Singapore Chicken Rice Rating System by Johor Kaki • Effective 2 May 2026

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 +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 +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) +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 thick black soy sauce +1

• Skinned fresh crunchy juicy sweet cucumber slices +1

• Bitter 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 score 10/10 on my scale.

Things I Don't Count

I do not count waiting time as I feel the best is worth waiting 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. I also do not count pricing as good quality ingredients and top cooking skills are worth paying for.

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.