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    Home » Rice

    Hainan Rice

    Published: Oct 8, 2023 by Kathy · This post may contain affiliate links · Leave a Comment

    Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

    This delicious and flavorful Hainan Rice is seasoned with plenty of fresh garlic, ginger, and scallions. We add chicken fat for extra flavor and cook the rice in chicken broth. Enjoy!

    A bowl of Hainan Rice.

    Hainan Rice is the popular rice dish that pairs with Hainan Chicken.

    You can serve Hainan Rice as a side dish with the chicken.

    BUT the rice is so delicious (it's even more tasty than the chicken heheh) and we often prefer to eat it plain with a big scoop of ginger scallion sauce on top ^_^

    Jump to:
    • Ingredients
    • How To Render Chicken Fat
    • Instructions
    • Substitutions and Variations
    • Top Tip
    • FAQ
    • Hainan Rice Recipe
    • Hainan Rice
    • Related

    Ingredients

    Here's what you'll need:

    • Chicken fat - You can either buy chicken fat or make your own. See instructions in the section below for how to render chicken fat (it is easy 🙂
    • Garlic, minced
    • Ginger Scallion Sauce - We usually have a big batch of homemade Ginger Scallion Sauce sauce in the fridge (it's delicious with many things!) If you don't want to make then sauce, feel free to replace the Ginger Scallion Sauce with finely minced ginger.
    • Salt
    • Jasmine rice, uncooked, wash and drained
    • Chicken broth

    See recipe card for quantities.

    How To Render Chicken Fat

    Rendered chicken fat.

    Above is a photo of rendered chicken fat. It is easy to make. And so beautiful...just look at that bright golden color. No wonder people call rendered chicken fat "liquid gold"!

    To render chicken fat, you need to start off with pieces of skin and fat from raw chicken. You can either collect and save this over time (store it in the freezer). Or if you're cooking a whole chicken you can get enough skin and fat from a whole chicken to make a good amount of rendered chicken far.

    We often make this rice recipe when we make the full "Hainan Chicken Rice" dish. That dish calls for a whole chicken. We trim excess fat off the whole chicken and cut the fat into small pieces.

    Rendering chicken fat in a skillet.

    Place all the small pieces of skin in a skillet. The photo above is extra chicken skin we cut off from a whole chicken.

    Slowly cook/render out the fat over low heat (this usually takes 5-10 minutes). Use a strainer and pour the fat out into a bowl.

    Then put the pieces of skin back into the skillet and turn the heat up to medium. Cook the skin for about 5 more minutes until it's nice and golden. Then use the strainer and pour out the fat again.

    What do you do with the leftover crispy skin?

    Save the crispy skin...these are chicken cracklings! Season the cracklings with a sprinkle of salt. Then you can snack on it or top the rice with a spoonful of crispy chicken cracklings.

    Nothing goes to waste ^_^

    Instructions

    Let's get cooking:

    Cooking chicken fat, ginger scallion sauce, and minced garlic in a skillet.

    In a large pan over medium heat, warm the chicken fat.

    Then add the ginger scallion sauce and minced garlic. Saute for 1-2 minutes.

    Adding jasmine rice to chicken fat, ginger scallion sauce, and minced garlic in a skillet.

    Then add the jasmine rice and saute for another 3 minutes. Season with the salt.

    Cooking Hainan rice in a rice cooker pot.

    Turn off the heat and scoop all the rice into the rice cooker pot. Add the chicken broth.

    Note: the exact amount of chicken broth needed will vary depending on your rice cooker. The amount of chicken broth listed in the recipe is approximate (use that amount if you're cooking the rice without a rice cooker). If use a rice cooker, follow the liquid line indicated in your rice cooker pot.

    Place the rice cooker pot back into the rice cooker. Close the lid and press the cook/start button.

    Once the rice is done cooking, fluff it up and you are ready to eat!

    Substitutions and Variations

    Here are a few tasty ideas to get you started:

    • Better Than Bouillon - Add 1-2 teaspoons of Better Than Bouillon to the pan (right before adding the rice). This will give the finished dish a very tasty flavor boost.
    • Change the broth - We use chicken broth, but you can replace it with vegetable broth. Or if water is the only thing available, you can also use water (though it will be less flavorful).
    • Shallots - You can replace the garlic with minced shallots. Or use garlic and shallots! When it comes to aromatics for this recipe, the more the merrier.

    Enjoy!

