Malaysian-style Chicken Rice

For soup:
1 lb roasting chicken, skinned
1/2 cup chicken stock/broth
Water to cover chicken
1/2 cup onions, sliced
5 garlic cloves, crushed
2 inches ginger, crushed
3 cardamom pods, crushed
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tbsp coriander powder
1 celery stalk, sliced
1/2 cup scallions, chopped finely, to garnish
Salt to taste

For rice:
2 cups uncooked basmathi/any long-grain rice
1/2 cup onions, sliced
7 garlic cloves, sliced
1/4 cup ginger, sliced
3 cardamom pods, crushed
1/2 star anise
1 stick cinnamon (1 inch long)
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp canola oil
Salt to taste

For quick chicken marinade:
2 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp black pepper
1 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tbsp coriander powder

For salad:
2 cups cherry tomatoes, or any kind
10 romaine leaves, or any leafy salad
1 cucumber, sliced

For hot pepper salsa:
3 hot chiili peppers
1 clove garlic, minced finely
2 tbsp lemon/lime juice
Salt to taste

Makes 4 servings. Although I put down the cooking time as 90 minutes, in reality I have done this in an hour.

Soup:
Prepare the soup by covering the chicken in a stock pot with water and chicken stock/broth. Add the onions, ginger and garlic, and leave to simmer for 30 minutes. Then remove the chicken and set aside to drain excess soup. Conserve 1 bowl of soup for the chili salsa and 4 cups for the rice. Add the remaining soup spices to the rest of the soup and simmer over low heat till ready to serve.

Rice:
In the meantime, we can begin preparation of the rice. Heat up a wok with canola oil and butter at medium heat. Fry the chopped onions until fragrant and beginning to caramelise (turn brown). Add in the ginger, garlic, cardamom, star anise and cinnamon, and continue stir-frying until fragrant. At this point add the uncooked rice, and continuously stir till rice turns golden yellow. Remove to a rice cooker and top up with 4 cups of chicken soup that you have just prepared. If you don't own a rice cooker, place the fried uncooked rice into a pot with 4 cups of chicken soup, and leave to simmer at low heat. Add in salt to taste.

Chicken:
Preheat the oven at 300 F, set to grill. Marinade the chicken and place in hot oven/grill/grill pan for 15 minutes, or just enough to glaze the chicken. The excess marinade can be heated up in a pan and served as gravy.

Pepper Salsa:
Using a food processor, finely mince the peppers and the garlic. Add the chicken soup you have conserved and the lime juice.

To serve, lay out the salad leaves on a platter and place the chicken on top. My mother likes to decorate the edges of the platter with sliced cucumbers and tomatoes.



Number of Servings: 4

Recipe submitted by SparkPeople user PONGKEY.