Claypot chicken rice is popular in many Asian countries just to name a few Malaysia and Singapore, which I had have eaten in the street, kopitam or food courts. There are many varieties in term of flavour added such as lup cheong and lup yuk, dried shrimps and dried mushrooms: shitake and of course chicken meat. Some use thigh and some use breast.

While it’s traditionally cooked in a clay pot, many use electric rice cooker these days easier for home cook like me. Claypot is sand pots many Asian countries would have them and used it to cook flavoured rice over charcoal like my grandma used too. My mom has the claypot, I could bother to buy the claypot so I have used my rice cooker to cook it.

There are a lot of things to do for this recipe. As I have time free so I decided to spend my time exploring and creating something different. Thus, one in a while it’s good to practise my Chinese culinary skill. Well, the hard work is paid off with each mouthful I eat. I soon forgot how hard to cut the lup cheong and especially the lup yuk, I have to use serrated knife using all my muscle strength and even after steaming for 35-45 minutes for it to soften a bit.

I am glad to try my hand at making cheat claypot rice to go with some green. My green is bok choy. I have cook flavoured chicken rice in big amount so that I can freeze them and have it later with other ingredients, today I had it with bok choy. My dinner is my hard work paid off, using my time wisely and it was delicious, flavoursome and satisfying my soul. Let’s cook!!!

Ingredients

75 g butter
8 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
4 inches ginger, divided, chopped finely
10-12 dried mushrooms, soaked overnight, slice thinly
100 g thinly sliced black fungus, soaked in hot water for 30 minutes
4 lup cheong, halved
1/2 of long piece of lup yuk, cut into small pieces
5 chicken breasts, cut in bite size
2 Tbs soy sauce
1 1/2 Tbs Shoa Xing (Chinese cooking wine)
2 Tbs oyster sauce, divided
1 Tbs minced garlic
6-7 c rice, wash and drain
1 L chicken stock (about 4 c)
3-4 c water
2 Tsp chicken powder stock
reserved water from mushrooms
salt
oil
ajinomoto (OPT)

Green vegetables

1 bunch of bok choy, washed, dried, cut into bite size
1 Tbs minced garlic
1 Tsp sesame oil (OPT)
oil
salt
pepper

Method

Place chicken in a bowl. Add 2“finely chopped ginger, soy sauce, 1 1/2 Tbs oyster and Shao Xing cooking wine. Allow chicken to marinade for 30 minutes. In a wok, put enough water and a stand, then put halved lup cheong and lup yuk in a metal plate and let it sit on the stand. Steam cook for 35-45 minutes until soften a bit. Do check regularly for enough water.

In a deep pan add 2 Tbs oil and butter let butter melt. Then add the remaining 2” chopped finely ginger and chopped finely garlic and fry until a little brown, add drained rice and toss around till oil and butter absorbed. Transfer to rice cooker add 3 c water, 1 L chicken stock, salt, ajinomoto, chicken stock powder, 1 1/2 Tbs oyster sauce. Stir up well and make sure water level is right (slightly above the rice), then cook it.

Now the lup cheong and lup yuk should be done, slice thinly with serrated knife both of them. Put 1 Tbs oil in frying pan fry lup cheong and lup yuk a little bit about 1-2 minutes. Remove and set aside. Using the same pan add 1 Tbs oil, add minced garlic fry until fragrant, add chicken, black fungus and mushrooms with a bit water from mushrooms, salt to taste and cook until black fungus, mushrooms and chicken are cooked. Check seasoning.

When rice is done, add lup cheong, lup yuk and the oil from it, add chicken, black fungus and mushrooms. Stir well to combined all. Let the rice cooker keep warm about 5-10 minutes to infuse all the flavour from the chicken, black fungus, mushrooms, lup cheong and lup yuk.

While rice is in keep warm mode. Cook the bok choy. Heat a saucepan on medium heat, add 1 Tbs oil, once oil is hot about 25 seconds, add garlic cook for 25 seconds then add in bok choy, stir around until wilted about 10 minutes. Add sesame oil and toss around to mix well. Season with salt and pepper. Spoon bok choy onto plate. Then spoon rice with some bok choy onto serving bowls and serve with bok choy and a bottle of cool beer. Enjoy!!!

Note: Freeze the remaining rice for later. You may want to reduce the amount to half. You may omit ajinomoto.

https://helenscchin.com/2023/06/06/flavoured-chicken-rice-with-bok-choy/

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