Sesame Oil and Chicken Glutinous Rice 麻油糯米雞飯

Adapted from my aunt's recipe, a true local Taiwanese who has been making similar dishes probably all her life. She suggested me to use bone-in chicken, but as lazy as I am, deboned version saves a lot of work while eating, and removes the risks of biting into tiny bits of broken bones. Nope, I'm not finding excuses for myself not fully listening to auntie's instructions.

Sesame oil and chicken glutinous rice 麻油糯米雞飯 -

Ingredients (about 4 portions)?

• 1 3/4 regular cups old glutinous rice 
• 290 grams deboned skin-on chicken thigh
• 2 to 3 slices old ginger
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon rice cooking wine
• 1 tablespoon goji berries

How?

Rinse first, then soak the old glutinous rice for about an hour. If softer bite is preferred, soak two hours instead. Drain and set aside for later use.

Cut the chicken into bigger bite size pieces, about 8 chunks for the one I made here. Slice old ginger.

Prepare a pan, drizzle in sesame oil and add the ginger slices. Do not use salt or soy sauce for this recipe.

Once warmed up and the ginger slices turned darker color, add in chicken and sear till slightly browned.

Transfer drained glutinous rice over and pour in some rice cooking wine. Give it a quick stir, making sure all the rice are coated with that aromatic sesame oil.

Add in goji berries and keep cooking for about 30 seconds.

Transfer the whole thing into Taiwanese steamer 大同電鍋, or any big steamer will do. I added about two cups of water into the steamer, not to the rice mixture. Just enough water to keep the steamer going for about an hour. Once ready, keep the lid on still and just rest in residual heat for 10 minutes or so.

Remove ginger slices when ready to serve.

It might be weird or even uncomfortable at first not adding any salt or soy sauce to the dish. But trust me, it's pretty flavorful after steaming. Thanks to the natural sweetness from the goji berries and all that searing aroma in sesame oil and chicken fats. 

My aunt pointed it out several times not to add salt and soy sauce. Both ingredients can change the texture of the sesame oil, like from smooth to a very tannic wine kind of touch. I'd better listen to her here, especially I'm already using deboned chicken. Shhhh, let's hope she won't find out.


Extended reading:

• Sun-dried and salt-aged radish soup 陳年蘿蔔干燉雞湯