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Why Your Hainanese Chicken Rice Sucks (And How Mei Mei Fixes It)

Byamazingfoodstv


Most home-cooked Chicken Rice is sad. The skin is rubbery, the breast is dry, and the rice is just… rice. Today, we stop accepting mediocrity. I’m teaching you the Mei Mei restaurant standard—specifically, how to get that gelatinous, glass-like skin that everyone gets wrong.

Happy Lunar New Year! 🧧 For this celebration, I’m taking you back to basics but elevating them to professional standards. We are making the iconic Hainanese Chicken Rice. This isn’t just a recipe; it’s a technique masterclass on poaching chicken perfectly and creating the most aromatic rice you’ve ever tasted.

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🐓 INGREDIENTS LIST:

The Poached Chicken:

1 Whole Chicken (Free-range/Corn-fed preferred)
Sea Salt (for exfoliating the skin)
50g Ginger, sliced
30g Garlic, peeled
4-5 Stalks Spring Onion (Scallions)
Ice bath (Crucial for the skin!)
2 Pandan Leaves
The Aromatic Rice:

500g Jasmine Rice
60g Chicken Fat (rendered) or Vegetable Oil
30g Ginger, minced
30g Garlic, minced
2 Pandan Leaves (knotted)
Chicken Poaching Broth (to cook the rice)
Sesame Oil
The Sauces (The Soul of the Dish):

Chilli Sauce: Fresh red chillies, garlic, ginger, lime juice, splash of chicken broth.
Ginger & Scallion Oil: Minced ginger, sliced spring onions, hot avocado oil, salt.
Dark Soy: Thick dark soy sauce.

Or purchase the Chicken Rice sauces here:

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#HainaneseChickenRice #LunarNewYear #MeiMeiLondon #ChefElizabethHaigh #ChineseNewYear #ChickenRiceRecipe

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37 Comments

  8. This is making me miss all 4 of my grandparents(some have passed) in Singapore, going to the hawker centre in Serangoon Gardens with them and my siblings was and is always such a truly lovely and authentic Singaporean experience. Getting Wonton Noodle, Chicken Rice and Char Kway Teow with some Calamansi juice is such a great time.

  11. I need to get married to an Asian lady so we can make Hainanese chicken rice for Chinese New Year. Lol
    Seriously though, I'm taking notes on making this. I truly enjoy eating and cooking all forms of Asian food. Fantastic recipe, here. I appreciate the tutorial.

  14. The older you get, the more asian you look! It's nuts! I remember the first time seeing you with Uncle Roger. You just looked like a regular, white, British chick. But now, you look like somebody's full-blown asian aunt. wtf? lol

  15. Auntie Liz, next time you’re in Singapore try Ming Kee chicken rice at Kim San Leng Bishan 511 behind Junction 8/Bishan bus interchange. they serve their chicken chilled straight from ice which gives it an incredible springy texture, and also use some kind of melon or gourd in the stock which adds a light refreshing flavour. They say if you put 3 Singaporeans in one room you will have a long argument and walk out with 5 favourite chicken rice spots, so this is mine.

  30. I'm pretty sure that dunking 3 times, whether into hot water at the beginning or ice water at the end is just an old wive's tale. Because in each case it only spends a second out of the liquid and you immediately then put it back into the liquid to sit. As a matter of physics or chemistry, I don't think the dunk is doing anything that the placement in the liquid isn't already accomplishing.

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