Cơm Gà Hội An
Hội An's chicken rice, tracing to Hainanese Chinese traders who settled the town during its 16th and 17th-century heyday as a major trading port, later localized by the 1950s into something bolder and more rustic than its Hainanese ancestor. Unlike Hainanese chicken rice's delicate, plain rice and knife-sliced chicken, Hội An's version cooks the rice in rendered chicken fat with turmeric for a golden color, and the chicken is poached and hand-torn along the grain, then tossed like a salad with Vietnamese coriander and pickled onion — using the rendered fat instead of plain oil, and tearing rather than slicing the chicken, are the real technique markers often skipped.
⚠ Contains: Fish. Always check your own ingredients — this isn't a guarantee for severe allergies.
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken
- 3 cups jasmine rice
- 1 tbsp turmeric
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 shallots
- 1 tbsp grated ginger
- Vietnamese coriander (rau răm)
- Pickled white onion
- Lime, fish sauce, chile, mint
Steps
- Poach the whole chicken gently with ginger and shallot until just cooked. Reserve the poaching broth.
- Render and skim the chicken fat.
- Sauté garlic and turmeric in the chicken fat, add the rice and some poaching broth, and cook until golden and fragrant.
- Hand-shred the poached chicken along the grain.
- Toss the shredded chicken with pickled onion, rau răm, lime juice, fish sauce, and chile, and serve over the turmeric rice with a light broth on the side.