I didn’t know that Vietnam so many types of chicken rice! From the north to the south, each region has its own variation of the dish that celebrates the humble poultry. Hoi An’s chicken rice reminds us of a sunny day, with different hues of yellow from the turmeric-dyed rice and glistening chicken skin. On the side there is a tangy salad to stimulate the palate. In Ho Chi Minh City, people rave about cơm gà xối mỡ (literally fat-basting chicken rice): deep-fried chicken with crispy skin served over fried rice and raw vegetables (lettuce, cucumber and tomato) to release yourself from some guilt after all the grease.
My family also has our version, and uncannily, ours resembles that of Singapore – the country’s national pride. However, our approach is much simpler, while some vendors in Singapore have a complicated process of marinating, poaching and drying the chicken. We poach the poultry in a liquid seasoned with ginger, spring onion and pepper and use it to cook the rice in a rice cooker. Using any types of leafy greens on hand, we turn the extra liquid into a soup for a full-on meal.
The most important ingredient (after chicken of course), is ginger, whose warm tasting note and aroma perfume the poaching liquid and accentuate the flavor of the chicken. We soak ginger in the accompanying tangy fish sauce – this is where our version differs most from others.
Gingery Chicken Rice
Ingredients
Chicken stock
- The backbone from one chicken
- Your favorite chicken parts (I use breast)
- 50 g ginger roughly cut into chunks
- 1 tsp peppercorns
- 3 stalks of onion roughly cut into 5-cm slices
Rice
- 1 cup rice
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 30 g ginger thinly sliced
- 1 tbsp oil
Sauce
- 1 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 tbsp water
- 1 tsp lime juice
- 30 g ginger thinly sliced
Instructions
- In a stock pot, cover all of the ingredients for the stock with water. Simmer on medium heat until the chicken is tender (about 40 minutes). Skim and discard any scums floating on top. Reserve the stock.
- Once the chicken is done, immediately transfer it to an ice bath until cool. Chop into bite-size pieces.
- In a Dutch oven/deep pan, sauté the garlic and ginger in oil until fragrant. Add the rice and toss thoroughly. Add 2 cups of stock and ½ tsp of salt and simmer on medium heat with the lid on until all the liquid has evaporated. Continue to cover for 20 minutes. This might differ depending on the type of rice you use.
- Combine fish sauce, water and lime juice and taste accordingly. Soak the ginger in the sauce, best to make one hour before serving.
Notes
- I use brown rice, which comes out relatively drier than white rice. Jasmine white rice is a good alternative if you have it on hand. It’s fluffier, softer and often, the fragrance from the rice fuses with that from the ginger and peppercorn to create a sublime aroma.
- Depending on how salty your fish sauce is, you might have to dilute it with more (or less) water. Some brands have a pretty mild flavor and are good as condiments on their own without any adjustments.
