Yes, this is not really claypot rice, I am doing this in a cast iron french casserole, but it I have found it works beautifully, and you can even do this entirely on an induction stove!

I love claypot rice. At its best, its done in well….a claypot, ideally over charcoal. I remember a stall featured by Ah Xian where they even place burning coals on top of the claypots. But the good claypot stalls have a crazy queue. I figured after a bit that a reasonable claypot rice is not the hardest thing to do at home. Most of us, however, might not want to acquire a claypot, and a claypot needs a gas stove – something which is disappearing from many homes.

So I used a cast iron casserole, which works great on induction, and as you read through this recipe you might see the many merits of owning a good cast iron casserole.

Recipe Overview

This recipe differs a bit from tradition, in frying the chicken and raw rice in the casserole before water is added to cook the rice.

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Start by washing rice, drain, and leave it 10 minutes. Heat up a casserole, and fry marinated chicken legs to brown the skin and render fat. Set chicken aside. In the same casserole, fry the rice for a minute, then add stock. Cover for a few minutes. Uncover, then top with the chicken, chinese sausage and salted fish, cover again, and cook a further 15 mins till finished.

Some of use might be intimidated by the idea of cooking rice in anything other than a rice cooker. I find that frying the rice beforehand the process easier and more forgiving,  with  more consistent results.

Ingredients

(Feeds 6 small people, or 4 normal ones)

• 3 rice cups jasmine rice (one rice cup, a Go,  is 180 ml, or 155 grams of rice)
• 3 rice cups (540 mls) chicken stock
• about 500 grams of boneless, skin-on chicken thighs
• 1 chinese sausage
• a small piece salted fish (wet type)
• seasonings – soya sauces, shaoxing wine, sesame oil (see text)

Cook Ware

• A large (2 or 3 litre) cast iron casserole, or similar

Prep

Ideally, a day before, you should marinate the chicken. I used about 3 tablespoons of light soya, and a tablespoon each of Shaoxing wine and sesame oil.

Ideally, the deboned chicken legs should be left whole, and only the meat side marinated, like this :

The reason is that I intend to fry the chicken, skin side down, and marinate burns and sticks.

You will also notice the roasted chicken bones – I deboned the chicken legs myself, roasted them and used them for stock. This is a hard core option. You can use canned stock, or yes, a stock cube.

Cook!

The prep isn’t too complicated, and cooking should take about 30 minutes! Its not hard!

Wash the rice, drain, and it it sit, ideally in a sieve, while you move to the next step.

For the remaining steps, you need a heavy bottomed, robust pot, in which you can fry chicken and cook rice. I find my IUIGA cast iron French Casserole Pan prefect for this. If well cared for, cast iron is non-stick, good for frying, spreads and retains heat well, and works on induction.

Place the casserole on medium heat, with just a splash of oil. When hot, lay your chicken skin-side down. It should sizzle at once.

All you need to do, really, its to brown the skin. There is no need to cook the chicken fully. Cook the skin side only. Cast iron, if well seasoned, is non stick. If there is any sign of sticking, don’t panic. Let it sit. It will release easier after a few minutes, when the skin is crisp.

In the next pic, I turn the pieces over just to show how the skin should look :

If you had cut the chicken into small pieces before frying, it would not be possible to crisp the skin side like this.

Remove the chicken and set aside. Remember, you should still treat the chicken as a raw food, and not let it contaminate surfaces you are going to eat off.

The casserole should now be rich with chicken oil and seasoning. Prefect. Toss the raw, washed rice in.

After a short time, the rice will look slightly translucent. Pour the chicken stock in, three (180ml) rice cups, or about 560 ml. See all the lovely chicken fat? This will favour your rice!

Bring the heat up high to quickly bring the water to boil. As soon as it boils, slide the cover on, and lower the heat to medium. Wait for 5 minutes.

In the meantime, slice up chinese sausage, and prepare the salted fish.

Chop the chicken, which is still half cooked, into bite sized pieces.

When five minutes is up, uncover the casserole :

There should be a cloud of steam, and the liquid should be absorbed into the rice, and there will be little holes all over. Scatter the chicken, sausage and salted fish over the rice.

You can pour any excess marinate into the casserole too. Cover, and cook for a further 15 minutes on medium heat. In this time, the chicken will steam and cook fully. The rice will should cook fully, and likely, will develop a thin burnt layer on the bottom. When I feel the cover of the casserole, it feels pretty hot.

Uncover after 15 minutes, and it should be done, with a waft of steam and the beautiful aroma of … salted fish.

You might want to test the doneness of the rice – sample in a corner with a spoon, all the way to the base. If all is well, drizzle with a good dark soya.

Eat!

For me, this is ideal when there is a single layer of burnt rice at the bottom :

And don’t worry, it will be easy to clean. That is the beauty of cast iron.

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