There's no hiding how I feel about crock pot meals. I just don't like so many of them. There are very few that I like. I do like the crock pot for cooking meat to shred, chili, stews and some soups. But for the most part things just turn out to be a mushy or over cooked dish. This months challenge from Household 6 cooking club was to create an original crock pot meal with 5 ingredients or less. Salt and pepper don't count. I'm assuming that water does not either.
I chose Singapore Chicken. I love it. Except we call it Khao Mun Gai. Literally "rice (with) fat (of) chicken". It's one of my favorite dishes my mom makes. Comfort food for sure. I have a set of pictures to blog for the original recipe and three awesome sauces. For the original version I use cilantro and spring onions in the chicken also. But that's another post. This isn't an original dish, but I've never seen it adapted for a crock pot. It may have been somewhere but it's new to me and original.
I know this is more involved than most crock pot dishes. The thought of tossing it all into the crock pot and coming to the dinner table to find mushy rice and over cooked chicken wasn't appealing to me. This was good! The chicken wasn't mushy, and I got to the rice right before it became paste. I think 5 minutes less cooking time would have been perfect. It wasn't as easy as put the ingredients in and walk away till dinner though. Still it was so good. There was hardly any leftovers!
GPAC Crock pot Singapore Chicken
1 chicken- whole5-6 inch piece ginger ( 3 inches crushed, the other 2-3 peeled and sliced into rounds)
1/2 onion peeled and halved
Kosher salt
1 Shallot sliced, or 2 tablespoons of fried shallots
2 cups Jasmine rice
 |
| Four ingredients if you don't count salt and water. Chicken not pictured. |
Wash the chicken with cold water and pat dry. Cut off the flap of skin and fat that is near the tail end of the chicken. Reserve this. Also reserve the neck and organs.
Rub the chicken with salt, inside and out. Place the crushed ginger and onion into the cavity of the chicken. Put the chicken in the crock pot and turn it on high, for 2 1/2-3 hours. Cooking time is depends on the size of your chicken, mine was done in 3 hours.
 |
| This is the reserved juices from the crock pot. |
Meanwhile place the neck and organs- minus the liver, into a pot with 4 cups of water. Bring this up to a boil, then turn down and let it simmer. I let it simmer the whole 3 hours the chicken was in the crock pot. Discard neck bone and organs. Reserve the stock. This is what you'll be using for your rice later.
Before your chicken is done, about 10 minutes, slice the reserved fat and skin of the chicken. Put it in a large skillet to render. Once it starts to render add the remaining ginger pieces. Cook until the fat is rendered from the chicken, and the skin is crisp. Add shallot and cook until golden. Remove skin pieces, if desired.
Take the chicken out of the crock pot. Remove the ginger and onion from the cavity. Place the chicken in the refrigerator. This is important. Singapore chicken is usually submerged in ice water to stop cooking and congeal the juices. I submerge mine if I make it in a pot on the stove in an ice bath.
Put the juices from the crock pot into a measuring cup, add stock from the pot to equal 4 1/2 cups. If you need to, add water to make 4 1/2 cups.
Put the juices from the crock pot into a measuring cup, add stock from the pot to equal 4 1/2 cups. If you need to, add water to make 4 1/2 cups.
Add the 2 cups of rice to the skillet and cook for a minute. Add 1 cup of stock and cook for 1-2 minutes. Stirring. Transfer the rice mixture to the crock pot, add remaining stock. Cover and cook on high for 45 minutes- 1 hour until rice is tender. Cut chicken up into pieces and serve with rice.
If I say serve with sauces do they count as ingredients? Because, it's all in the sauces.
This is how my non crock pot version of Khao Mun Gai is...
+copy.jpg)
I serve it with a very simple soup made from the broth- it has dikkon radish in it.
+copy.jpg)
And three yummy sauces, a jalapeno soy, a cilantro ginger and a spicy red ginger sauce.
+copy.jpg)
GPAC Crock pot Singapore Chicken
1 chicken- whole5-6 inch piece ginger ( 3 inches crushed, the other 2-3 peeled and sliced into rounds)
1/2 onion peeled and halved
Kosher salt
1 Shallot sliced, or 2 tablespoons of fried shallots
2 cups Jasmine rice
Wash the chicken with cold water and pat dry. Cut off the flap of skin and fat that is near the tail end of the chicken. Reserve this. Also reserve the neck and organs.
Rub the chicken with salt, inside and out. Place the crushed ginger and onion into the cavity of the chicken. Put the chicken in the crock pot and turn it on high, for 2 1/2-3 hours. Cooking time is depends on the size of your chicken, mine was done in 3 hours.
Meanwhile place the neck and organs- minus the liver, into a pot with 4 cups of water. Bring this up to a boil, then turn down and let it simmer. I let it simmer the whole 3 hours the chicken was in the crock pot. Discard neck bone and organs. Reserve the stock. This is what you'll be using for your rice later.
Before your chicken is done, about 10 minutes, slice the reserved fat and skin of the chicken. Put it in a large skillet to render. Once it starts to render add the remaining ginger pieces. Cook until the fat is rendered from the chicken, and the skin is crisp. Add shallot and cook until golden. Remove skin pieces, if desired.
Take the chicken out of the crock pot. Remove the ginger and onion from the cavity. Place the chicken in the refrigerator. This is important. Singapore chicken is usually submerged in ice water to stop cooking and congeal the juices. Put the juices from the crock pot into a measuring cup, add stock from the pot to equal 4 1/2 cups. If you need to, add water to make 4 1/2 cups.
Add the 2 cups of rice to the skillet and cook for a minute. Add 1 cup of stock and cook for 1-2 minutes. Stirring. Transfer the rice mixture to the crock pot, add remaining stock. Cover and cook on high for 45 minutes- 1 hour until rice is tender. Cut chicken up into pieces and serve with rice.
If I say serve with sauces do they count as ingredients? Because, it's all in the sauces.
Learn more about House Hold 6 cooking club on the facebook page HERE.
Check out the other participating blogs below-
This looks fantastic! I'm going to try the Chicken. I love the taste that Ginger and shallot gives to meat.
ReplyDeleteThat looks amazing!!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this. It looks very tasty, I can't wait to try it.
ReplyDelete