The Humble Chicken Rice Dish That's Changing What It Means to Get a Michelin Star

Ever since the Michelin Guide took on Singapore in 2016, it’s never quite been the same. For the first time ever, humble, inexpensive hawker center dishes were welcomed into the folds of the culinary elite, given coveted Michelin stars previously reserved only for the swankiest restaurants serving courses and courses of the most pristine plates of food with impeccable service and a side of pomp.

Hawker centers, on the other hand, are large complexes that house collections of smaller stalls, which serve two or three specialized dishes each. Think: the Newton Food Centre in Crazy Rich Asians, where Nick and Rachel had a whole Southeast Asian feast of satays, cendols, wonton noodles, and probably durians too.

So you can imagine how groundbreaking it was when Liao Fan Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice and Noodle, a stall (not even a restaurant!) that serves Cantonese roasts at $2 SGD ($1.50 USD) a plate, received a Michelin star. Singaporean (and Malaysian) food was finally having its crowning moment. Since then, more hawker stalls like Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodle and Bangkok’s Raan Jay Fai have joined the one-Michelin-star ranks.

Out of all the recent praise and awards lavished onto hawker food, however, the one that truly blew my mind was the Bib Gourmand (a title one tier below a star but no less coveted) awarded to Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice in 2017. Like its name suggests, Tian Tian is a stall that subsists on serving just one dish: Hainanese chicken rice.

This chicken rice is one of the simplest Chinese dishes that, like so many iconic cultural recipes, comes from humble beginnings. Though its roots are in Hainan, China, it only gained reverence after Chinese emigrants brought it to Malaysia and Singapore nearly a century ago. By managing to extract an insane amount of flavor from the modest bird, Hainanese chicken rice is a testament to the true ingenuity of home cooks during times of poverty and war.

As a child, I ate Hainanese chicken rice nearly once a week at the bustling little Hock Hin hawker center two blocks away from my primary school in suburban Kuala Lumpur. In fact, it’s a dish many Malaysians and Singaporeans eat as children.

It helps, I suppose, that it's cheap. At just 5 ringgit ($1.20 USD) a plate, it's no surprise that people from all walks of life can enjoy it regularly.

You might be wondering: That's just chicken and rice; how good can it be?

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The gleaming, succulent chicken, that steamy mound of oiled rice, plus the extra large bowl of soup the hawker auntie would generously offer to me for free, was the sort of spirit-lifting dish I found comfort in as a kid, especially after a draining day of classes.

Despite Hainanese chicken rice's history as an affordable dish most commonly served in crowded, humid hawker centers, on pastel plastic plates with non-matching stainless steel cutlery, it’s managed to make even the hoitiest of food critics swoon with delight and induct it into their culinary halls of fame. Little did we know, growing up, that our after-school snack would end up becoming a Michelin-worthy dish!

Still, for me, Hainanese chicken rice will always be humble hawker stall fare and, honest to its origins, proper home cooking.

To cook it at home, all you have to do is simmer the chicken in water—claws, livers, gizzards and all—along with a few simple aromatics (most commonly ginger and spring onions).

Then, after the flavor and fat of the chicken seeps into the clear broth, remove the bird and use the broth to cook the rice, flavor it all the way through like in a risotto. Any leftover broth is served as soup. What results is a modest meal of succulent, subtly-spiced chicken, and glistening pearls of rice made savory and rich by the fatty umami extracted from the chicken.

So if you didn’t grow up with Hainanese chicken rice like I did, then it's worth recreating this cultural icon in your own kitchen. While it might not be quite on par with Tian Tian’s, it might still pack that bit of Michelin magic.

Hainanese Chicken Rice

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Ingredients

Chicken & Rice

1	(3- to 4-pound) whole chicken
1 1/2	tablespoons kosher salt
1	(3-inch) piece ginger, thinly sliced into 5 to 6 pieces
2	garlic cloves
1	bunch scallions
2	star anise pods
1/4	teaspoon ground white pepper
1	tablespoon sesame oil
2	tablespoons vegetable oil
2	shallots, finely chopped
2	garlic cloves, finely chopped
1	(1-inch) piece ginger, finely chopped
2	cups jasmine rice, rinsed 2 to 3 times to rid it of excess starch
1	tablespoon sesame oil
2	teaspoons soy sauce
1/2	teaspoon kosher salt
2	pandan leaves (optional)
1	cucumber, sliced
1	bunch cilantro

1	(3- to 4-pound) whole chicken
1 1/2	tablespoons kosher salt
1	(3-inch) piece ginger, thinly sliced into 5 to 6 pieces
2	garlic cloves
1	bunch scallions
2	star anise pods
1/4	teaspoon ground white pepper
1	tablespoon sesame oil
2	tablespoons vegetable oil
2	shallots, finely chopped

2	garlic cloves, finely chopped
1	(1-inch) piece ginger, finely chopped
2	cups jasmine rice, rinsed 2 to 3 times to rid it of excess starch
1	tablespoon sesame oil
2	teaspoons soy sauce
1/2	teaspoon kosher salt
2	pandan leaves (optional)
1	cucumber, sliced
1	bunch cilantro

Chili Sauce

5	tablespoons sriracha
3	tablespoons chicken broth, from above
1	teaspoon soy sauce
2	teaspoons fresh lime juice or rice vinegar
1	garlic clove, finely chopped
1	(1-inch) piece ginger, finely chopped

5	tablespoons sriracha
3	tablespoons chicken broth, from above
1	teaspoon soy sauce

2	teaspoons fresh lime juice or rice vinegar
1	garlic clove, finely chopped
1	(1-inch) piece ginger, finely chopped

Have you ever had Hainanese chicken rice? Let us know in the comments below.