Umami Days: Cooking

Meaty with a dash of veggies

No claypot chicken rice

Because our donabe (Japanese claypot) is too small to cook a meal for four, my chicken rice was cooked in a cast iron pan. Chinese sausage, mushrooms and bok choy complete the dish.

No claypot chicken rice

Chicken / duck / turkey+ Rice / other grain recipe

Cook’s notes

It’s a complete meal but not exactly a one-pot dish because the chicken was seared and the sauce was cooked in another pan. You may, of course, opt to do everything using a single pan. I must admit that the idea crossed my mind. Brown the chicken in the cast iron pan, pour off the oil, make the sauce in the same pan and pour it into a bowl before spreading the rice. But the procedure is more tedious. Using two pans just seemed more practical.
Although there are multiple steps in the preparation of claypot chicken rice, it is not a difficult dish to pull off. Simplifying the recipe by cutting down on those steps might make cooking easier and faster, but the result will not be as good. So, no short cuts.
For better flavor, marinate the chicken for six hours prior to cooking.
For better texture, brown the marinated chicken before arranging on top of the rice.
Chinese broccoli or mustard leaves may be used instead of bok choy.
Is a cast iron pan the only alternative to the traditional claypot? A Dutch oven or any heavy casserole will do too. Just make sure that you use a heavy pan with a thick bottom for that desirable lightly chewy crust to form at the bottom.
No claypot chicken rice
And you’ll want one that isn’t too deep but wide enough so that you have plenty of surface area to arrange the chicken, sausages, mushrooms and bok choy on top of the rice.

No claypot chicken rice

Prep: 20 minutes
Cook: 40 minutes
Marinating / soaking 6 hours
Total: 7 hours
Servings: 4 people
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Chinese
Label: Rice bowl
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Ingredients

Chicken

  • 4 to 8 chicken drumsticks or thighs (about 800 grams / 1.7 pounds) bone-in
  • 1 tablespoon rice wine
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder
  • ¼ teaspoon grated ginger

Toppings

  • 8 dried shiitake
  • 2 Chinese sausages
  • 4 bunches bok choy

Rice

  • 1 ½ cups medium-grain rice
  • 1 cup chicken broth unsalted
  • 1 cup mushroom soaking water

To brown the chicken and make the sauce

  • 2 tablespoons cornstarch
  • cooking oil
  • 1 onion peeled and chopped
  • 4 cloves garlic chopped
  • 3 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
  • 1 teaspoon sesame seed oil

Instructions

Prep the chicken and mushrooms

  1. Wipe the chicken dry with paper towels.
  2. Place the chicken in a bowl, add the rice wine, salt, five-spice powder and ginger, and mix well.
  3. Cover the bowl and marinate the chicken in the fridge for six hours.
  4. Soak the dried mushrooms in warm water for six hours.

Prep the rest of the toppings

  1. Slice the Chinese sausages.
  2. Cut each bunch of bok choy into halves vertically and rinse to remove and silt trapped between the stalks.

Parboil the rice

  1. Spread the rice on thick-bottomed pan.
    Pouring broth over rice in cast iron pan
  2. Pour in the chicken broth and mushroom soaking water.
  3. Cover and cook the rice just until the liquids have been absorbed.

Brown the chicken

  1. Take the chicken out of the fridge and toss with the corn starch. Shake off the excess.
  2. In a wok or frying pan, heat enough cooking oil to reach a depth of at least three inches.
  3. Brown the chicken, in batches if necessary, until a light crust forms on the surface (you're not cooking the chicken all the way through at this point).
    Frying chicken drumsticks

Make the sauce

  1. Pour off the oil in the pan leaving only a tablespoonful.
  2. Saute the onion and garlic just until softened.
    Sauteeing onion, garlic and fried chicken
  3. Add the chicken and cook, tossing, for a minute.
  4. Pour in the soy sauce and sprinkle in the brown sugar.
    Sprinkling brown sugar over chicken in pan
  5. Add the oyster sauce and cook, tossing, until the sugar is completely dissolved.
  6. Stir in the sesame seed oil.

Assemble and finish cooking

  1. Arrange the chicken on top of the rice on one side of the pan.
    Arranging fried chicken over half-cooked rice in cast iron pan
  2. Drizzle the sauce over the chicken and rice.
  3. Spread the mushrooms and Chinese sausages beside the chicken.
    Adding mushrooms and Chinese sausage to chicken over rice in pan
  4. Arrange the bok choy on the side opposite the chicken.
  5. Pour half a cup of water along the edge of the pan.
    Pouring water into rice in pan
  6. Cover the pan tightly and, with the heat set on low, cook everything together until the rice fully cooked (the chicken should be fully cooked too at this point).

Serve

  1. Ladle rice, chicken, sausage slices, mushrooms and bok choy into bowls and serve.
    No claypot chicken rice
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Meaty with a dash of veggies