One-pot Hokkien Chicken Rice

Everybody knows Hainan Chicken Rice. Some of you may have tasted this dish. Many of you also knew and tasted the Claypot Chicken Rice. How many people have tasted the Hokkien one-pot chicken rice? What is that?


This is another value for money one-pot meal handed down by my "Ah Mah".

People says that the world is not fair. Yes, I agreed totally. Human being does not treat another human being equally. Human being also does treat their domesticated animals equally. There is always discriminated by colour, gender, look, size etc.

My grand-parents reared chicken, ducks and pigs. There was obvious discrimination in rearing the chicken.

Hens were preferred over the cockerels. If there were too many matured cockerels, they would fight for control over the hens. Moreover, the hens lay eggs. So for economic reasons, the number of cockerels in the farm was kept to only two for reproduction purposes.

What did they do with the excess cockerels? Some of these young cockerels were slaugthered (the unfortunate ones) for the Hokkien Chicken Rice. The rest were castrated by a "Chicken Doctor", and reared as prized cockerel, eunuch chicken ( Cantonese called this "Yim Kai", Hokkien called this "Ieam Kwuei") until full size. The "Yim Khai" meats were succulent and tasty and had good texture. These eunuch cockerels were mainly sold during the Chinese New Year festive seasons for the big feast.

Not many of the cockerels were lucky to live up to maturity like this one.

But this one has a tough job though, you know. Once the performane was under-rated, it became "Ayam pencen" (retired cock) and would end up in curry chicken pot. Who says life is easy for animals?


Observing the "Chicken Doctor" performing the castration was interesting. He skillfully removed the testicles from the cockerels near the anus, without making a major incision. He sterilized his equipment with hot water and wiped with alcohol. After he had stitched the incision, he applied some dark cream ( presumbly antiseptic) and the castrated cockerel was up and running.

So you see, the farmer discrimated the cockerel and prefered the hens. Otherwise, where on earth do you get all the eggs in the market?

The one-pot chicken rice is comparable to the claypot chicken rice. The difference lies in the way of cooking.

For claypot chicken rice, the rice is cooked first. When the rice started boiling in the claypot, the marinated chicken, Chinese sausage, pre-mixed sauce, (optional salted fish) and rice wine are added in and cooked further until ready to eat.

To cook the Hokkien one-pot chicken rice, all the ingredients and the rice are dumped into the cooking pot at one go and cooked until ready for eating. I loved to eat my grandma's chicken rice but sometimes a small fragment of chicken bone in the rice would hurt me when it get stucked in between my teeth or cut my tongue and gum.

I have therefore modified my grandma's recipe. I used chicken fillets only instead of chicken with bones. I also fried the ingredients in the wok first, to get better aroma and fragrance. Then transfer into the pot with raw rice for cooking. I also substituted oyster sauce for the thick black soy sauce. The end result is a hybrid of hainanese chicken and claypot chicken rice. Looks like Hainan chicken rice, golden yellowish colour, with small cubes of chicken fillets. Wow!!! Easy to cook, nice to eat.

I always cook for my family of five. So, I used the recipe for 5 persons as the benchmark.

The ingredients to cook this one-pot chicken rice are:-

3 piece of shallot

6 cloves of white garlic

1 piece of ginger (one portion cut into stripe and one portion minced into paste= two table spoon of paste).

250 gms of chicken fillet

1 piece of Chinese sausage(optional)

2 teaspoon of oyster sauce.

1 teaspoon of sesame oil.

2 tablespoon of cooking oil.

3 tea cups of rice.

1 teaspoon of salt.

First, fry the ginger, garlic and shallot with the cooking oil. Once they turn golden brown in colour, add in the chicken fillet and Chinese sausage. Fry further until the fragrance and the strong aroma of chicken and sausage emitting. Add in the oyster sauce and sesame oil, stir further to ensure a thorough mix. Transfer the whole lot into a rice cooker and cook with rice and appropriate amount of water.

15 minutes later, you can smell the strong aroma of chicken rice emitting from the rice cooker's vent. The one-pot chicken rice takes about 25 minutes to cook perfectly.

Sprinkle some white pepper powder on the cooked rice.

You have this wholesome, yummy and value-for-money home cooked chicken rice that is nice to eat. If you like, you may add slices of cucumber, tomato and some sambal or cut chillies.

Long Bean Rice by One-pot Chef

My "Ah Mah" has another yummy savoury rice cooked with one pot. The Long Bean Rice.

