my final year of university, because it was quick and nutritious.

{Serves 1 person}

Ingredients

• 1 chicken breast
• 200g rice (I use Basmati)
• 3 spring onions
• A couple of slices of cucumber
• 2 chicken stock cubes (I always use Knorr)
• 1 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp sesame oil

Instructions

1. Wash the rice in a sieve, under a warm tap, allowing the starch to run out. Wait until the water becomes reasonably clear (it’s never 100% clear), then remove from sieve and allow to dry naturally on a plate.
2. Top and tail the spring onions and add into a pan with the cucumber, chicken breast, 1 1/2 stock cubes and enough water to cover the chicken comfortably. Don’t use too big a pan as the stock you create will be too weak.
3. Boil the chicken for 5 minutes, then remove from the heat, cover with a lid and leave for 25 minutes allowing the chicken to poach.
4. Measure 1/2 pint of the stock into a jug and add the other 1/2 stock cube in and dissolve.
5. In a clean pan over a medium heat, add the butter and allow it to melt and gently fry the rice, turning continuous for a couple of minutes. Add the stock from the jug and bring to the boil, then turn down to a gentle simmer. Cover with a lid and cook for 10 minutes, or until all the stock has evaporated.
6. Whilst the rice is cooking, take two forks and gently pull the chicken apart on a plate and then cover with sesame oil.
7. Serve with beansprouts and baby sweetcorn and lashings of soy sauce!

Jan 27, 2010 | Quick & Easy | 2 Comments »