TASTY FRAGRANT CHICKEN RICE

This tasty, fragrant chicken rice was prepared to serve with my Baked Meaty Soft Ribs With Nam Yee.  While the rice was cooking in the steamer, my kitchen was filled with the aroma of the chicken rice and fragrance of the pandan leaves.

I had this recipe for sometime but always put off cooking this rice cos' of 1 ingredient, that is, chicken fats.  Today, I went to my regular stall selling chicken in the wet market and asked for some chicken fats. The vendor is an Indonesian, he was surprised that I asked for chicken fats to cook chicken rice cos' I always asked him to remove all the fats whenever I buy chicken from him.  His first response was 'Erh, lemak ayam tak ba goi, you nak bikin apa?  Saya punya ayam semua tak ada lemak, semua sihat dan kurus-kurus'.   I said Nasi Kukus Ayam, saya nak sedikit lemak sudah cukup.  So he gave me 3 miserable small pieces of the fats and here is the result.   Not too bad an idea to use it for chicken rice.

Ingredients

3 cups long grain rice - washed and well drained

some chicken fats with skin if possible

3 tbsp water

a dollop of margarine or butter

4 cm piece ginger - lightly smashed

4 cloves garlic - lightly smashed with skin on

2 pandan leaves 

1/2 tsp chicken stock granules

1 tsp salt to taste

enough water to cook rice

Some sliced cucumbers for garnishing

1. Put chicken fats and water in a wok.  Heat over medium low heat until the water dries up and oil seeps out.
2. Remove chicken fats and add butter to the oil.
3. Add ginger and garlic, fry until aromatic.  Add in the rice and fry briskly to combine.
4. Transfer rice to a rice cooker or steaming tray.  Add in seasoning ingredients and pandan leaves.  Top up with water.
5. Put rice to cook as usual.  Fluff up rice before serving with cucumber slices.