Chicken Rice cooked in a rice cooker

This is a very easy recipe for chicken rice, which I cook in a rice cooker. It is a variation of claypot chicken rice which I might adapt for use in cooking in a clay pot once I get my pot! For now, all you need is a rice cooker, which every asian household will have.

What you need:

• 2 cups of washed rice
• Half a chicken or 2 chicken legs chopped into small pieces. Leave the skin on.
• 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce
• 1 and a half teaspoon of light soy sauce
• half teaspoon of sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon of Chinese Rice Wine /Shaoxing Jiu (optional)
• Pepper
• 2-3 Shallots sliced
• Butter/margarine (optional)

Serves: 2-3 persons
How to:

1. Marinade the chicken pieces with the oyster sauce, light soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine and pepper for at least half an hour. I like to leave the chicken skin on to add flavour to the rice.
2. In the meantime, slice the shallots and fry till fragrant. Remove and reserve with a little oil.
3. Wash the rice and measure out the water. Use half a mark less water than you normally would to cook rice because the chicken will produce liquid as it cooks.
4. Put the rice to cook in the rice cooker with a touch of butter and the fried shallots and oil. Once the water in the rice cooker starts to boil and the rice starts to cook, add the marinated chicken and the remaining marinade into the rice pot.
5. Cover and leave it to cook until done. When done, let it dry out in the pot before serving with stirfried vegetables.

This is such an easy recipe because once you put it to cook, you can go off and do whatever else you need while the rice cooker does the job. I like having this on cool evenings or on days when I’m too tired to cook something elaborate for dinner. I try to marinade the chicken in the morning and when I get home in the evening and put this to cook I can go off, have my shower and come out to a nice hot dinner. You can add in mushrooms or chinese waxed sausages if you like.

The Chinese Rice Wine or Shaoxing Jiu adds a nice flavour to the chicken. Butter and fried shallots add flavour and fragrance to the rice. Leaving the skin on ensures that the chicken is kept moist and a nice flavour is imparted to the rice. These are all optional though. But do be warned that this dish does whet the appetite, so be prepared for your guests to ask for seconds… or maybe thirds!

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Tagged as: Chicken, Chinese, Easy Recipes, Rice