Chinese · Authentic-ish Chinese
Hainanese Chicken Rice
555 kcal a serving, against 991 for the traditional version. That is 436 kcal off, or 44%, with 54.6g of protein. Serves 6. 45 minutes.
What the traditional version is
A whole, fatty chicken gently poached until barely cooked, then plunged into ice water to crisp the skin. The rice is heavily fried in the chicken's rendered yellow fat, garlic and ginger, then cooked in the oily poaching broth.
What changed, and what each change costs
Skin-on chicken thighs and rendered fat for skinless chicken breast
Breast meat is pure lean muscle. By losing the fatty skin and the extra cooking oil, you strip out an enormous amount of fat while keeping the total volume of meat very high.
What it costs you. So: just very well-cooked chicken. A glistening, silky masterpiece was never on the table once the fat came out. Breast meat is unforgiving. You've got to poach it perfectly using the residual heat method or it dries out and turns to sawdust.
Frying the rice in chicken fat down to boiling it in strong stock
Frying dry rice grains in fat before boiling them makes the finished dish separate, rich and intensely savoury. Using a good chicken stock instead keeps the background flavour high without the heavy grease.
What it costs you. The rice will be noticeably stickier and less luxurious. It won't coat your mouth in that beautiful, savoury oil. It acts more like plain boiled rice.
Cutting the rice from 600g down to 400g
Rice is pure starch. Dropping the volume slightly pulls down the overall energy of the plate while leaving the giant pile of lean chicken completely untouched.
What it costs you. You might want a bigger scoop of carbohydrates to soak up the soy dressing. Tough. Eat the extra chicken instead.
The numbers
| Per serving | Traditional | Lightened |
|---|---|---|
| Calories | 991 | 555 |
| Protein | 41.6g | 54.6g |
| Fat | 52.4g | 7.5g |
| Saturated fat | 11.3g | 1.7g |
| Carbohydrate | 84.7g | 62.5g |
| Protein per 100 kcal | 4.2g | 9.8g |
Every figure is computed from the recipe's own weighed ingredient list against public food composition databases. The appendix in Authentic-ish Chinese prints the exact database row used for each ingredient, so any number here can be checked.
Allergens. gluten, soybeans.
The method is in the book
This is the first recipe in the book where the trade is fiercely obvious. The authentic dish is a masterclass in making fat taste extraordinary. By stripping that away, you are undeniably eating a plainer meal. But what you get in return is a mammoth serving of high-quality muscle fuel that will actually keep you full without making you sluggish. The ginger and soy dressing does a huge amount of work here to bring the noise. Lean into it, pour it over everything, and enjoy a massive plate of food.
The quantities and the method for this dish are in Authentic-ish Chinese, along with 55 more. Buy the paperback