My grandparents grew long beans for sale and for own consumption. Besides the long bean, the young leaves of the creeper plant were also edible. They tasted best in soup. Better than any other green leafy vegetable you find in the market.

The long bean leaves goes very well with "Pan Mee". I still have this craving for my mom's pan mee with long bean leaves. But today, I cannot find long bean leaves anywhere in the market. To satisfy my craving, I am planting long beans in my backyard now.

My Ah Mah's long bean rice was extremely delicious. The long beans were harvested directly from the farm when they were still young and premature and then cooked within the next hour. These young beans were dark green colour as compared to the matured ones which were available from the market. The matured long beans are either green or light green in colour. My grandma's home grown long beans were succulent and crunchy with a fruity sweet taste.

Again, this is a simple to cook, wholesome and economic meal (see the picture above).

For 5 persons (average eater only), all you need are:-

1. three small shallots (sliced)

2. half of a white garlic bulb

3. Shredded ginger

4. 150 gms of pork or chicken (cut into small cube or slice)

5. 450 gms of long bean (you can have slightly more, if you wish) cut into 1 inch strips.

6. 3 cups of rice (teacup size) & appropriate amount of water.

7. 2 teaspoon of oyster sauce.

8. 1 teaspoon of thick black soy sauce

9. 1 teaspoon of sesame oil.

10. 2 tablespoon of cooking oil.

11. 1 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

My Ah Mah sometimes cook in a wok and at other times cook in a pot. Both produced the same results. She used only the wood fire. Slow cooking to get the best aroma out.

For me, why bother to use fire wood? Where to get firewood uh? So messy and dirty lah. I also modified a little bit. Use a wok over the gas stove for the ingredients and cook with the electric rice cooker. Wahlao ay! Cleaner and easier. This is called :INNOVATION". Not a perfect recipe but still can get a distinction, 98% of the best..

I fry the ingredients in the wok. Starting with the shredded ginger, follow with garlic and shallot until they turn golden brown colour. Add in the meat and stir fry until it is cooked. Add in the long bean, oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, sesame oil and salt. Stir fry until a strong aroma of the meat and long bean emits from the wok. Turn off the fire and transfer those stuff into the rice cooker, with the rice and water.

About 25 minutes later, the yummy yam yam long bean rice is ready.

Give yourself a try. You would not regret it.

Good Food from Ah Mah (grandmother)

To me good food mean a value for money wholesome and tasty meal. Not those five-star restaurant or hotel foods that can puncture your wallet. My good foods are either from easy to cook home recipes, hygienic road side hawker stalls, food courts, coffee shops or restaurants.

Surprisingly, you can still find value for money foods from stand alone restaurants in the Klang Valley in Balakong, Sri Kembangan, Puchong, Kepong and Kelang Lama areas.

Today I am sharing with you Ah Mah's home cooked food = cook with one pot only. The YAM Rice.

During my childhood days, my grandparents and parents were farmers. We grew cucumber, long bean, french bean, pumpkin, sweet potato, tapioca, banana and bamboo shoots. We also reared pigs, ducks and chickens. We practised pure organic farming. No chemical fertilisers and no pesticides. The droppings from the ducks and chicken and the waste from the pigs were used as fertiliser. The ducks and chickens roamed freely in the vegetable plots hunting for insects and worms. They were fed only once a day with oats and corn. The pigs were fed with cooked banana trunks. rice husk and left over foods collected from restaurants. No commercially processed feeds for the pigs, chicken or ducks. Once a week the pigs were let out to roam freely in the bamboo farm to feast on the young bamboo shoots. Pigs were quite destructive when they were let free in the bamboo farm. So, their freedom was restricted.

Our products were sold to the traders at the Central Market (now this place has been converted to an art market for tourists). Our products were in good demand due to the "kampung" or "choi yuen" style of production.

Back to the YAM rice cooking. Because they were farmers and had little time in the kitchen, all ingredients were dumped into one pot to cook. First, the ginger, garlic and the shallot (all in strips/slice) are fried in the pot with a tablespoon of cooking oil. Once these spices turn brownish with strong aroma emitting, the dried shrimp and the pork (in small pieces of ten sen coin size) are added in and fry until cooked. Add two tea spoon of oyster or soy sauce , one tea spoon of sesame oil and salt. Stir fry. Add Yam (cut in small cube) and stir fry further. Finally, add the rice and water (appropriate amount) and start to cook. About half an hour after, depending on the fire, the YAM Rice is ready for eating. Yummy Yummy Yummy.

You may add sliced cucumber, spring onion and sambal belacan (cooked) to the YAM rice.