Hainanese Chicken Rice (Cơm Gà Hải Nam)

Hainanese Chicken Rice is a a fan favorite dish in our household. I love the silky texture that poached whole chicken has, the fatty, savory rice cooked in schmaltz, and the combination of sauces that really kicks the dish up a notch. This dish truly is a symphony of flavors.

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In Vietnamese, the dish is called cơm gà hải nam. It originated on the island of Hainan, or Hai Nam in the South China sea. The dish is now popular across Southeast Asia, and is most well known as one of Singapore's national dishes. The Singaporean version includes sauces that are a little bit different than the one I serve the dish with.

The chicken really shines in this dish, and you use every part of it. The fat is trimmed off and used to cook the rice, along with the broth that you make when you poach the chicken. This makes for a delicious, fatty, flavorful rice that compliments the poached chicken incredibly well.

Jump to:

• 🍗 Ingredients
• 🔪 Instructions
• 💭 Substitutions
• 📚 Variations
• 🖊️ Top tips
• 🍳 Equipment
• 🍚 Serving Suggestions
• 🥡 How to store or make in advance
• 👪 Serving size
• 📋 Recipe
• 📋 Recipe
• 🦺 Food safety

🍗 Ingredients

The chicken is truly the star of this dish. If there was any dish you want to splurge on meat for, it would be this one. Try to find a free-range, organic chicken if possible. Cơm Gà Hải Nam is traditionally made with gà đi bộ, or walking chicken, which has a smaller water content and a chewier meat. It also has a beautiful yellow skin and really flavorful fat. I couldn't find one, so I used turmeric to color my chicken.

You will need:

For the chicken:

• A whole chicken
• shallots
• turmeric
• water
• a neutral cooking oil

For the rice:

• chicken fat
• shallots
• turmeric
• rice
• chicken broth

For the ginger scallion oil:

• scallions
• ginger
• a neutral cooking oil
• salt
• msg

For the ginger fish sauce:

• ginger
• garlic
• Thai chilis
• sugar
• fish sauce
• apple cider vinegar

Optional for serving:

• Cucumber
• Tomato
• Fried shallots

See recipe card for quantities.

🔪 Instructions

Cooking the chicken:

For the ginger scallion oil:

For the ginger fish sauce:

Assembling the dish:

Hint: Make more ginger scallion oil than you need and save it for later. It tastes great on everything from salads to sandwiches to plain hot rice!

💭 Substitutions

• Chicken fat - If your chicken isn't very fatty or you don't want to render your own fat, you can use store bought chicken fat (schmaltz) or store bought duck fat.
• Types of chicken - As referenced above, buy the best quality chicken you can find to truly enjoy this dish as it is meant to taste. I reccommend at least getting a free range, organic chicken.
• Apple cider vinegar: You can use lime juice or rice wine vinegar.

📚 Variations

Different countries have different variations on the sauces served with Hainanese chicken rice. Check out some other bloggers' recipes for more sauce inspiration:

• The Ravenous Couple makes a similar ginger fish sauce to this recipe, and adds a Thai style soy sauce.
• The Woks of Life serves this dish with three sauces: a ginger garlic sauce, a dark sweet soy sauce and a chili sauce.
• Andrea Nguyen also uses a scallion ginger oil like me, and adds three other sauces:A fresh ginger sauce, a fermented soybean sauce and a chile sauce.

Mix and match your favorite sauces to customize this dish!

🖊️ Top tips

• Different brands of fish sauce will have different levels of saltiness, especially the longer it's kept after opening. Taste as you go when making the ginger fish sauce. You're looking for a good balance of sweet, salty, sour and spicy.
• Kosher salt and table salt have different levels of saltiness, and different brands of kosher salt also differ. Add salt a little bit at a time and taste as you go when making the scallion oil.

🍳 Equipment

I use a rice cooker to make all my rice. I follow the manufacturer's instructions. My rice cooker is from Cuckoo.

If you don't have a rice cooker, follow the steps above for rinsing, draining and toasting the rice. Add the rice to a stock pot and add twice as much chicken broth as rice. Stir the rice once and cover the pot and bring to a boil. Once it boils, immediately turn down the heat to the lowest setting on your stove. Simmer the rice, covered, for 15-20 minutes until the rice is done. Check it around 10 minutes to make sure you don't burn the rice.

I use a small manual food processor to mince all my garlic and ginger. You can use a knife if you want, but it will take longer. You can also use an electric food processor.

🍚 Serving Suggestions

I like to serve Cơm Gà Hải Nam with some fresh cucumbers and tomatoes to cut through the richness of the fatty chicken and rice. It would also taste good with some steamed vegetables or a salad.

🥡 How to store or make in advance

The chicken, rice and sauces can be made up to 48 hours in advance. Keep everything in separate containers in the fridge. Let the chicken come to room temperature before serving. The rice can be microwaved.

The chicken and rice will last in the fridge for 3-4 days. The sauces will last in the fridge for up to a week.

👪 Serving size

This dish will comfortably serve up to six people.

📋 Recipe

📋 Recipe

Calorie counts and nutrition facts are an estimate only.

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🦺 Food safety

• Cook chicken to a minimum temperature of 165 °F (74 °C)
• Do not use the same utensils on cooked food, that previously touched raw meat
• Wash hands after touching raw meat
• Don't leave food sitting out at room temperature for extended periods. Rice should not be kept warm in the rice cooker overnight.
• Never leave cooking food unattended
• Use oils with high smoking point to avoid harmful compounds
• Always have good ventilation when using a gas stove

See more guidelines at USDA.gov.