Clay Pot Rice (煲仔飯)

• servings: 4
• active time: 20 minutes
• total time: 1 hour

Ingredients

10 oz long grain rice (jasmine, etc)

2 links chinese sausage (Kam Yen Jam is what I commonly find)

1 chicken breast, cut into 1 inch pieces

1 chicken thigh, cut into 1 inch pieces

2 stalks scallions, thinly sliced for garnish

1 shallot, finely minced

1 tbsp ginger, finely minced

1 oz dried shiitake mushroom

Chicken Marinade:

3 tbsp water

2 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp sesame oil

1 tbsp neutral oil

1 tbsp cornstarch

1 tsp shaoxing wine

1 tsp sugar

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp white pepper

Mushroom Marinade:

½ tbsp oyster sauce

1 tsp sugar

½ tsp cornstarch

Serving Sauce:

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tsp soy sauce

1 tsp tamari soy sauce (or just use regular soy sauce)

1 tsp sugar

Cooking Ingredients:

11 oz boiling water

Neutral high-heat oil

Directions

Wash the rice with cold water until the water runs clear. Next, soak the drained rice in boiling water for 10 minutes. This parcooks the rice and speeds up the cooking process later. Soak the chinese sausage and dried shiitake mushrooms in separate bowls with some hot water as well for 10 minutes.

Once the mushrooms are down soaking, cut off and discard the stems. If there are any particularly big pieces, cut them smaller as desired.

Mix the chicken marinade ingredients in a bowl, leaving out the oil and sesame oil, and add the chicken pieces. Mix everything until it’s evenly combined, then add the minced shallot and ginger and mix again.

Combine the mushroom marinade ingredients in a bowl and set aside to marinate. Take the time now to combine the serving sauce ingredients in a separate bowl. Set aside the serving sauce for now.

Now we’ll start cooking in the clay pot. A gas stove is ideal, since the pot is more likely to crack over direct heat like an electric coil. Use your gut and make sure the clay pot doesn’t get hot enough to crack.

Strain out the water used to soak the rice, then add the par cooked rice to the claypot. Add about 1 tsp of high heat oil and mix it into the rice. At this point, it’s important to have everything ready and easy to access to minimize the mistakes you make moving forward.

Add the 11oz of boiling water into the claypot, put the lid on, and turn the heat to medium (never turn to max heat with a clay pot). While the rice is starting to cook, mix in 1 tbsp of oil and 1 tbsp sesame oil to the marinating chicken.

When the water in the clay pot is just about boiling, uncover the pot, keeping the heat on. Make sure the rice is spread evenly in the pot.

As the rice has absorbed more water, begin to layer the meats on top of the rice. Put a link of chinese sausage on each side, and spread out the marinated chicken and mushroom evenly. It’s important that everything is roughly level, as the things sticking too far up won’t fully cook.

Once all of the ingredients are in, put the lid back on, turn the heat to low, and cook for another 5-10 minutes, or until you start to hear a crackling sound from the rice. The beginning of that crackling sound indicates that the water has almost entirely boiled off, and we’re now able to form the scorched rice layer on the bottom.

To evenly scorch the rice, we’re going to tilt it and allow various portions to be temporarily closer to the heat source. Turn the heat up to medium and firmly grip the pot handles with heat proof mitts or towels. You’ll be holding it for a while, so be sure what you’re using is high enough quality. Tilt the pot slightly onto one side over the heat source for about 2 minutes, then turn the pot around and repeat the scorching process on the other side.

Once you’ve done the tilting, turn the head back down to low, and add 2 tbsp of oil, with the lid still on, all around the edge of the lid so it can seep down into the pot. Let it cook for 2 or more minutes, or until you can hear a crackling / sizzling sound. Then, we’ll repeat the tilting process again, 1-2 minutes on either side. If something smells like it’s beginning to burn, then stop cooking that side. Once you’ve made this a few times, you’ll get used to the smell of burning rice vs the desired scorched rice. Remove from the heat and prepare to serve.

Transfer the (still VERY hot) clay pot to the table to serve. Remove the lid and cut the chinese sausage with scissors into more manageable pieces. Add the Pour a few splashes of the serving sauce over the cooked rice, and keep the rest in a bowl at the table for people to add as they please.

Notes

A famous Cantonese dish. Rice is boiled in a claypot, cooked until the rice is fluffy and there is a bottom crispy scorched rice layer, similar to that scorched rice in tahdig or paella. Meat and other toppings are effectively steamed atop the rice, their juices flavoring the rice, along with a final added sauce. This recipe can take some technique to master, but the end result is amazing. The clay pot specifically is used to get the crispy rice bottom, but other thick walled cooking vessels should be fine. Experiment with what you can think up and follow the same overall steps in the recipe listed below. The toppings here are traditional, but use whatever sounds good.