Rice Cooker Claypot Chicken Rice With Lap Cheong

With the two kids, hubby and the house to take care of, I am always pressed for time. I have formulated several strategies and shortcuts to make my chores simple yet effective. Cooking one pot dishes is one such life saviour for me, especially on weekdays.

For balanced meals, I have to ensure that the one pot dish contains all daily essentials, that is vegetables and meat. I usually add any kinds of vegetables to the usual dish to make it a balanced one pot dish. The trick to get the best combination of vegetables is to use all different colors together, such as red, yellow and green.

One favourite in our house is claypot chicken rice. Except that it is fully cooked in the rice cooker. It is pretty simple, with some prep, and some light sautee, and you can put it into the rice cooker to cook till done, the resulf of which is very satisfying!

I do not have exact measurements of each ingredient because I usually just splash them in as needed. I do keep the salt at minimum, hence no extra salt added apart from the soy sauce. You can tweak it as you like.

I am so slow with the camera that this is the best shot I got of my colourful effort. Recipe as follows.

You need:

2 sets of thigh & drumstick, cut into small pieces

2 cups of uncooked rice (I used basmati)

1 onion, diced

1 star anise, 1 cinnamon stick

garlic ginger paste

4 lap cheong, chopped into biased slices

spring onion, chopped long

diced vegetables - red/green pepper, frozen carrot/corn/peas

Marinade:

light soy sauce

dark soy sauce

sesame oil

oyster sauce

ginger garlic paste

corn flour

Method:

1) Marinate the chicken pieces with the marinade for 2-3 hours.

2) Lightly fry the lap cheong with no oil (I use non stick pan). Set aside.

3) Start to cook the rice as per normal in the rice cooker. Put in the ginger garlic paste and stir. Let it cook while you get onto the next step.

4) Use the same pan, with the leftover fat, sautee star anise and cinnamon with onion till fragrant. 

5) Add in all the vegetables (except spring onion) and sautee for 5 minutes.

6) Add in the chicken and stir fry for 5-10 minutes. Add the ginger garlic paste, and cook for 5 minutes more.

7) Turn off the heat and pour the chicken mixture into the halfway cooked rice, and give it a stir.

8) Once rice cooker turns off, sprinkle the lap cheong and spring onion on top. 

I usually keep it warm in the cooker for 30 minutes after cooking. It allows the chicken to slow cook further, and eventually the meat slips of the bones with no effort. You can see that I use a lot of ginger and garlic paste because I love the aroma that it gives. You can omit it if you are not crazy about it.

The final product, is again, so colourful. I love the freshness of the spring onion, visually and also to the taste! Happy trying!