Rice Dishes
Authentic Hainanese Chicken Rice Balls Recipe
Experience the nostalgic taste of Malacca and Singapore with these fragrant, hand-rolled chicken rice balls. This recipe pairs succulent, silk-textured poached chicken with buttery rice compressed into bite-sized treats, served with a zingy garlic chili sambal.
- Prep
- 30 min
- Cook
- 45 min
- Serves
- 4
- Level
- Medium
- Per serving
- 620 kcal
Method
Prepare the chicken by rubbing it with salt to exfoliate the skin, then rinse. Submerge the chicken in a pot of water with sliced ginger, scallions, and a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil, then immediately turn the heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the chicken steep for another 15 minutes to stay juicy.
Prepare an ice bath. Remove the chicken from the pot and plunge it into cold water for 10 minutes to stop the cooking and create a gelatinous skin. Reserve the poaching liquid (chicken stock) for the rice and soup.
For the rice, heat chicken fat or oil in a pan. Sauté minced garlic and ginger until fragrant. Add the washed jasmine rice and stir-fry for 2 minutes to coat every grain in the fat. Transfer the rice to a rice cooker, add the reserved chicken stock (measured to the rice cooker's requirement), pandan leaves, and a teaspoon of salt. Cook as usual.
To make the garlic chili sambal, blend red chilies, garlic, ginger, calamansi juice, a splash of chicken stock, and a pinch of sugar and salt until a smooth paste forms.
While the rice is still very hot, remove the pandan leaves. Use a spatula to slightly mash the rice to make it stickier. Wet your hands with a bit of salted water or chicken stock, take a handful of rice, and roll it firmly into a golf-ball-sized sphere. It is essential to do this while the rice is hot so the starch binds the ball together.
Slice the poached chicken and drizzle with a mixture of light soy sauce, sesame oil, and a tablespoon of chicken stock. Serve the rice balls alongside the chicken, chili sambal, and a bowl of the hot chicken stock garnished with fresh cilantro.
Notes
Do not wait for the rice to cool; if the rice is cold, the balls will crumble and won't hold their shape.
Rubbing the chicken with coarse salt before poaching is the secret to the smooth, 'white' chicken skin found in Singaporean hawker stalls.
For the most authentic flavor, use rendered chicken fat (schmaltz) instead of vegetable oil to fry the rice aromatics.
If the rice isn't sticking, add a tablespoon of glutinous rice (sticky rice) to your jasmine rice mix before cooking.
