Steamed Chicken Rice (冬菇蒸雞飯)

This steamed chicken rice is traditionally cooked in a claypot. As you might know, it’s a challenge to cook rice in a claypot, not as easy as in a rice cooker that we are familiar with. Needless to say, the rice at the bottom of a claypot would be burned. Many people, including my father, love the burned rice very much because of its crunchy texture. Unfortunately, none of us in my family likes to eat the burned rice, so it’d be a waste for us in certain sense.

Here I used steaming method to cook this traditional Chinese dish. All the goodies and flavours are well absorbed into the soft rice, similar to be cooked in a claypot. The chicken is just cooked with the right doneness, tender and juicy.

Prepare a round 17cm (6.5 inches) bowl

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Jasmine rice (I used my electric rice cooker’s cup, about 300 grams)
• 500 gm chicken drumsticks and chicken wings (or chicken breast if you like)
• 8 shiitake mushrooms
• ginger, julienned, to taste
• spring onion, for garnish
• water, to cook rice

Marinade for chicken:

• 1 1/2 tsp light soy sauce
• 1 tsp dark soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp cornflour
• 1 tsp Shaoxing wine
• a pinch of white pepper
• a pinch of salt

Marinade for mushrooms:

• 1/2 tsp light soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp cornflour
• 1/2 tsp vegetable oil

Method:

1. Soak shiitake mushrooms in warm water until softened. If they are big, cut them into two halves. Mix with marinade.
2. Chop chicken into smaller pieces. The chicken wings I used were without the tips. For the drumsticks, I chopped them into halves. Be cautious. By chopping the chicken bones, some might be broken into small pieces. Thus, use a sharp and heavy knife to chop and try to chop on one go. By doing this, it might reduce broken small bones. (Note: When it comes to cooking this dish, Chinese people like to choose those chicken parts with bones on because the dish tastes much delicious.) Or you might like to use chicken breast without any bones intact for the sake of young kids in your family. Marinade the chicken for 30 minutes.
3. Rinse rice and drain well as you do as usual, yet add less water to cook because you don’t want your rice too soggy and mushy after adding chicken and marinade into it. Basically, add 80% of water that you used to cook rice. Transfer rice and water into a large, deep bowl. Steam in a wok over high heat for about 20 minutes, covered, or until the water in the bowl dries up. Add chicken and mushrooms, sprinkle ginger. Continue to cook for 20 minutes, covered. Turn off the heat, let chicken and rice sit in the wok for another 10 minutes. Garnish with spring onion. Serve hot.

Tips:

• If you have a rice cooker, you can cook this dish with it. Cook rice as you usually do, but add less water. When heaps of steam releasing out from the rice cooker, it means the water is boiling. When the steam reduces, the water inside begins to dry up. Quickly add chicken and mushrooms with marinade, sprinkle ginger. Cover and let the rice cooker continue to cook until it’s done.
• Little reminder: if it’s too late to add chicken, the chicken can’t be cooked enough time. Or it’s too early, the chicken will soak in the rice water too long. Both cases would not produce the best results. Timing is a crucial element of cooking this dish.