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Taiwanese chicken rice with spoon.
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4.80 from 5 votes

Taiwanese Chicken Rice (雞肉飯)

Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time25 minutes
Course: Main dish
Cuisine: Taiwanese
Author: Edwina

Ingredients

  • 1 bone-in skin-on chicken breast
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ¼ teaspoon white pepper powder
  • 1 big shallot or two smaller ones, thinly sliced
  • vegetable oil
  • water for cooking chicken
  • 1 teaspoon rice cooking wine
  • 1 scallion cut in half
  • 3 slices of ginger
  • ¼ cup soy sauce
  • ¼ teaspoon sugar
  • 3-4 servings warm short grain white rice

Instructions

  • Remove the chicken skin, pat dry and save the skin in a container and store it in the fridge.
  • Marinate the chicken breast with salt and white pepper powder and store in the fridge for at least 1 hours, preferably overnight.

Cook chicken

  • In a 4 qt pot, add ginger slices, scallion, rice wine and just enough water to cover the chicken breast (about half of the pot) before bringing water to a boil.
  • Add in chicken breast, cover the pot and turn the heat to low. Simmer the chicken for
  • 25 minutes or until internal temperature reach 165°F. Place the chicken on a plate to cool down a bit before shredding.

Render chicken fat

  • Meanwhile, put a small sauce pan on medium heat. When the pan is hot, lay the chicken skin in the pan and pan fry the chicken skin with medium to medium low heat to render the chicken fat. Cook until the chicken skin becomes golden and crispy. Turn off the heat, remove the chicken skin and leave the oil in the pan (see note).

Fried Shallot

  • Add the thinly sliced shallot into the sauce pan and add just enough vegetable oil or lard to cover the shallot. Fry the shallot with medium to medium low heat, stirring occasionally so the shallot can be cooked evenly.
  • Once most of the shallot turns yellow, drain the oil with a mesh strainer into a bowl (we will need it later) and lay the shallot in a thin layer on paper towel. The residual heat will continue to fry the shallot and make it crispy. Don't wash the pan yet, we will need it later for making sauce.

Making sauce

  • Add 3⁄4 cup of the broth from cooking the chicken, soy sauce, and sugar into the sauce pan. Bring it to a boil and then add in a small hand full of the fried shallot that we just made and set the sauce aside.

Assembling

  • Add the shredded chicken breast on top of a bowl of hot white rice, pour 2 tablespoon of sauce and 1-2 teaspoon of shallot oil over the chicken before topping with fried shallot. Stir the rice a bit before eating, add more sauce if needed.

Notes

You can also render chicken fat in air fryer, 350°F for 15 minutes or so, or just mix few table spoons of store bought chicken fat/goose fat/lard with vegetable oil when frying the shallot. 
Check out my Crispy Fried Shallots and Shallot Oil post for the details of how to fry shallot.
The leftover sauce and shallot oil can be use for seasoning steam veggies or other kinds of stir fried dish. Or make more chicken rice with leftover rotisserie chicken! If you plan to do so, make sure you heat up the sauce and oil as well before assembling.