Hainanese chicken rice is considered Singapore's unofficial national dish. Singaporeans and Malaysians sometimes argue about which of them created Hainanese chicken rice 🤔 (However, versions of Hainanese chicken rice can also be found in Thailand, Vietnam, and Chinese communities around the world.)
Hainanese chicken rice is itself a regional variety of boiled / poached chicken 白切雞 found all over China's Guangdong province. Hainan was part of Guangdong province till 1988 when it became a province of its own.
The story of Singapore Hainanese chicken rice begins with Wenchang chicken.
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| Hainan island with Wenchang county in its northeast corner |
The journey of chicken rice from China to Nanyang (Southeast Asia) and to the world can be traced to the rural county of Wenchang (one hour drive from Haikou city, the capital) in Hainan island (off the south coast of China).
Most of the immigrants from Hainan to Nanyang (Southeast Asia) came from Wenchang and adjacent Qionghai county.
There are little tourist attractions in Wenchang compared to Haikou (the provincial capital) and Sanya (dubbed the Hawaii of China). However, the old street of Wenchang is worth a visit. It is the oldest and once the only commercial street of Wenchang. Many Wenchang emigre based their businesses here, hence you will find heritage buildings with the familiar five foot way like those in Chinatown Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.
The people of Wenchang brought Wenchang chicken to British Malaya (now Singapore and Malaysia). Wenchang people are proud of bringing Hainanese chicken rice to Nanyang and from there, to the world. It is Wenchang's most famous export. They even have a mural in Wenchang old street dedicated to Hainanese chicken rice.
Having eaten so much boiled / poached chicken in Singapore and Malaysia, I am curious about Wenchang and its legendary chicken rice. I came to Wenchang county of Hainan island to see at first hand what exactly is Wenchang chicken.
I spent ten days in the Chang village 姓张村 of Wenchang. It was an idyllic, ten slow days in the humid tropical heat of Hainan.
Wenchang chicken is a breed of chicken raised in Wenchang county. The bird (especially the female) is rotund, roundish in shape, heavy breasted and rear, has short neck, small head, wings and little feet like a moving ball of feathers. The feathers are mostly brownish. (There are several sub-varietals of Wenchang chicken.)
Villagers keep Wenchang chicken for their own use and sometimes to make a little supplementary income. They buy over 100 day old Wenchang chicken from the farm or market. These birds are free roaming but raised with commercial feed.
When brought back to the village, they are allowed to roam for another 100 days (ideally) and fed on whatever they can scavenge. There are plenty of worms and insects in the village to keep the birds growing and well fed.
Three months before slaughter, the birds are caged to fatten them with feed the villagers make (i.e. homemade). It's a combination of rice husks, grated coconut pulp, leftovers from making peanut oil, dried shredded sweet potato, etc. The chicken are also fed leftovers from human meals such as boiled rice, etc.
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| Steamed Wenchang chicken |
The chicken can be cooked by boiling, poaching, steaming, roasting, baked in salt, boiled in coconut water, etc. The most common way at the restaurants and at home is by boiling / poaching.
The boiled / poached / steamed chicken is rested usually simply by sitting in a pan and allowed to air cool naturally. It may also be hung up on hooks (there is no fixed way today). In Hainan, they do not cold or ice bathe their poached chicken (like we do in Singapore).
In Hainan, there's a saying 无鸡不成宴 "It's not a feast without chicken".
Chicken is also an essential part of prayer offerings.
To serve, the bird is chopped into bite size chunks and served with bone, skin, fat and meat all intact without any dressing sauce at all (unlike in Singapore and Malaysia where it is usually drenched in a blend of soy sauce and sesame oil).
Nicely done Wenchang chicken has yellow skin, white meat and a trace of pink in the bones or 皮黃, 肉白, 骨頭紅 in Chinese.
Wenchang locals like their bird chewy. Way more chewy than the way Singaporeans like their chicken. Singaporeans who like their chicken soft tender may describe Wenchang style chicken as "tough".
The toughest are the capons (castrated cockerels). You have to literally pull hard and fight using your teeth to get the meat off the bone. The only tender parts are the offal. Capon meat is supposed to be the most flavourful though the one we actually had was about the same taste as a hen though the flesh was tougher.
We may think Wenchang chicken is tough but all the Wenchang people I met who had been to Singapore before found our chicken way too soft 软烂 for their liking. Wenchang people describe their preferred chicken texture as tender with bite 有咬劲.
Compared to the usual broiler chicken commonly used in Singapore, Wenchang chicken has much more chicken flavour, a kind of fresh sweet taste and smell. This Wenchang taste is not found in broiler chicken or even "kampung" chicken that we eat in Singapore and Malaysia.
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| Wenchang chicken breast is extra thick and meaty |
Wenchang chicken skin is relatively thick, tender chewy with a subtle crunch and has the most chicken flavour, hence this is my favourite part of the bird. The older birds have rubbery skin which the locals love.
