Claypot Chicken Rice with Mushroom & Salted Fish

At a first glance, this dish may seems like a lot of work. It isn't. The whole prep works and cooking took about 45 mins or less. A perfect, simple weeknight dinner perhaps. I found some tenggiri salted fish at the wet market today. I bought two, which I later regret. The towkay uncle told me that they are rather rare during this unpredictable weather. 'Banyak tak jadi'. And I bought two. Sobs. I only nodded to him as if I really understand him. He later told me that the best place to keep this fish is in your freezer. Yes, in your freezer. Not in your fridge, not under your kitchen sink, or inside your onion's basket. Guilty as charged. To me, the dish won't be the same without the salted fish. I personally think that the star of the dish belongs to the salted fish, rather than to the chicken or mushroom itself. (Claypot salted fish rice with chicken and mushroom?) The subtle fragrant (oh the smell)of the salted fish, camouflage in between the rice grains, bind the wholly things inside the bowl. Make sure you get these seasonally rare gems beforehand.

Claypot Chicken Rice with Mushroom & Salted Fish
(Loosely adapted from Noobcook & mycookinghut)

Ingredients:
1/2 fresh chicken
2-3 garlics
1 cup of rice
1 cup of chicken stock
A few stalk of scallions
A small piece of salted fish, chopped
A small knob of ginger-julienne
A small piece of ginger torch flower bud -chopped (optional)
A handful of dried shitake mushroom-soak in warm water, reserve the soaking water
cooking oil, as needed

Marinade:
1 tsp dark soy sauce
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp of sweet soy sauce
1/2 tsp honey/brown sugar

Directions:
1. Marinade chicken pieces for 1 hour or so.
2. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a wok and sautéed the garlic and ginger. Add in the mushroom and let it fragrant.  Stir-fry marinated chicken meat for 1 minute. Put aside.
3. Add the washed rice together with the salted fish into the pot.
4. Cook the rice with 1 cup of chicken stock+ some water used to soak the mushroom.
5. Cover claypot with lid. Simmer the rice until it is almost cooked, about 10 minutes.
6. Spread the chicken mixture all over the rice.
7. Cover the claypot and simmer for another 15 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.

Hainanese Chicken Rice

For tonight dinner I made Hainanese chicken rice. A regular dish I made almost every weekday. Even though I am a bit sick of chicken, as there have been few too many chicken over the weekend that are going nowhere fast, but I had to. 

Why chicken rice? You see I'd to cook while Adam is away for his playschool. Or I don't get to cook at all. I have so many things I want to do in that short period of time. That is the time where I get to go for a jog. That is the time where I get to leisurely browse some books in the library or trying out new recipes. And that is the only time where I get to play with my lens. 

...and that explains the chicken rice. Simple and quick. I can do several other things while boiling the chicken. Laundry, mopping, cleaning, take a shower, and even catch Ellen or Dr. OZ on TV, beside those listed things I mentioned in the previous para. It spelled E.A.S.Y even though it's chicken and I am sick of it. I'll try to subs it with fish..we'll see how. 

Above is Adam's plate. Believe it or not, he finished the whole plate. :D 

PS: I'm not sure where my writing is going as the 3 hours break is almost over.. :P 

PPS: The recipe is taken from Steamy Kitchen. 

Thursday- One-Pot Chinese Chicken Rice

1. Being a mom to an active toddler with picky palate is tiring. The struggle of feeding him never seem to end, and sometime I'm exhausted with worry. :/ I read somewhere, that a child will eat when they're hungry. If they don’t eat, they are not hungry. But that doesn't seem to ease my worry. Indeed, I'm a mom. 

2. As for the chicken dish, two words describe it best, comforting and delicious. With that, I vowed to make this meal a regular. Besides, who need to cook a fancy stuff when nobody is there to eat it. :/ Husband..cepatlah pulang...

    One-Pot Chinese Chicken Rice 

    (Loosely adapted from Donna Hay's recipe at Lifestyle Food)

    Serves 2

    Ingredients
    3 cups (750ml) chicken stock- I boiled the whole chicken with   

    ginger and garlic, then used the stock. 
    6 slices ginger-approx
    4 cloves garlic, halved-approx
    1 long green chilli, sliced
    1½ cups (300g) jasmine rice- 1 pot of rice
    4 x 125g chicken thigh fillets, halved- I used whole chicken
    4 green onions (scallions), sliced
    1 cup coriander (cilantro) leaves-omit
    soy sauce, to serve


    Method

1. Place the stock, ginger, garlic and chilli in a deep frying pan over high heat and bring to the boil.
2. Add the rice and stir once to distribute evenly over the bottom of the pan. When the stock comes back to the boil, add the chicken.
3. Cover, reduce heat to low and cook for
4. 20 minutes or until the rice has absorbed the stock and the chicken is tender. (RC's Note: I cooked till the rice is ready, then glazed the chicken with a mixture of dark +light soya sauce,honey, oyster sauce and a bit of orange marmalade, and popped it in the oven.-you'll get a crispy skin with this!) 
5. Top the chicken and rice with the onion and coriander and serve with soy sauce.