Braised Chicken Rice

Weehee~ We got a new roasting pan! Its nice and shiny and even has a rack to drain off all the nasty fats! Which, incidentally, can be quite yummy, but oh well...

Anyways, in this dish, Hadi tries to be creative and uses TWO ways to cook his chicken! I think his usage of braise is a bit wrong here, since braise actually means to sear food in fat to brown them, then cooked slowly over low heat in a small amount liquid to develop its flavour and to tenderise them. But oh well. At least it doesn't have Hadi in it...

What you need:
Chicken pieces
Sesame oil
Garlic, chopped finely
Chicken stock
Dried chillies, chopped
Soy sauce

Rice

Basting sauce:
Honey
Marmite
Japanese rice vinegar
Chicken stock
Chilli powder

What you do:

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add the chicken pieces, then season with chicken stock, garlic, sesame oil, dried chillies and just a dash of soy sauce.
2. Simmer the chicken pieces until tender, then drain. Reserve the cooking stock.
3. Reduce the stock (by boiling) until its just enough to use to cook your rice with. Better less than more. You can always add more water if its too little. So yeah, cook your rice with it.
4. Heat an oven to very high heat (230 C or more).
5. Brush the chicken with the basting sauce. Place in the hot oven. Baste every 5 minutes or so, until the skin of the chicken is nice and crispy and golden.
6. By this time, the rice should also be done. Serve.

This was quite nice, actually. The rice especially was super yummy, though it could have used more seasonings, maybe a bit of pepper. It could probably also have benefitted by frying the garlic and chillies briefly, before adding them.

The chicken itself was nice and shiny. Any "pasty co lour" which usually comes from boiling chicken was removed by the basting and roasting. That was a good idea that Hadi had, hehe. Basting the chicken just gave it more flavour, which is really needed, since boiled chicken can be a bit bland, no matter how much seasoning you put into it. And cooking the rice with the cooking stock? Pure genius. It was a bit oily though, maybe he could've removed the oil a bit before adding it to the rice. Ooo, and garnishing it with spring onions would definitely not be a bad idea!

Its quite interesting, the way Hadi comes up with his dinners. And most importantly, his dinners are usually more than edible, so that's really good. Sigh, I, on the other hand, follow recipes most of the time. Which anyone can do really...

Quote of the day: When baking, follow directions. When cooking, go y your own taste.

Sound advice indeed. Oh, and it looks like Raya is on Monday, not tomorrow. So...one more day Puasa everyone!