Yuan Lang Soy Sauce Chicken Master @ Chinatown Complex Food Centre 元朗油鸡博士

Ever since buddy Fong told me about Yuan Lang Soy Sauce Chicken Master (stall #02-41), it was at the top of my mind to try the next time I am in Chinatown Complex hawker food centre. Finally did today and I was wowed by the tasty poached kampung chicken.

I didn't have to wait 5 minutes for my meal on this Saturday morning at Chinatown Complex food centre. This place is saturated with good chicken rice stalls with many famous ones including the Michelin starred Hawker Chan.

At the moment, Yuan Lang Soy Sauce Chicken Master is still under the social media radar.

Yuan Lang serves only 1.7 kg free range kampung chicken, either poached "white" or in soy sauce.

Boss ~~was slightly irritated by~~ wasn't too keen on donnu who is this strange uncle snapping away with his camera.

I had this kumpung chicken thigh for $5. It came with a soup and we helped ourselves to the chili sauce.

Yeah.... disposable styrofoam and plastic utensils but this is common in Singapore hawker centres.

The chicken thigh was chopped in large chunks which I like. It was poached to less than 99% doneness. The flesh was tender, smooth, juicy and had a gentle squeaky chew to the bite. I also love the cheery chrysanthemum yellow colour of the skin and its supple smoothness.

Excellent texture.

I was wowed by the pleasant chicky flavour with natural sweetness and a slight underlying savoury-brininess.

No sauce, no dressing. All the flavours come only from the chicken meat and skin 🐔

Delicious.

The rice grains were average quality but tastily done. They were greasy, slightly dry with a gentle chewy nuttiness to the bite. The rice tasted nicely sweet-savoury-briny.

This watery tea looking soup was beyond my expectation. Yuan Lang really put a lot of effort into making a good soup. It tasted chicky sweet with layers of umami savouriness from dried cuttlefish and Japanese scallop. Really nice. The plastic bowl and spoon didn't do it justice though.

Truth be told, the thigh only whetted my appetite as it was rather boney and there wasn't too much meat. (Though it says thigh on the signboard, it was really the body at the wing joint.)

So, I got myself a second round of this chicken drumstick for $6.50.

Shiok lah this. So tender, smooth, juicy, flavourful.

Pro-tip: Forget about ordering "thigh". Get the drumstick pronto.

Okay... Yuan Lang isn't strong in the sauce department. No ginger-scallion dip and this salty-spicy chili sauce doesn't complement the wonderful poached chicken. (But then, this chicken doesn't need any sauce anyway.)

While chatting with the boss, I mentioned that his chili sauce CMI "cannot make it". But boss was so confident and proud of his chicken's flavour that he didn't want any chili sauce to throw off the taste profile.

I can totally get where he was coming from. It is like a fine steak chef's horror when customers ask for ketchup or chili sauce to insult his beautifully done steak 😱

But then, I know of Singaporeans who will pass or fail chicken rice stalls based on their chili sauce alone 🤔 (I am not one of them 😅 )

"Donnu who is this strange uncle" managed to warm up Ah Keong with his persistence. Ah Keong was a roaster in Yuan Lang district, Hong Kong when he came to Singapore in the 1980s. He worked as a roaster in restaurants and food stalls, including his own roast stall in the old Tiong Bahru market. He was roast chef at Mulia Hotel in Jakarta before he opened this chicken rice stall in 2018.