Hainanese Chicken Rice in Rice Cooker

Hainanese chicken rice is one of Singapore’s national dishes; it consists of poached chicken and seasoned steamed rice served with a chili sauce, soy sauce for chicken, and sometimes, cucumber slices.

A set of Hainanese chicken rice is my lunch staple back when I was living in Malaysia. It is no exaggeration that I ate Hainanese chicken rice set for half of the week, and no wonder, it’s cheap and very delicious.

I rely on this easy recipe to recreate my favorite chicken and rice dish in my trusty rice cooker. The simplicity will convince you to make this dish regularly, maybe even a once a week ritual. ;)

Ingredients for Hainanese chicken rice and its sauces

1. Hainanese chicken rice

We need rice (preferably Thai jasmine rice), chicken stock, chicken drumsticks, garlic, ginger, scallions, salt, and sesame oil.

2. Garlic ginger chili sauce

We need red chilies, garlic, ginger, chicken stock, rice vinegar, lime juice, salt, and sugar.

3. Soy sauce for chicken

This sauce is a simple mix of light soy sauce and water. We drizzle this sauce over the cooked chicken before serving to enhance its flavor.

How to cook Hainanese chicken rice in a rice cooker

1. Marinate chicken

Start by marinating chicken drumsticks with grated ginger, grated garlic, chopped scallions, salt, and sesame oil.

2. Wash rice

Rinse the rice multiple times with cold tap water until the water runs clear before draining.

3. Fry garlic and ginger

Heat about a tablespoon of sesame oil in a frying pan and fry some bruised garlic and ginger until fragrant.

4. Cook in a rice cooker

Place rice in the rice cooker pot, top with chicken stock, add fried garlic and ginger, as well as the marinated chicken drumsticks.

Cook with the regular “white rice” setting. Use the “cook” function if you have the most basic rice cooker.

Rest another 15 minutes without opening the rice cooker lid once the light has turned to “keep warm.”

After 15 minutes, open the lid, transfer the chicken to a serving plate, fluff the rice, and transfer it to a serving bowl. Serve with chili sauce and soy sauce for chicken.

Prepare the chili sauce and the soy sauce for chicken

1. Garlic ginger chili sauce

Use a food processor to puree red chilies, garlic, ginger, salt, sugar, rice vinegar, lime juice, and chicken stock into a smooth sauce.

Every lime is different, so you will need to adjust the amount of salt and sugar to suit your taste each time you prepare this sauce.

2. Soy sauce for chicken

This sauce is a simple mix of light soy sauce with water. You will need the same amount for both ingredients.

I highly recommend choosing a good quality Chinese light soy sauce for this since you will be able to taste the difference. My favorite light soy sauce is either Pearl River Bridge or Kimlan.

Rice cooker and using other chicken cuts

My rice cooker is the Aroma 20 cup cooked (10 cup uncooked) model. I am certain you can use other models of rice cooker for this recipe since it is super basic and doesn’t require any fancy function.

If you are not a big fan of chicken drumsticks, you can use 8-10 pieces of chicken wings. I suggest separating each wing into drummettes and wingettes and saving the wingtips for cooking chicken stock.

Other rice cooker recipes

To make the most of your rice cooker, why not give my other rice cooker recipes a try?

• no mi fan - savory sticky rice
• clay pot chicken rice
• five-spice chicken
• ketupat
• nasi liwet

For the more adventurous, you may even want to try preparing desserts in your rice cooker.

• red bean paste
• banana cake
• honey glazed upside-down apple cake
• upside-down pineapple cake