Hainan chicken - so much more than I thought
classics, celebrity chefs, cultural appropriation, tourism, fusion cuisines ...
So much more to say than I thought there would be that I don't really know where to begin. Maybe at the starting point - a lucky dip that David chose - Charmaine Solomon's Family Recipes, which is a book of cultural fusion in itself. However, I opened it at a recipe for Hainan chicken rice, which she describes as "the most useful Asian recipe I know". Stirring words and it was opposite a gorgeous looking roasted chicken of some kind. However, that was Chicken Everest - indeed gorgeous but not as I discovered Hainan chicken rice. For as I read on I came across - "it's mild enough to appeal to children's and other delicate tastebuds" which could not be said of spicy Chicken Everest, and also on reading the recipe I saw that the chicken and rice were just poached and the accompanying sauces did not appeal. Boring, thought I and put it aside for a long time in the future when I was feeling braver.
Or more desperate as it turns out - today, when I thought to myself that although this did indeed seem to be boring, boring poached chicken in fact I have talked before, and indeed, cooked several superficially bland, but absolutely delicious, soothing and comforting variations on the theme of chicken and rice - e.g. Nigella's chicken in a pot - OK i'ts orzo but it could be rice and Kotopoulo Me Rizi from Yiayia Next Door.
It's that beige thing again isn't it? Beige itself is such a derogatory word isn't it? It's used in all sorts of contexts to denote bland and uninteresting, even though it's really just the same as cream which has a much sexier - especially if you say creamy - vibe. But I ramble. There was no picture in Charmaine's book but the recipe can be found online at the Asia Society together with this picture which doesn't look bland and doesn't somehow look right either - after my exploration of the whole thing. The chicken is too brown.
I should also start with an explanation of what the dish 'should' be. Hainan is China's most southern province - a tropical island just off the coast. There they made a dish with called Wenchang chicken, after the particular breed of chicken that was used. However, it's really Singapore which is the epicentre of Hainan chicken rice, and it is thought that it was invented there by chefs from Hainan, although Malaysia also lays claim to its invention. Maybe that's just Singapore taking credit for a dish that was brought to them by immigrants from Hainan. For me, if you give a dish a geographical name it would surely imply that the dish originated in that area. Today it is hugely popular in the Chinese diaspora everywhere but especially in Singapore, Malaysia, Myanmar and also Thailand - although there it is a little different.
So what is it? Well having now perused a number of different versions I think the fundamentals are these.
You remove the chicken fat from inside the chicken but keep it for later. You poach your chicken in water flavoured with spring onions and ginger - at a very low simmer. Then you take the chicken out and plunge it into an ice bath which is supposed to make your chicken's skin shiny. Others leave the chicken to sit in the stock for a while.
Ottolenghi - how dare he? - although he is otherwise pretty traditional - for his Hainanese chicken rice adds chicken stock to his poaching water. He also, cuts off the chicken breasts before poaching the rest of the chicken a little bit longer, which is a bit cheffy, but probably sensible.
The rice is cooked by first frying that chicken fat you kept aside, then adding some ginger and garlic, frying it briefly before adding the rice and then the stock from the poached chicken - well the right amount for your rice. Cover and cook. Of course, some do not use the chicken fat, but fry the garlic and ginger in oil - peanut and a touch of sesame seems to be the thing.
The chicken is chopped into pieces and served with the rice, and three sauces - a ginger/garlic one, a chilli sauce and a thick soy sauce based one.
The most authentic recipes I found - and most of them either had videos or lots of pictures of how to do it - were from the Woks of Life, Yvonne Ruperti of Serious Eats, and our own Tony Tan on the Gourmet Traveller site, Adam Liaw and Marian Grasby of Marian's Kitchen
I could not say which of those recipes is the best. They are indeed very similar, though the ice bath seems to be a step that is often missed. But here we diverge into celebrity chefs and their impact - in particular Anthony Bourdain and Gordon Ramsay. For the next step anyway.
