Tim Chin is a professional cook and writer who has contributed to Serious Eats and America’s Test Kitchen. A graduate of The International Culinary Center, Tim has cooked at restaurants in New York and Boston, working at Rouge Tomate, Northern Spy, and BiSq.

Tim Chin

Hainanese chicken rice is just poached chicken and rice, and yet it’s one of the most iconic dishes in the world. It illustrates how a seemingly simple preparation can be refined into a meal that’s a perfect expression of a single ingredient: poached chicken, served with rice that’s been cooked in the poaching broth. The broth is also seasoned and served with the chicken and rice for sipping, along with a couple of dipping sauces that keep every bite interesting. The key to its preparation is a three-step poaching method that yields an attractive appearance, tender and silky meat, and, most importantly, a unique “bite” to the skin, one of the most prized parts of the dish. The skin is rubbed with salt to remove any imperfections; the whole bird is blanched to shrink-wrap the skin around the flesh; and it’s placed in an ice bath after poaching. Our one addition to the method is a dry brine, which, while unconventional, yields evenly seasoned meat and provides a buffer against overcooking, as slightly cured meat has a better water-holding capacity.The chicken is the star, but the poaching broth and the rice are important supporting players. Granulated chicken bouillon provides a glutamate boost to the broth, and fragrant pandan leaves add intoxicating notes of vanilla and coconut to the broth and rice while also bringing out some of jasmine rice’s inherent aromatic complexity. Served with a spicy and acidic fresh chile-garlic sauce and <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/ginger-scallion-sauce">classic ginger-scallion sauce</a>, every bite is grab-bag of texture and flavor.

Hainanese Chicken Rice