This one is simple, really simple. And you can add whatever you want, make it as luxurious as you want.
This likely has to be a weekend recipe. Start with a Kampong Chicken, marinate overnight. Next day, cook mushroom rice, stuff it into the chicken. Wrap the chicken up in foil, and bake low and slow. Eat.
Ingredients and Prep (Feeds 4*)
*the chicken feeds 4, the rice inside would feed 2 for a full meal, 4 if its the gourmet small portions kinda of stuff)
You will need:
- One Kampong Chicken
- 3 tablespoons each of light soya sauce and chinese shaoxing wine
- 2-3 dried chinese mushrooms (double if needed*)
- one cup Japanese (short grain) rice (double if needed*)
*the chicken will feed four, but the rice inside feeds two for a normal meal. You can double the rice, so you have extra mushroom rice on the side. It will not be as nice as the rice stuffed in the chicken, but it will still be good.
I have specified here that it should be a “Kampong” chicken, because for this recipe you want a lean, flavourful chicken. The low and slow cooking will take care of the tougher meat. In Singapore’s context, Kampong Chickens are not those running around freely in a Kampong. “Free range” chickens aren’t allowed here. Chickens sold in Singapore must be isolated from wildlife, and must be keep confined in some kind of biologically isolated enclosure. Kampong chickens refer to leaner, more flavourful breeds that grow slower, and are generally “free” to roam in large enclosures, hence their high cost. Mass market chickens are breeds optimised to produce lots of tender meat fast, and are confined to small cages with high densities.
Prep, Day Before :
Wash the chicken well, especially the cavity. On the back of the chicken, inside the cavity is some dark stuff which looks like cloated blood. If you scrap this out, the stuffed rice will look nicer.
Marinate the chiicken in the soya and wine. Do this inside a ziplock bag, or a container that just fits the bird, to maximise contact with marinate. I start marinating breast side down, and flip after some time. Marinate overnight in fridge.
Soak the mushrooms. If desired, roast the neck of the bird and set aside in fridge – it makes good stock the next day.
Final Prep :
Chop up the mushrooms, retaining the soaking water. If making stock, bring the mushroom water to a simmer and place the roasted chicken neck it in, and let simmer for maybe 15 minutes – longer if you can manage.
The mushroom rice will be much nicer if you fry the mushrooms and rice in a little oil (or yes, chicken fat from the cavity and the neck). Heat up the fat, and stir fry the mushrooms till fragrant, add the rice and fry for a minute.
Turn heat off for rice and stock. Let cool a few minutes and cook in a rice cooker in the usual way. If these all sounds too complex, just cook skip the stock and frying of the rice, and just cook the rice with mushrooms and the soaking water.
Preheat oven to 140 degree C, with a baking dish just big enough for the chicken inside.
When rice is cooked, stuff into chicken. About one cup of cooked rice will fit in. If you have made extra rice, be very sure not to contaminate the extra rice while stuffing the chicken. You are handling a raw chicken and cooked rice. Scoop out the portion you intend to stuff, into a separate container.
You next need to wrap up the chicken in foil, and form a tight package. If helps if you tie the legs together and tuck the wings under the chicken :
Tying legs together closes the chicken cavity and keeps rice in.
Tucking wings under chicken helps to form a tight package.
Bake!
After this, wrap the chicken in heavy duty foil (pour the marinate into the pack) to form a tight package. Remember to bring the foil edges up high and crimp to avoid spills. Set this package on the preheated baking dish, and pour a little hot water into the dish. This will contain any spills of marinate from the package and prevent it burning. Leave it for two hours.
Eat!
Two hours later you will now have a package with a beautiful chicken inside, and that package is full of a rich, delicious liquid – almost like essence of chicken. If any juices had escaped the foil pack, there will be some liquid in the baking dish. The water was there to prevent it burning. You can use this liquid too.
Serve the bird a dish with the liquid :
It should be falling apart – the leg started separating as I was transferring this bird to the tray. The chicken will be super tender and flavourful, the rice delicious!
You can even plate it up. Serve some chicken and a little rice, and drizzle some juice…
Yeah, it’s really something. The breast meat will be super tender.If you are stingy with the rice, and plate thus gourmet restaurant portions, you can serve four.
A dash of truffle oil on the chicken will boost this dish!
Variations:
Upgrade this dish as you see fit – include some dried scallops in the rice, or add some truffle. Use brandy in the marinate. Do what you like.
With my current settings, the chicken will be super tender, but a little overcooked. The meat will be tender, but not the juiciest.. You can experiment with lower settings and longer times. I would suggest start with 140 deg C, and after 30 minutes turn down to 120 deg C (maybe even lower), and leave if for a further 2 hours or longer.
This is what I got with a lower temperature setting.
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