As I said earlier this is most famous in Singapore - some say it's Singapore's national dish, and back in Anthony Bourdain's TV series No Reservations he proclaimed the Hainan chicken rice served at a stall called Tian Tian whose owner was Foo Kui Lan - now retired but still owning I think - in the Maxwell Food Centre - the best in Singapore. Did he try them all one wonders? Whether he did or not is irrelevant for because of his visit and rave review Tian Tian became famous and apparently was therefore, for one thing, able to up its price. More significantly Michelin named it in its Bib Gourmand category and then another celebrity chef - Gordon Ramsay competed against it - and another stall for 'best Hainan chicken rice'. Tian Tian won. More good publicity.
All of which shows the power of the celebrity chef - after all there are probably hundreds of stalls selling Hainan chicken rice in Singapore and who knows why this particular stall was singled out. Maybe somebody recommended it, maybe it was just random. The second bit of publicity built on the first, so you can see why Gordon Ramsay chose it for his tilt at beating the Singaporeans at their own game. And if you visit sites like Trip Advisor or reddit and other such forums you will see plenty of naysayers. This, by the way is the Tian Tian dish. White - not beige.
Then there are those that meddle with the original concept. The most hideous of these is Burger King - well the Singapore arm of Burger King who have a Hainanese chicken burger. There is no poaching and no rice - it "features a grilled chicken thigh patty with ginger sauce" - and is described as a tribute to Hainan chicken rice. And I suppose in a way it is. I suppose they are saying, we might be American but we recognise that your favourite food is poached chicken with a ginger sauce, and so here is chicken and ginger - in a bun - with a bit of lettuce.
Another storm in a teacup was provoked by a lady called Lisa Faulkner an actress, a UK Masterchef winner (I think) and wife of John Torode - a British celebrity chef. In a podcast published by The Guardian - which has subsequently been taken down - probably because of the furore - she cooked this dish - called Hainanese chicken rice, later published in a Waitrose magazine. Really there is little resemblance to the traditional dish - made with chicken fillets, some lime and honey - very non-traditional - and of course there was a huge fuss, some of it very abusive. Well maybe they shouldn't have called it Hainanese chicken rice, but is it really worth taking the time to send abusive emails? In her defence she even said it wasn't her recipe, and that somebody else cooked it for her. This is a case of publicity and marketing going wrong. Which is a shame, because it probably tasted pretty nice.
It's all in the name isn't it? After all other chefs have made variations on the dish - acknowledging the dish as their inspiration but creating something different. The crucial things being chicken, rice, spring onions, ginger and garlic and maybe a chilli sauce. Well that provides a whole world of opportunities doesn't it? And here I offer two examples from celebrity chefs: Chicken and rice with spring onion oil - Yotam Ottolenghi/The Guardian - a traybake version - so no poaching; and from Gordon Ramsay - Chinese-style ginger chicken with garlic rice - which is pretty close. It is featured on the website Brookford Kithen Diaries. Maybe it's the recipe he used to compete with Tian Tian - and not very far from the original.
I do wonder why some people get so hot under the collar about cultural appropriation. "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" is one of the reasons I think that it is so stupid to get so excited. If the imitators don't quite make it how you like it, well that's their problem not yours isn't it? Besides I'm willing to bet that all of those Singapore stalls selling Hainan chicken rice differ slightly - after all there wouldn't be a 'best' if they weren't would they? And 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder' is another corny cliché that can be applied in this context. Everybody's taste is different. And every home cooks a traditional dish differently. I remember for example that my Yorkshire aunt's Yorkshire pudding was more like a pancake than the more familiar crusty cup shaped version my mother made. They were both delicious.
Hainan chicken rice is an immigrant dish. It must be or it wouldn't have the name Hainan attached. Hainan is not Singapore. Immigrants, as we know have to make do with what is available in their new home, when they make their home dishes. So subtle changes happen, which then change some more and before you know where you are you either end up with a Hainan chicken burger or a traybake. Both of them are miles away from the original but both still have echoes.
YEARS GONE BY
October 26
2025 - Disappointing
2024 - Forever summer with Nigella
2023 - Nothing
2022 - Cooking - the only thing unique to us - another one with no pictures. Sorry
2021 - Missing
2020 - Missing
2017 - Barramundi for dinner
2016 - Hamburger buns
Comments