National Dish of Singapore- made special for Maddie

Since moving here, Madeline has not been able to experience the cool "hawker centers"-the place where you can get traditional food from all over Asia for dirt cheap (and really really good). Due to her allergies, we have stayed clear of these areas-but she is always asking what some of the dishes taste like. One of these dishes is the national dish of Singapore...The Hainanese Chicken Rice.

A candidate for ‘national dish’, is it can be found in almost every street corner coffeeshop, hawker centers, hotels, and coffee houses in Singapore. Brought to Singapore by immigrants from Hainan, China, it has evolved to become the delicious Singaporean dish it is today.

I had to tweak the recipe for our liking and allergies, but Madeline and I made it tonight and it was really great and tasted very very similar to the ones in the Hawker centers. The typical recipe calls for a whole chicken (skin on) and uses a lot of fat to cook it in. I modified the traditional recipes I found and came up with the one below. If you would like to try our version-it is quite yummy and tasty with the ginger and garlic. The locals add the Chili Sauce or soya sauce when eating for more flavor and punch, but we stuck to the plain and simple. We served it with some fresh steamed green beans, it was a great easy dinner with two big thumbs up from the kids and Brian. :)

Sibley version of "Singapore Chicken Rice"

1lb boneless chicken breasts
1 scallion, cut into 1 inch pieces
4 slices fresh, peeled ginger (plus more for grating in rice)
chicken broth (I used one and a half cartons of Organic Chicken broth)
6 to 8 cloves garlic, finely chopped (and minced for rice)
4 cups long-grain uncooked rice
1 tsp fine salt

Optional: Mix together for Chilli Sauce
2 to 3 tbsp freshly squeezed lime or lemon juice, 5 tbsp finely chopped fresh red chilies, 5 cloves garlic, chopped, 3 tbsp finely chopped ginger, 1 tsp fine salt, 1/2 cup boiling hot chicken stock (what you cooked the chicken in)


Directions:
Pour chicken broth into large pot (reserve enough for rice). Place chicken with scallions, 2 cloves sliced garlic and sliced ginger into pot. Bring to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer just under boiling point and cook, covered until just cooked through, about 20-30 minutes. (I have a rice cooker, but if you don't just cook the rice on the stove)Take more chicken broth, uncooked rice, 2 cloves of minced garlic, and fresh grated ginger to the pot/rice cooker. Make rice as usual with replacing water with chicken broth. Once done, chop chicken once cooked and serve with steaming hot rice and optional chilli sauce. Dark soya sauce is also an ideal accompaniment (which we couldn't do because of maddie's allergies). Super easy and super good. Hope this makes sense, email me if you have any questions of comments if you make it at home.

A little bit of Singapore, brought to YOU. Enjoy!