Rotisserie Chicken -Part I Chicken Rice

Sometimes when I have a real busy day and really looking forward to a easy comfort meal, I head to Costco for a rotisserie chicken and cucumber. I have chicken rice on my mind. Traditionally this dish is consist of steamed chicken and chicken rice but rotisserie chicken is also good with the rice. What is more versatile than a Rotisserie Chicken from Costco or your local grocery store??? You should be able to get a couple of meals out of the chicken, particularly if it is one from Costco which tends to be larger than your average supermarket rotisserie chicken. Cut the whole chicken to pieces- the two breast, two thighs, two drumsticks and two wings.You can use the meat for your dishes and the bones for making stock. I would use the chicken breast for this dish ( and maybe the drumstick!). There are many meals you can use chicken for, to name a few:


1. Rotisserie Chicken with chicken rice
2. Chicken Congee ( stock made with the chicken bones)
3. Chicken Tortilla Soup
4. Chicken salad
5. Mee Hoon Kuih



My daughter has a great little rice cooker which can also make bread!! Perfect little and versatile appliance for a small apartment kitchen - Sanyo 3 1/2 cups computerized Rice Cooker/Warmer with Bread Making function. I have the much older and much larger Zojirushi Neuro Fuzzy Logic Rice Cooker/Warmer. So I will be scaling down the recipes to fit her rice cooker. The rice cooker does all the rice cooking aspect so it should work. Use the rice measuring cup provided with the rice cooker. DO NOT LOSE THE RICE MEASURING CUP EVER....... I have tried converting the size of the rice measure cup to regular US measuring but it defies logic. Something is lost in translation and the rice does not turn out quite as perfect as when when using the rice measure cup.


Chicken Rice
3 Rice Cooker cup measure of white rice (preferably Jasmine rice)
2 cans Swanson low sodium chicken stock to meet 3 cups liquid level in rice pot (about 2 1/2 cups)
2 tablespoon grated ginger
1 tablespoon finely minced garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt to taste ( I used 1 teaspoon salt )
dash of white pepper


Garnishes and sauces
Cucumber
Yeo's Chili Sauce for Hainanese Chicken Rice
Thick Soy Sauce 

Add rice to ginger and garlic

Cook until rice grains are opaque

Rinse, drain and set aside the rice. Heat up the rice cooker. Add the oil into the pot to heat up. Add the ginger and garlic to the oil. Stir until fragrant. Add drained rice and continuing stir frying until rice turns opaque. Season with salt and a bit of white pepper if desired. 

Transfer rice to rice cooker

Add chicken broth to liquid level marked

Pour in the chicken stock until the 3 cups liquid mark inside the side pot. Ensure that there are no rice grains sticking to the side of the pot, pushing them into the stock. Close the pot. Select white rice setting and press start.

Delicious cooked chicken rice

Serve with chili sauce and a drizzle of dark soy sauce

The IT chili sauce for chicken rice

Serve with sliced rotisserie chicken, cucumber and some chili sauce


Note:
1. If your rice cooker does not have a browning/ saute feature, fry the rice with the aromatics ( ginger and garlic) in a saucepan. When rice is opaque, transfer to the rice pot and proceed per recipe.


2. If you do not have a rice cooker, you can still cook this dish. Fry the rice and aromatics in a saucepan until rice is opaque. Transfer to a pot with a lid. Add 4 1/2 cups of chicken stock.Generally you would use 1 cup of rice to  1 1/2 cup of liquid. Bring to a boil. Once mixture boils, cover and lower to a simmer. Cook covered for 15 minutes. Turn off heat. Leave for a further 5 minutes before opening and fluffing up the rice with a fork.