For Love of One Pot Meals.

I love one pot dishes, as you can probably tell from most meals i cook. There’s something really alluring about leisurely prepping ingredients as you go, chucking them all into one pot and letting them all do their thing over the stove.

Okay, so technically this chicken and mushroom claypot rice isn’t exactly one pot meal; you have to fry the salted fish, chicken and mushrooms in another pan. But you could toast the salted fish in the oven till crisp and chuck the chicken and mushrooms into the pot once the rice is almost done cooking and it would truly be a one pot meal but that’s just more work if you ask me.

This dish is incredibly easy to whip up. There’s practically no work involved- all you have to do is marinate the chicken, soak the mushrooms, start cooking the rice, fry the chicken, mushrooms and salted fish and chuck them all on top of the rice and viola, claypot rice! Easy peasy.

Tender pieces of chicken, crisp bits of salted fish and soft Shiitake mushrooms with fragrant, lightly seasoned steamed rice, it was every bit as delicious to eat as it was easy to make. It’s a definite keeper, this one.

Chicken and Mushroom Claypot Rice

Ingredients
2 chicken thigh fillets, fat trimmed and cut into bite size pieces
1 cup of white Jasmine rice
1 1/2 cup chicken stock
1 tsp light soy sauce
Few drops of dark soy sauce
Few drops of sesame oil
Small handful of dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked in hot water till soft and drained
Salted fish, cut into small pieces
Canola oil, for frying
Spring onions, thinly sliced

Chicken Marinade
A knob of ginger, lightly pounded and squeeze to get ginger juice
6 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp sugar
1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
1/2 tbsp Chinese rice wine
Few drops of dark soy sauce
Few drops of sesame oil
Couple dashes of white pepper

1. To make chicken marinade Combine the ginger juice, garlic, sugar, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, rice wine, sesame oil and white pepper in a large Ziplock bag. Shake to combine well. Add chicken and shake the bag to coat chicken pieces in the sauce. Add the cornstarch, shaking the bag till everything is well mixed and put the bag into the fridge for at least twenty minutes.
2. Pour the rice into a claypot and rinse it in cold water thrice to get rid of starch. Drain the cold water, pour the chicken stock in and add the light and dark soy sauce and sesame oil. Stir well to combine. Bring the rice mixture to boil over high heat, lower the heat and cover.
3. Heat a bit of canola oil in a small frying pan. Fry the salted fish till golden brown and crispy and set aside. Using the same pan but with fresh canola oil, fry the chicken pieces till lightly browned all over. Add the mushrooms and fry for another minute. Remove the pan from heat.
4. When the liquid in the claypot has evaporated and rice is almost done cooking, tip the chicken pieces and mushrooms into the pot, spreading them on top of the rice. Cover the pot and cook till the rice and chicken pieces are cooked. Serve with salted fish and spring onions- be sure to scrap the rice stuck at the bottom of the claypot; it’s the best part! Serves 2 very hungry people

Posted by thecoffeesnob on October 23, 2008

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