Simplify the prep and shorten the cooking time by opting for chicken thighs instead of a whole chicken. But be sure to use the correct ingredients for the poaching liquid. Pay attention to the cooking temperature too. It's poaching, not simmering.The cook time indicated below includes the minutes you need to bring the poaching liquid to a boil, allowing it to boil before dropping in the chicken, the actual poaching time and the ten minutes that the chicken is left to cook some more in the residual heat.
Place the chicken in a large mixing bowl, add the chopped ginger and scallions and salt.
Rub the salt, ginger and scallions thoroughly on the chicken to scrape off impurities and remove any strong odor.
Rinse the chicken under the tap and rest on a rack to allow excess water to drip off.
Make the poaching liquid
In a deep pan, pour in the chicken bone broth and Shao xing rice wine.
Add the ginger, garlic and scallions.
Bring to the boil and leave to boil, uncovered, for five minutes.
Taste and add salt if the liquid tastes bland.
Poach the chicken
Slide in the chicken thighs, make sure they're all submerged, and leave until the poaching liquid comes to a boil.
Lower the heat immediately until there's very little agitation on the surface of the liquid.
Cover the pan and poach the chicken for ten minutes.
Turn off the heat and let the chicken cook in the residual heat for another ten minutes.
Serve your poached chicken
Scoop out the chicken and lay on a cold plate or bowl.
Brush the skins with sesame seed oil and leave to rest for ten minutes.
Reheat the poaching liquid, drop in the broccoli florets and leave to cook for five minutes before scooping out.
Chop the chicken through the bone into slices.
Place rice on plates, drizzle some of the poaching liquid over it (and sprinkle in a bit of herb salt, optionally), arrange the chicken slices on one side, and add cucumber slices and broccoli.
Serve the poached chicken immediately.
Notes
Hainanese chicken is traditionally served with three dipping sauces — sweet soy sauce, chili sauce and ginger scallion sauce. It's the ginger scallion sauce that we love so that's our default.To make ginger scallion sauce, you need:
1 tablespoon grated ginger
1 teaspoon grated garlic
1/4 cup finely sliced scallions
1/4 cup peanut oil
refined salt, to taste
Just mix them all together. For best results, make the dipping sauce before cooking the chicken so the flavors mellow and blend.