Coconut chicken rice-done in rice cooker!

As much I love cooking, I get lazy sometimes so it’s nice when I have a cookware (like the rice cooker!) that cooks by itself. I’m always on the lookout for easy meal, so rice cooker meals are definitely what I need on days when I want to lie on the couch and not in front of the stove. This coconut chicken rice is a great meal because I can put everything into the rice cooker and forget about it. I don’t have to worry about overcooking!

This coconut chicken rice is light but flavourful. I used coconut water instead of regular water to give a slight nutty flavour. The coconut flavour doesn’t come out strongly but it’s a great balance of flavours. The flavour of this dish mainly comes from the marinated chicken and it gives the rice a nice subtle flavour. I love this meal because it’s easy to make and it’s not overly rich!

Ingredients

There are 3 essential ingredients: chicken, rice, coconut water. Now if you don’t have coconut water, just use water and just increase the soy sauce and oyster sauce by 1.5 times more to make the rice more flavourful. For the chicken, I recommend using thighs or deboned leg, but you can use chicken breast. For rice, I used white rice.

If you want to add extra flavour, then substitute some of the coconut water with some coconut milk or other stock (If you are substituting some of the coconut water, follow the recipe for the chicken marinade).

For the marinade: you need ginger, scallion, soy sauce, oyster sauce, oil, salt and cornstarch.

How to make Coconut Chicken rice

If using skin and bone in chicken thigh or chicken leg, make sure to debone the chicken. I usually take a pairs of kitchen shears to cut the meat away from the bone. If you are using boneless chicken thigh or chicken breast, then no need to debone.

Cut the chicken into bite size pieces, add in ginger slices, scallion chunks, soy sauce, oyster sauce, salt, oil and cornstarch. Mix together, set aside for 15 minutes. Hint: you can also marinade the chicken overnight.

Wash the rice and put into the rice cooker, add in the coconut water. Add in the chicken with the marinade. Set to cook on white rice mode.

Once it’s all done, cut some scallions and sprinkle on top. Serve as it is!

Pro-tip:

• Add less liquid than you normally would because the marinated chicken will have some liquids as well. Generally it’s 1 part rice to 0.75 liquids.
• I prefer dark meat because it is more flavourful
• If you want more coconut flavour, substitute a bit of the coconut water with coconut milk. Don’t put too much as it can make the dish very rich.