Gentle Cooking, Maximum Flavour
This is Hainanese chicken rice stripped down to its essentials and made FODMAP-friendly. The chicken poaches gently below a simmer so it stays silky rather than stringy, and then the rice is cooked in that same enriched broth so nothing is wasted. A spoonful of fresh ginger oil over the top at the end is what makes it memorable.
Ingredients
Serves 4 | Cost: $6.50 per serving | Total: $26.00 | Ready in 25 min
- 4 organic chicken breasts, about 180 g (6 oz) each
- 1.2 litres (5 cups) chicken bone broth
- 300 g (1½ cups) jasmine rice, rinsed until the water runs clear
- 4 tablespoons finely grated fresh ginger
- 4 tablespoons neutral oil
- 4 spring onions, green tops only, thinly sliced
- 1 tablespoon tamari
- 1 Lebanese cucumber, sliced, to serve
- Sea salt, to taste
Instructions
- Poach the chicken. Bring the bone broth to a bare simmer in a wide pan and season with salt. Slide in the chicken breasts, reduce the heat so the surface barely trembles, and poach for 12–14 minutes. Do not let it boil.
- Rest in the broth. Turn off the heat and leave the chicken in the hot broth for a further 10 minutes. This finishes the cooking gently and is the key to a silky texture.
- Cook the rice. Lift the chicken out and set aside. Measure 500 ml of the poaching broth into a saucepan, add the rinsed rice, bring to a boil, then cover and cook on the lowest heat for 12 minutes. Rest, covered, for 5 minutes.
- Make the ginger oil. Combine the grated ginger and most of the spring onion greens in a heatproof bowl with a good pinch of salt. Heat the oil until it just shimmers and pour it over — it should sizzle vigorously. Stir and set aside.
- Assemble. Slice the rested chicken thickly across the grain. Spoon the rice into bowls, lay the chicken over, and add cucumber slices alongside. Spoon the ginger oil generously over the chicken and add a little tamari at the table.
Nutritional & Dietary Notes
Dairy-Free
There is no milk, cream, butter or cheese in this recipe. Richness comes from the meat, the cooking fat and the aromatics rather than from dairy, which makes it a comfortable choice for anyone who is lactose intolerant or avoiding dairy altogether.
Gluten-Free
Every ingredient in this recipe is naturally free from wheat, barley and rye. If you are cooking for someone with coeliac disease, double-check any stock, sauce or spice blend you buy in, as gluten-containing thickeners and malt derivatives are common hidden additions in commercial products.
FODMAP-Friendly
Portions and ingredients have been chosen with the low-FODMAP diet in mind. Onion and garlic bulbs are avoided in favour of green spring onion tops and infused oils, which deliver the same aromatic depth without the fructans. Always check the label on any bought-in broth or stock for added onion or garlic powder.
Featured HOTRO.ca Product
This recipe is built around Organic Chicken Breast from HOTRO.ca. We source premium BC-raised and ethically farmed meats and slow-simmered bone broth, so the quality of the core ingredient does most of the work for you. Substituting a lesser product will change the result more than any other single change you could make to this recipe.
Gently poached organic chicken over rice cooked in the poaching broth with fresh ginger oil.