Ginger chicken and rice

This is a one pot Ginger Chicken and Rice dish inspired by Hong Kong clay pot rice – except we’re using a regular pot today! You’ll love the ginger-forward flavour and the secret 2 ingredient sauce that I expect to show off again very, very soon.

One-pot Ginger chicken and rice

I wanted to call this “Hong Kong Ginger Chicken and Rice” because it’s inspired by the traditional method used to make Hong Kong claypot rice where plain rice is cooked in a claypot, topped with meat and vegetables that steams as it cooks, and finished with a drizzle of seasoned sauce at the end.

Everything was written up and ready to go. Then my brother saw it (yes, the same one who tried an early version of my Chilli Lime Fish and gave the famous feedback line “There is nothing about this that I like”), snorted with laughter and declared, “You can’t call it that. Hong Kong will mock you so hard!”🤣🤣I huffed and puffed and laughingly tried to defend my creative writing. But truthfully, I knew the battle was lost from the moment it started given the absence of a claypot and that my sauce is a (magical! secret!) combination of 2 ingredients not commonly used in Hong Kong.

It’s killing me to think of the smug smirk on this face as he reads this. But I’m placated at the memory of him scoffing down a big bowl of this and giving it his nod of approval! Such is the hilarious banter in my team and family – which, hand on heart, is what keeps our recipe creation bar high.

Ingredients you need

Here’s what you need to make this wannabe-clay-pot chicken and rice. It kind of reminds me of Maze Gohan (“mixed rice”), a Japanese dish where rice is steamed with seasoned meat and vegetables – and my mother always uses Asian mushrooms – except this has a stronger flavour.

1. Chicken and rice part

• Long grain rice – This rice type works best because it is less sticky than other types like short grain, medium grain and jasmine rice which are prone to becoming a little too sticky in these sort of one pot recipes (though they will work). Basmati rice will also work but will add a non-Asian perfume of flavour to this Asian flavoured dish. 🙂

  Not suitable / recipe not written for these – Brown rice, risotto and paella rice. wild rice, quinoa.

• Chicken – I use boneless thighs as it stays juicier than using breast when cooked with the rice, though breast and tenderloin will work.

• Stock/broth – Using chicken stock makes a tastier rice than using just water. I always use low-sodium so I can control the amount of salt in a dish.

• Ginger – This recipe uses a good amount of fresh ginger, for unmissable ginger flavour! It uses both grated ginger and slices of ginger that is cooked with the rice as it steams.

• Garlic – More of a background flavour in this dish, where ginger stars.

• Green onion – We use the firm white part like onion, sautéed with the chicken, and the softer green part is tossed in at the end (it wilts within seconds in the hot steamy rice).

2. Any mushrooms

Try to use mushrooms favoured in Asian cooking. They add more interesting texture and flavour than regular button mushrooms, and they are often good value at Asian stores. I used king oyster mushrooms, oyster and shiitake mushrooms, pictured below left to right.

However, this recipe works just fine with any mushrooms at all! I would absolutely make this dish with regular white mushrooms.

We’re using a good amount of mushrooms today – 500g / 1 lb – because it’s the primary vegetable in this dish and we’re using the juice from the mushrooms to flavour the rice and also provide some of the cooking liquid for the rice (which is why the liquid-to-rice ratio is 1 : 1.33 instead of the usual 1 : 1.5)

3. Tasty drizzle sauce

Hong Kong claypot rice is typically cooked with just water and most of the flavour is reliant on a seasoned soy sauce mixture which is drizzled on at the end when serving. Ordinarily, the clay pot sauce calls for a handful of sauces but for this recipe (intended as a handy midweek-er), we’re taking a shortcut with 2 ingredients not traditionally used but delivers similar layers of flavour:

• Kecap manis (aka Ketjap Manis) – Indonesian sweet soy sauce with caramely flavour and a syrupy consistency. The flavour is so much more interesting than just using regular soy sauce plus sugar!

• Fish sauce – Umami shortcut. No, you won’t taste any fishiness because we don’t use much (we use more kecap manis than fish sauce) and it’s tossed through steaming hot rice which basically “cooks” it anyway.

• White pepper – the preferred pepper in Asian cooking. Substitute with black pepper.

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How to cook Ginger Chicken and Rice

A key step here is to just sear the mushrooms on high heat so they just get a light colour on the surface rather than cooking them all the way through ie. when they go watery, then the water evaporates and the mushrooms end up floppy. In today’s dish, we want those mushroom juices to come out when they’re cooking with the rice so the rice can soak up all that flavour!

1. Double duty sauce

First up, we make the sauce as we use some to flavour the chicken and the rest for drizzling on the rice later.

1. Sauce – Just mix the ingredients in a bowl until combined. If your kecap manis was in the fridge, it will be quite thick like honey so be sure to mix well.

2. Flavour chicken – Toss the chicken in 1 1/2 tablespoons of the sauce. This is just to season it lightly. No need to marinate.

2. MAKE THE ONE-POT CHICKEN AND RICE

Tip of the day for one-pot rice cooking: Be sure to bring the liquid up to a very energetic simmer before putting the lid on and lowering the heat. You need to get enough heat going in the pot before turning the stove down else the rice will just be sitting there, wallowing in hot water, bloating rather than cooking = sticky gluey pot of rice instead of lovely soft, separate rice grains.

1. Sear mushrooms – Heat oil in a large pot over high heat. Then sear half the mushrooms but do not cook them until soft, we want to finish cooking them with the rice. Aim for just a light hint of gold on most of the mushrooms which should only take around 2 minutes. Remove from the pot, heat more oil and repeat with the remaining mushrooms.

2. Seal chicken – Next, cook the chicken, just long enough to seal the surface which should take less than a minute.

3. Sauté and stock – Add the grated ginger, garlic and white part of the green onions. Stir for 30 seconds (the ginger will smell so good!). Add the rice, stir to coat in the flavour, then pour the stock in.

4. Mushrooms – Get the liquid up to a simmer then scatter the mushrooms across the surface (like a mushroom rice lid!) and add any mushroom juices accumulated in the bowl.

5. Cook then rest – Bring the liquid back up to a very energetic simmer, then put the lid on and lower the heat to medium low (or low, for large stronger burners). Cook 20 minutes – no peeking, no stirring! – or until the liquid has been absorbed. Take the pot off the stove and rest for 10 minutes (with the lid still on).

6. Sauce – Remove the lid and drizzle the sauce across the surface.

7. Green onion – Add the green part of the green onion.

8. Toss – Then gently toss the rice until most of the rice grains are coated in the sauce and the green onion is wilted. Minimise tossing – excessive tossing makes rice mushy. Then serve!

The sauce!

It’s really, really tasty. The notable step that makes this different to the usual Asian one-pot rice recipes is adding the sauce at the end rather than cooking the rice with it which is what I usually do – like in this One Pot Chinese Chicken and Rice. It makes it taste different, it’s fresher, and coats the rice grains rather than infusing into the rice grains.

And yes, one day I will share a proper claypot rice recipe! Crispy base of rice, actual claypot, proper drizzling sauce and all, one that will do Hong Kong proud! 🙂