To me, chewing Wenchang chicken is like chewing betel nut which is a custom still practiced in Hainan. Life and eating chicken rice in Wenchang is a leisurely affair. People take their time to chew and savour the flavours from the chewy meat and skin.
Life in Wenchang and eating Wenchang chicken are not to be rushed.
Wenchang chicken is eaten with "oil rice" which is stir fried with chopped garlic and rendered chicken fat before the rice is boiled in chicken stock (from boiling the chicken). In Wenchang, pandan leaf and lemongrass are not used to boil the rice (while it is commonly done in Singapore and Malaysia).
Nowadays in Wenchang, oil rice is very light on grease and can even be mistaken for plain white rice except for a subtle sheen. I like the relatively clean taste of today's Wenchang "oil rice".
In Wenchang, during "grandma's time" they also have rice cooked with coconut milk but it is now rarely made at home and not sold in restaurants anymore. (Coconuts are plentiful in Wenchang which is known as 椰子之鄉 or home of coconuts.) Reasons cited were it is too "troublesome" to make and people don't like overly greasy food nowadays.
Wenchang chicken is eaten with a dipping sauce made with chicken stock, rendered fat, chopped garlic, coriander, optional chili pepper and a squeeze of calamansi juice. This style of dipping sauce is also used for boiled goose and duck but using duck / goose stock and their rendered fat. (This is my favourite but other variations add soy sauce.)
From Wenchang, we made a two day trip to Haikou (Hainan's capital city).
There are many shops and restaurants selling Wenchang chicken in Haikou.
Wenchang chicken costs about RMB40 - 80 per kati (500 grams) at the restaurants now (2023). Capons (castrated cockerel) costs a third more than hens.
We went to a famous Wenchang chicken restaurant in Haikou which is popular with locals. It was so popular that it was still nearly full house with diners finishing their meal even past closing time.
The chicken was more tender than those in Wenchang but not as fatty and not as sweet. The skin was thinner and not as flavourful as those in Wenchang. The bird was like the "kampung" chicken we have in Singapore and Malaysia.
The dipping sauce was based on soy sauce instead of chicken stock and rendered fat 🤷♂️
After this, we told ourselves that we must have more Wenchang chicken in Wenchang before returning to Singapore 😁
How Hainanese chicken rice spread around the world 👈 click
How Hainanese chicken rice became Singapore's unofficial national dish 👈 click
Fong Wk said on Johor Kaki Facebook:
ReplyDelete"There was once some prominent people in Hainan said to a prominent SG businessman (who has a chicken rice chain restaurants) that it’s time for SG chicken rice to return to Hainan, China. 新加坡海南鸡饭要回归了！In other words, they wanted us to find find original roots and recipe and change to their original recipes. Honestly, both SG chicken rice and Hainan Chicken rice are totally different in tastes and condiments. Either we deviated too far or they hadn’t evolve at all. Both have their strengths and fan base; so both are excellent in their own ways. We won’t change and they won’t change either because both serve a different market."
Mike King said on Johor Kaki facebook
ReplyDelete"The chewy texture of Wenchang reminds me of Thailand's kampong chicken known as "gai baan" ไก่บ้าน literally "home chicken". I don't really like because it's like rubber unless it has been cooked long enough. 😆
There is a small shop near my village which sells Thai style Hainanese chicken rice using this chicken. They have a pad krapow (stir fried basil) version using the same chicken and thats delicious."
Jenkins Chng said on Johor Kaki Facebook:
ReplyDelete"Yetcon would fit to your description. I personally like this style, instead of those heavily dressed with sesame soya sauce. The latter basically cover up the meat taste."
Johnny Ng said on Johor Kaki Facebook:
ReplyDelete"Some years back, prior to covid, a relative, who was native hainanese, came bringing some chickens from their hometown and made us 白斩鸡... chicken was so hard... i felt like i was chewing tyres..."
This is because it is usually free range chicken.
DeleteJill Chua said on Johor Kaki Facebook:
ReplyDelete"Rumour had it that that it may have originated from Hainan but the Singapore version has been highly customised, so we will think ours is a much better version. The ingredients in Hainan is likely to be better but the cooking technique is better back home."
Peter Yeoh said on Johor Kaki Facebook:
ReplyDelete"Tony Boey Some hardcore Hainanese colleagues I met in Shanghai some 20 years back used to tell me that, traditionally, the Hainanese on their home island preferred to order the left side of a poached chicken in a restaurant - because the left thigh and drumstick were supposedly "softer" as chickens would scratch the ground using their right claws.
I was thinking - they actually assume chickens are right-handed like humans?!
I'd never been to Hainan island to see if what they said is true. 😂
Should've asked you to observe how your hosts order half a chicken in an eatery."