    Top Tip

    If you're making the chicken fat from scratch, make as much as you can. It comes in handy for make recipes and keeps well in the fridge (up to six months).

    FAQ

    Looking for more rice recipes?

    Feel free to search our entire archives of Rice Recipes. We love rice so much we devoted a whole section of this site to rice recipes ^_^

    A few favorite rice recipes include:
    - Scallops and Rice (you can make this all in the rice cooker).
    - Chinese Sausage and Rice (also a one pot rice cooker recipe).
    - Yang Chow Fried Rice
    - Pan Sushi and Sushi Bake, local classics!
    - Corn Rice
    - Dried Scallop and Egg White Fried Rice
    - Kimchi Fried Rice
    - Ginger Fried Rice

    No chicken fat?

    We've made this rice with and without chicken fat. The chicken fat makes a very big, very delicious difference. But if you don't have or don't want to use chicken fat, Hainan Rice is still worth making!

    You can replace the chicken fat with a neutral oil (we like avocado oil).

    Or if you have excess oil from the Ginger Scallion Sauce, add that oil! That would be the best second option if you don't use chicken fat.

    Hainan Rice Recipe

    A bowl of Hainan Rice.

    Hainan Rice

    This delicious and flavorful Hainan Rice is seasoned with fresh garlic, ginger, and scallions. We add chicken fat for extra flavor (makes all the difference in the world) and cook it in chicken broth. You can serve this rice as a side dish, but it's so good I often eat it plain with a big scoop of ginger scallion sauce on top ^_^
    5 from 2 votes
    Print Pin Rate
    Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes
    Cook Time: 1 hour hour
    Servings: 4
    Calories: 663kcal

    Ingredients

    • 2 tablespoons chicken fat
    • 1 head garlic minced
    • ¼ cup Ginger Scallion Sauce
    • 2 teaspoons salt
    • 3 cups uncooked jasmine rice wash and drained
    • 3 ¾ cups chicken broth

    Instructions

    • In a large pan over medium heat, warm the chicken fat
    • Then add the ginger scallion sauce and minced garlic. Saute for 1-2 minutes.
    • Then add the jasmine rice and saute for another 3 minutes. Season with the salt.
    • Turn off the heat and scoop all the rice into the rice cooker pot. Add the chicken broth.
      Note: the exact amount of chicken broth needed will vary depending on your rice cooker. The amount of chicken broth listed in the recipe is approximate (you can use that amount if you're cooking the rice without a rice cooker). If use a rice cooker, follow the liquid line indicated in your rice cooker pot.
    • Place the rice cooker pot back into the rice cooker. Close the lid and press the cook/start button.
    • Once the rice is done cooking, fluff it up and you are ready to eat!

    Notes

    About the chicken fat:
    We often make this rice recipe when we make the full "Hainan Chicken Rice" dish. That dish calls for a whole chicken. We trim excess fat off the whole chicken and cut the fat into small pieces. Then we saute the skin and render out all the fat. We use the fat for this rice recipe! Nothing goes to waste. 
    Once you render all the fat, the skin gets golden and crisp. Save it! Season the skin with a sprinkle of salt. Then you can snack on it or top the rice with a spoonful of crispy chicken skin.

    Nutrition

    Calories: 663kcal | Carbohydrates: 114g | Protein: 12g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Cholesterol: 10mg | Sodium: 1988mg | Potassium: 228mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 5IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 61mg | Iron: 1mg

    Related

    Looking for other recipes like this? Try these:

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      New Cholon (Oahu) - Vietnamese Snacks!
    • Bacon Almond Onigiri Musubi.
      Bacon Almond Onigiri / Musubi
    • Kombu Onigiri / Musubi.
      Kombu Onigiri / Musubi
    • Kimbap and spam musubi from Kimbap Plus.
      Kimbap Plus (Oahu)

    More Rice

    • Tuna Mayo Onigiri.
      Tuna Mayo Onigiri / Musubi
    • Char Siu Fried Rice.
      Char Siu Fried Rice
    • A bowl of hapa rice.
      Hapa Rice
    • Cone Sushi (also called Inari Sushi).
      Cone Sushi (Inari Sushi)

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    5 from 2 votes (2 ratings without comment)

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    Aloha, I'm Kathy!

    I'm a born and raised Hawaii local who loves everything about Hawaii (especially the food). I’m excited to share recipes from our island home, favorite restaurants, and Hawaii travel tips ^_^

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