Lately have been vamping on chicken breast meat and rice, baked in the oven. It’s really easy to make and always tastes good. Basically a can of condensed cream of chicken soup, or cream of mushroom, a little butter and sour cream, maybe some peas, salt & pepper, cayenne, a bit of worcestershire, maybe a bay leaf, etc. One thing I’ve been wondering about is the instant rice. It’s hard to mess that up. But I’m guessing “real” rice is a step up, no?
So I bought a pound of Tsuru Mai whole grain brown rice. This “should” be better than my Uncle’s instant brown rice. Do I need to make any adjustments to the amount of liquid generally, or cooking times? The recipe I have been using revolves around 45 minutes to an hour, covered @ 350°F. I just sort of eyeball the amount of liquid depending on the ingredients, so the end result is the right consistency. Invariably the leftovers end up a bit stiffer as the rice continues to absorb moisture.
One thing you want to watch is if you start using wild rice. Despite its name, wild rice isn’t really rice; it’s a completely unrelated plant. And wild rice grains need more water when you cook them. You should use about one and a half times as much water as you would use for an equivalent amount of regular rice.
I don’t think this particular brand is wild rice, it says “100% Whole Grain California Grown Brown Rice”. It does take about 1/3rd more water than instant rice, and it would seem to take longer to cook thoroughly, but not sure. Maybe cook it for 15 minutes ahead of time on the stove, then add all the ingredients and finish off in the oven. I just figure it has to be better than instant, at least when done right.
Is there a particular brand of Jasmine that is recommended? I see a bunch of them at our local store. Maybe a step above Uncle Ben’s, but below the rarefied organic free range de-glutenated cork sniffer varieties in the crystal vase?
Get yourself some basmati. Beautiful rice. Easy to cook…
Soak in water for at least 20 mins, wash gently, then heat until the water boils, and drain. Done. Never stir or overly agitate the rice at any point otherwise it’ll break and get sticky. Best rice you’ll ever eat.
Cook the rice separately on the stovetop, following the directions on the package. You’ll get better results that way. If you’re using packaged frozen peas, you can quickly mix those into the rice (don’t forget to put the lid back on) at the very end of the cooking time. The heat and steam will defrost them without overcooking.
Use chicken broth instead of water for the rice.
Go to either an Asian or Indian supermarket for your rice, depending on what varietal you end up going with. You should get much better prices than at a regularly grocery store - particularly if you end up getting basmati - and probably a better overall product as well.
Ways to up your chicken game:
Use dark meat instead of white meat. White meat is only very slightly ‘healthier’ than dark.
Cook your chicken on the stovetop, especially if you’re using dark meat. Put a little oil and garlic in the pan and cook the chicken through. Deglaze the pan with a little of that chicken broth, then add your cream of whatever. Simmer until heated through.
This should actually take you less overall time than the casserole method, but you’ll be spending more total minutes in the kitchen.
I made this the other day and was a little underwhelmed. I’ve never had it before, so I’m not exactly sure what it’s supposed to taste like, but I take it it’s supposed to be fairly “clean” in flavors. (After all, it’s basically just poached chicken with rice cooked in the broth, right? And an array of sauces that come with it.)
Do you have a particular recipe you recommend? I’m thinking I probably should have salted the broth a lot more before cooking the rice in it, and perhaps incorporating even more chicken fat than I did.
Almost all jasmine rice in the USA is imported from Thailand (with smaller amounts from Cambodia, Vietnam, and other countries in that vicinity). Buy the one with the least English printed on it. And note the aromatic qualities of jasmine and basmati rice dissipate after a couple of months or so, so buy in small quantities; a 3- or 5-pound bag should last just long enough.
Well I wondered about that. Is the Jasmine a flavor that is sprayed on or washed in or something? In Cambodia we were flying around some bigwigs some years ago and one of them had me try these cool little rice snacks, it was some kind of sticky rice wrapped in a banana leaf or something like that, would fit in a pocket. Sort of like an MRE.
Well I tried the same recipe and used the “real” rice. As I figured it took longer than 35 minutes, at least in the oven. After an hour it was still a little soupy. I let it set a while covered and it was tasty but still not done. Even with a third more liquid it needed more. I added about a cup more liquid and simmered it on the stove for a few minutes. Turned out perfect. It’s a lot more filling and satisfying than the instant variety for sure. Instant has its place, maybe when camping or wherever fuel/heat is in short supply. Other than that…
It’s hard to overstate how underwhelming Hainan Chicken Rice is with commodity, super market chicken. The entire point of the dish is to highlight the flavor of really good chicken with as minimal accoutrements as possible. I only make this dish when I have access to really good, free range chicken.
Yeah, as a Singaporean, when I first saw the title I was like, yup chicken rice.
It’s not that bad with supermarket chickens, though. The likely problem is that you’re not using enough chicken stock with the rice (boil the stock with everything that you’re not eating. All the bones, the feet, the neck, well not the head I guess), you’re removing the chicken fat (or are using only chicken breasts, ugh), you’re boiling the chicken for too long (it’s supposed to be poached, not boiled to death), you’re not using enough garlic, you’re not using the right rice (jasmine rice, not basmati rice or short grained/sticky rice).
I used a whole chicken and it was poached properly. I suspect I need to salt the broth more aggressively and get a good bit more chicken fat in there. I used homemade broth, double strength (the chicken itself was poached in homemade broth, so it’s basically doubled up on the chicken flavor. I used that resulting broth to make the rice.) It wasn’t bad or anything, just a little underwhelming.