Chicken rice is everywhere in Singapore. Most coffeeshops have one, many hawker centres have more than two, and sometimes even more than five (like at Maxwell Food Centre).
Most would agree that the standard of chicken rice in Singapore is high - it is very hard to find a bad chicken rice stall 🤣
Still, most people have their own personal favourites - the best chicken rice in their own books.
Taste is subjective, with this rating system I hope to rate and rank the hundreds of chicken rice stalls in Singapore (and many thousands when I include those in Malaysia, Thailand, China, etc) on a fair, transparent, consistent, common standardised scale.
This rating system is only for traditional poached chicken. Roast chicken, deep fried chicken, soya sauce chicken, and other preparations commonly seen in Singapore (and Malaysia) will have their own respective rating systems.
Things I Count
• Skin intact, supple, smooth & soft crunchy 爽嫩滑 +1
• No skin 0
• Meat tender with subtle chewiness to the bite +1
• Soft limp almost mushy meat 0
• Meat moist almost juicy +1
• Dry flavourless meat 0
• Layer of jelly fat between skin & meat 鸡冻 +1
• Meat & skin have own natural chicken flavour & aroma +1
• Free range ("kampung") bird +1
• Battery raised American broiler 0
• Just right doneness 骨头带血,肉不带血 +1
• Under or overdone 0
• Fresh chicken +1
• Frozen chicken 0
• Fluffy loose lightly greased grains that separate easily 粒粒分明 +1
• Whole grains tender nutty to the bite +1
• Broken chipped grains 0
• Mixed whole & broken grains 0
• Heavily oiled grains 0
• Dry coarse grains 0
• Starchy stuck together mushy grains 0
• Fragrance from rice & aromatics (garlic, ginger, pandan leaves, lemongrass, etc) 香 +1
• No fragrance 0
• Grated ginger or grated ginger & scallion +1
• Thick ginger puree with chicken oil & stock +1
• Watery ginger puree 0
• Chili puree with garlic & fresh lime juice +1
• Watery chili puree with white vinegar 0
• Sambal belacan 0 (because I feel poached chicken and belacan don't belong together 😰 )
• Quality fragrant umami savoury sweet thick black soy sauce 酱油膏 +1
• Skinned fresh crunchy juicy sweet cucumber slices +1
• Bitter fibrous chewy skin intact on cucumber slices 0
• Quality soup +1
• Visible ingredients in soup +1
• Poor or no soup 0
• Proper ceramic or plastic plates, bowls & metal cutleries +1
• Single use disposables 0
• Good hygiene (e.g. gloved handling) +1
To obtain the rating, I total up all the +1 scores and divide the result by 2 to get a top score of 10 i.e. the perfect chicken rice to me scores 10/10 on my scale.
Things I Don't Count
I do not penalise long waiting time as I feel the best is worth waiting for. I also do not penalise high pricing as good quality ingredients and top cooking skills are worth paying for.
I do not differentiate between boned and deboned, cuts of meat (breast, thigh, wing, etc), dressed or without dressing sauce as long as they taste good. Didn't consider the tomatoes, parsley, offal options, etc. No points given for plating and presentation.
I also don't give extra points for 5-star hotels versus hawker centre or street side food stalls (though you might take that into consideration, especially if you are hosting guests). No extra points for celebrity endorsements, media coverage, Michelin guide Star or Bib Gourmand awards, top Google ratings, and other accolades. No points given also for being a famous brand, an historic icon, past reputation, etc.
While I do not score these in the final rating, I will mention them in my reviews to make it as well rounded and informative as possible.
Ultimately, I just want to significantly improve your chances of a memorable, delicious chicken rice experience.
I use this system to rate chicken rice I taste from 2 May 2026 onwards. I pay for all my chicken rice meals and no stall or restaurant paid or incentivised me to get themselves rated highly under this system.
I believe this is an improvement over no rating or an arbitrary "system".
Who is Tony Johor Kaki?
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