When my missus cooked the sambal sotong with the squids that I bought that day, our girl asked her to cook her nasi lemak which, of course, would put all the not-so-lemak or not-lemak-at-all ones outside to shame. Needless to say, we enjoyed our meals to the max that day even though it was just the sambal sotong and the rice to go with it, a little bit of cucumber and some dabai seluang by the side.
I did mention in that post that her chicken rice is pretty awesome too, definitely a whole lot nicer than most, if not all, of the ones we can get outside. I would say we have a couple of good ones like the ones here or here, for instance but I have noticed how they seem to lack quality control – some days, it can be so good while on other days, it can be quite disappointing. Anyway, we are #stayingsafe #stayingwell #stayinghome these days and since I felt like eating that the other day, I asked her if we could have that for our meals. My girl, of course, had no problem with it – she loves her mum’s chicken rice, that goes without saying!
My missus would always pair her chicken rice with steamed chicken…
…even though she can do a great job at roasting it too. Of course, when cooking chicken rice, what is most important will be the rice. We can buy very nice roast chicken at a lot of places outside and yes, there is steamed chicken here and there too. Unfortunately, most of the time, their rice does not make the grade.
It does look, therefore, like the challenge is in cooking the rice and a whole lot of effort is required to do that. I popped into the kitchen to have a look and I saw that my missus had rendered the fat…
…that would be used to cook the rice.
She had prepared a whole lot of ingredients…
– the shallots, ginger, lengkuas (galangal) plus the garlic (she usually peels and chops a whole lot of that and keeps it in the fridge instead of having to do it all the time) and some spring onions as well as daun sup (Chinese celery) for the garnishing when serving the chicken later.
There were also these ingredients…
– the sesame oil, the traditional Foochow red wine, salt, chicken stock and chicken rice paste and of course, these pandan leaves…
…were a must for its special fragrance.
I did not stick around too long for fear that I might be getting in the way so I left her and my girl to get on with what they were doing and when everything was done, the much-looked-forward-to lunch was served. Yes, the rice…
…was superb, as always and the chili dip…
…that my missus also prepared was spicy and went absolutely well with both the chicken and the rice.
We sure enjoyed everything immensely that day but it did seem like a whole lot of work. Perhaps in future, we should reserve this for some special occasion and stick to some simple easy-to-cook dishes on ordinary days.
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
I have never try cooking chicken rice from scratch but I did try to cook with chicken rice pre-mix from Cosway…😄. Whenever I have chicken rice, I would ask for roasted chicken instead of steamed, my personal preference. Your missus chilli dip is so fine and smooth.
Yes, when eating chicken rice outside, we would usually go for the roasted chicken. They say the steamed is cold, hanging there the whole day so there is the danger of salmonella and can lead to food poisoning…but some say it happens because the chopping board is not kept clean at all times. We only ask for steamed at a restaurant here, corn-fed chicken so the skin is yellow in colour – one of the better places in town but needs better quality control – some days so good, other days, just so so.
I told my missus about the Cosway one, dunno if she will go and buy or not. I hear the Singapore Prima Taste one is really good, just like real chicken rice…but at over RM20.00 a box, I never bother to buy and try…especially when my missus can do such a good job, cooking from scratch.
Home cooked chicken rice is definitely the best. Everything will be fresh and of best quality. Your missus cooks very well. I have cooked chicken rice from scratch a few times but now, it is too much work just for 2 people. If we were to buy chicken buy from outside, we usually order fried chicken.
Oh? We never buy fried chicken except at the franchise places like KFC or our Sarawak’s own, Sugar Bun. We seldom cook that at home too. Most of the time, it will be roast chicken or cooked in some other ways, steamed chicken only when my missus cooks chicken rice.
Yes, it did look like a lot of work. That is why I will not ask my missus to cook again, reserved for special occasions perhaps.
Oh I usually buy the pre-made chicken rice paste to cook the rice.
As for the chicken, I just steam the meat with some ginger and salt.
When done, I would pour some Huadiao wine (rice wine) to enchance the flavour.
The best part has gotta be the chicken essence. So good you can just have this with plain rice.
Yes, the chicken essence is super nutritious and super delicious. I prefer it drained from the meat and served separately as a soup – I like the meat, plain, dipped in the chili. Your way sounds a lot simpler – a lot depends on the quality of the chicken, some are a whole lot nicer than the hormone-fattened supermarket ones.
Almost nothing can change the love for some of your mum’s favourite dishes.
That is usually the case, I guess. All in the family.