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Hainese chicken congee with ginger-scallion sauce, sweet soy sauce and chili sauce

Hainanese chicken congee

Inspired by Hainanese-style white chicken, the poached chicken is served on top of the congee with the traditional ginger-scallion sauce, sweet soy sauce and chili sauce.
Course Breakfast, Main Course, Snack
Cuisine Asian
Keyword Congee
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 45 minutes
Servings 1 bowl of congee

Ingredients

Ginger scallion sauce

  • 1 tablespoon grated ginger
  • 1 teaspoon grated garlic
  • ¼ cup finely sliced scallions
  • ½ teaspoon refined salt
  • ¼ cup peanut oil heated to smoking point

Chicken and congee

  • 1 chicken thigh fillet (about 250 grams / 8.8 oz) skin on
  • rock salt
  • 2 to 2½ cups chicken bone broth (unseasoned or lightly seasoned)
  • ¼ cup Shao Xing wine
  • fish sauce
  • 4 stalks scallions tied together
  • 4 to 6 slices ginger
  • ½ cup leftover cooked rice

To serve

  • sweet soy sauce
  • Sriracha

Instructions

Make the ginger scallion sauce

  • Place the ginger, garlic, scallions and salt in a heat-proof bowl.
  • Pour the hot oil over them, stir and set aside.
    Ginger scallion sauce for Hainanese chicken

Cook the chicken

  • Rinse the chicken and rub generously with rock salt to remove impurities. Rinse thoroughly and dry with kitchen paper.
  • Boil the chicken bone broth and rice wine in a pot for five minutes the turn down the heat.
  • Drop in the chicken, scallions and ginger, and pour in two tablespoons of fish sauce.
    Poaching chicken thigh fillet in chicken bone broth
  • Cook over low heat (the broth should be barely simmering) for ten minutes.
  • Turn off the heat and leave the chicken in the hot broth for another two to three minutes. Scoop out and rest on a rack.

Cook the congee

  • Fish out the scallions and ginger from the broth and discard.
  • Reheat the broth, stir in the cooked rice, and pour in a tablespoon of fish sauce.
    Adding leftover rice to chicken bone broth to make congee
  • Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally and adding more fish sauce, if needed, until the rice grains puff and break into tiny pieces.
  • Use a wire whisk to briskly stir the rice until the grains are no longer discernible and the mixture is thick.

Serve

  • Ladle the hot congee into a bowl.
  • Cut the chicken into half-inch slices and arrange on top of the congee.
  • Spoon some of the ginger scallion sauce over the chicken.
    Hainese chicken congee with ginger-scallion sauce, sweet soy sauce and chili sauce
  • Drizzle sweet soy sauce and Sriracha over the rice.