Hainanese Chicken Recipe

Just taking a break from my iodine diet, my mom made some Hainanese chicken at home for the first time.  It also happens to be Malaysian Restaurant Week here!  It was pretty good and I decided that I would share the recipe. It's quite easy actually.  I love to eat Hainanese chicken and its my favorite dish at Malaysian restaurants. 


Ingredients:

• Chicken thigh meat (dark meat, its more tender than breast meat)
• cilantro
• kirby cucumbers or just regular cucumbers
• chopped scallion
• chopped ginger
• chopped garlic
• dried anise herb (they look like stars, you don't eat them, they are just for giving flavor)
• chinese oyster sauce
• sesame oil (original or with added hot oil)
• salt
• soy sauce
• clean ice water

Making the chicken:

1. Boil your chicken thigh meat in water for 10 minutes. Some people use chicken broth but you can just use water to keep it clean and healthier.

2.  Place cooked chicken into clean ice water to cool down the chicken and allow the meat and skin to be more tender.

3. Chicken is ready!

Making the sauce:

1.  Place your cilantro, chopped scallion, chopped ginger, chopped garlic, dried anise herb, salt, soy sauce, oyster sauce and sesame oil into a bowl and mix.

2.  Sautee everything in a pan for a bit to get the flavor going.

Layer your chopped cucumbers onto the bottom of a plate, layer your chicken and pour your sauce over it.  And enjoy!