Hainanese Chicken Rice (made easy)

Personally, I always thought this was one of my best impress-your-mother-in-law recipes, apart from my claypot chicken rice concoction. It is so easy, you'll have it done within 40 minutes (including cleaning up time after cooking!) and everyone will think you're an amazing cook. I got the recipe from one of the mothers in the Manchester Chinese Christian Church when I was studying in Manchester after my A-levels. A lot of my recipes are from them and other friends during my 4-year stint in England. Sigh, England*----my dream home and sanctuary away from the crazy, fast-paced, clockwork, no-nonsense, every-man-for-better-wealth-now-or-never cosmopolitan Singapore. Anyway, if you need to whip up a quick dish under S$10 to feed 4 mouths, you've got it!

Equipment:

1. Microwave oven with at least 1.5L capacity or 1.0 cubic feet
   
2. Microwave oven-safe Casserole dish
3. Coriander to wash your vegetables
4. Rice cooker
   
5. Chop-sticks and bowls to serve your rice
6. Chopping board to chop up your chicken after it's cooked to look like you're serving it at the hawker centre
7. A centre piece plate to present your chicken after it's done
   

Ingredients:

1. Whole Spring Chicken ---- 1 whole
   
2. White long-grained rice or fragrant rice ---- 1 cup
   
3. Ginger ---- 1 big piece (or as much as you like!)
4. Garlic ---- 6 cloves of garlic (or as much as you like!)
5. Salt ---- just a pinch (or as unhealthy as you want to have it!)
6. Some green leafy vegetables, eg xiao bai chai, chinese bak choy, kailan, or whatever you fancy for the day...
7. Oyster sauce ---- 3 tablespoons
8. Cornflour ---- 1 dessert spoon
9. Water ---- 1/2 cup (or 1 cup, if you like it with more gravy, might have to adjust the amount of cornflour proportionately)

Optional:

1. Cucumber ---- as much as you want (I won't talk about this vegetable in this recipe as I'm sure you'll know what to do with it...just use your imagination...and no no, nothing kinky, think straight, remember how they usually present them at the hawkers? Yes, good, yeah, just slice them into nice, flat, oval-shaped pieces and surround your chicken on the plate as the perfect garnishing)
   

Method:

For the chicken:
Rub the salt around the chicken. Put it in a microwave oven-safe casserole dish, and put it into a microwave oven. Cook uncovered, on high, for 20 minutes. Then turn over and cook for another 15 to 20 minutes, depending on how big your bird is.

Result: Bak Cham Kai -- perfecto! (English: white spring chicken -- perfect!)

There'll be oil that comes out of the chicken. Take out the chicken from the dish and leave the oil for use later with the rice.

For the vegetables:
Heat a non-stick frying pan with some EVOO (extra virgin olive oil). Start the stir-fry with sauteeing some of the garlic till fragrant, then dump in your vegetables for the day (whatever they are!) Add the oyster sauce to the vegetables when they're almost done (about 5-10 minutes). Some people would make the gravy separate from the cooking vegetables, but who cares? I'm lazy. Just lug in the oyster sauce (you can choose to put more in if you like it saltier, never mind that your kidneys have to work harder...). Add the cornflour to the water, stir it till it's just dissolved (you shouldn't get any lumps with the flour), and pour it over the oyster sauce to make the thickening.

Result: You Chai (English: vegetables with oyster-sauce)

For the rice:
Dump whatever amount of rice you want to eat into a rice cooker. I suggested one cup for 4 persons above. Throw in the ginger and garlic and leave it to cook as you would your usual rice. But the ginger and the garlic would give you that ultimate flavour of chicken rice. Some people say you need to add chicken stock, but personally, I like to eat with less fuss and cut the MSG.

Once done, add the oil from the chicken. And maybe a dash of sesame oil. If you want to be really healthy, cut the oil.

Result: you have a perfect fragrant chicken rice!