Hainanese chicken rice on an induction hob

Everything good about Hainanese chicken rice comes from one number: the temperature of the poaching water. Hold it at a bare shiver, somewhere around 85 to 90C, and the chicken comes out silky with that gelatinous layer under the skin. Let it boil and the protein seizes, the skin tears, and you have made soup chicken.

On gas, holding that is a constant small negotiation with the knob. On induction it is a number you set and forget. This is the recipe where I stop arguing that gas is better.

What you need

• 1 whole chicken, about 1.6kg, at room temperature
• 4 spring onions, 6 slices ginger, 3 cloves garlic, for the pot
• 2 tbsp salt for rubbing
• A large bowl of ice water
• 2 cups jasmine rice, rinsed until the water runs almost clear
• 3 cloves garlic and 2cm ginger, minced, for the rice
• 2 pandan leaves, knotted
• 2 tbsp reserved chicken fat, or oil

Poaching the chicken

1. Rub the chicken all over with salt, working it into the skin. Rinse. Pull out the loose fat from the cavity and set it aside for the rice.
2. Put the chicken in a pot just wide enough to hold it, breast down. Add the spring onion, ginger and garlic, then cold water to cover by 2cm.
3. Bring to a bare simmer, then drop the heat so the surface barely moves. On an induction hob this is usually somewhere around level 3 or 4 out of 9. Hold it there for 40 minutes for a 1.6kg bird. No lid rattling, no rolling bubbles.
4. Lift the chicken out and plunge it into ice water for 10 minutes. This stops the cooking and tightens the skin into that firm, cool jelly layer.
5. Keep the poaching liquid. It is now stock and it does two more jobs.

The rice

1. Render the reserved chicken fat in a pan over low heat until you have a couple of tablespoons of liquid fat. Discard the solids or keep them, up to you.
2. Fry the minced garlic and ginger in the fat until fragrant but not coloured.
3. Add the drained rice and stir for two minutes so every grain is coated.
4. Transfer to a rice cooker or a heavy pot, add the poaching stock at your usual rice-to-water ratio, tuck in the pandan leaves, and cook as normal.

Rub the chicken with sesame oil, carve, and serve with the remaining stock as soup, plus chilli, ginger paste and dark soy.

Why induction suits this

Holding water below boiling for forty minutes is a control problem, and control is where induction has a genuine advantage. There is no thermal lag from a burner cap and no residual heat in a trivet. You set the level, the pot stays there.

Power step granularity is the spec to look at. The Bosch PUE612BB1J gives you 17 power levels across a 60cm hob, which is unusually fine resolution and exactly what you want when the difference between right and wrong is a few degrees. It also has Power Boost for the moments you want the opposite.

The Mayer MMIH603FZ takes a different approach: nine power levels plus boost, but a flexi zone that either splits into two independently controlled areas or merges into one large one. For chicken rice that means the stock pot and the rice pan sitting side by side on the same zone at different settings. It also has automatic pan recognition and overflow protection, which matters on a pot you are ignoring for forty minutes.

See Induction Hobs, 60cm Hobs and the full Hobs & Cooktops range.

Check the power supply first

Induction hobs are not all a plug-in job. Some run off a 13A plug and some need a dedicated higher-rated supply, and finding out after delivery is a bad day. Our guide to induction hob power requirements in a Singapore kitchen goes through it, induction or gas covers the wider decision, and how to measure for a hob cutout is the one to read before ordering anything.

Questions people ask

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