Hainanese Chicken Rice 
From Singapore Hotels & Singapore Lifestyle
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Hainanese Chicken Rice can be considered the favourite dish for many Singaporeans. Singaporeans frequently eat it for lunch or dinner. It is not uncommon to find more than one stall selling Hainanese Chicken Rice in a Hawker Centre. This illustrates the popularity of the dish in Singapore.
There are three major components to Hainanese Chicken Rice - Chicken, Rice and Chilli.
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Chicken
In Singapore roast chicken are served as well, but a traditional Hainanese Chicken Rice is the yellow color (白斩鸡 in Chinese). The chicken are plucked off their feathers cleanly and washed. Then the entire chicken are cooked in a special broth. This broth is contains herbs, garlic, chicken bones and other spices. Once the chicken are almost cooked in the broth, the hawker would take it out and dip it in cold water, and place it back to the broth for cooking to increase the tenderness of the chickens. The tenderness of the chicken is a good process to gauge the skill and experience of a hawker. Once the chicken are cooked, they are ready to be served.
The chicken is usually served with sesame oil, soya sauce and spring onions. If you are lucky, some hawkers will serve the chicken, deboned.
The broth is always used to cook chicken, it is never thrown away because it has absorb all the sweetness of the chicken similar to braised duck rice
The sight of the succulent chicken meat with skins that looks like pieces of yellow jades would make any person drool.
Rice
There is a specially made rice for this Singapore Cuisine. The rice is cooked with pandan leave, garlic and the broth that is used to cooked the chicken. This increase the aroma of the rice. The rice should look shiny (because of the chicken fats from broth) and a slight tinge of yellow. You should be able to taste chicken with every mouthful of rice.
Chilli
Most hawkers usually make their own chilli. The main ingredients in a Chicken Rice chilli is chilli, garlic and vinegar. There is no correct way to make a chicken rice chilli. The chilli should not be too hot or too sour or it will spoil the chicken and the rice ogether.
These three components comes together and can synergize into a Singapore Cuisine that you will never ever forget. For those that do not take spicy food. You can also eat the Chicken Rice without the chilli and it will still taste good. It is recommended that if you are also served with dark soya sauce, try it with a piece of chicken. You never know what heavenly treat you have stumbled upon for yourself.
For most stalls, the Chicken Rice comes with some slices of cucumbers and for a small price, you can have a serving of braised egg, braised beancurd, chicken liver or vegetables seasoned with oyster sauce.
Recipe
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