Hainanese Chicken Rice 海南雞飯


Date Published: July 31st, 2020 | Last Updated: July 31st, 2020
Author: Abby |Category: asian, mains
Serves: 4-5 | Prep time: 15 mins | Cook time: 45 mins

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I LOVE Hainanese Chicken Rice (I feel like I’m starting too many of my posts like this – I guess that’s no surprise since I only upload dishes I love to eat heh heh). I know I say this with a lot of recipes, but this dish is pretty simple and you only need 6 ingredients: chicken, ginger, spring onion, garlic, salt, and rice. These 6 ingredients make up the chicken, the rice and the soup. Add some oil and you can make the dipping sauce too! Since there are a few components to this dish, the recipe is a little lengthy, but once you start cooking you’ll realize that there’s not much difficulty at all.

If you’re unfamiliar with what this dish is, Hainanese chicken rice has many variations but the most commonly seen version is usually composed of 5 components: 1) poached chicken, 2) rice cooked in chicken fat and broth, 3) dipping sauce (like spring onion ginger oil, a soy sauce based sauce and/or a chilli paste), 4) chicken broth, and 5) sliced cucumbers as a refresher from the rich flavours. The chicken is meant to be light and let the flavours of the sauces take over accompanied by the rice.

I’ve adapted this recipe from Sarah Tiong’s (mine and Toby’s favourite Masterchef Australia 2020 contestant) new cookbook Sweet, Savoury, Spicy. I’m usually not one for buying cookbooks and also not usually a Masterchef fan, but since the pandemic started this show has been our weekly constant, 4 days a week at 7:30pm. Sarah was known for her bold Asian flavours on the show and we’d always be salivating to whatever dish she whipped up so naturally when her cookbook came out I bought it right away. The recipe is more or less the same but I’ve changed up some minor cooking methods, added photos and rewrote it to make it easier to follow for myself (and you!). I’ve also recorded a video but it’ll take me a little while to edit the footage so sit tight. I’d definitely recommend checking out her cookbook – there’s some really good recipes there like Char Kway Teow!

Anyways, without further ado, here’s the recipe! If you have any comments or suggestions, I’d love to hear from you in the comment section! You can follow me on instagram, youtube and facebook to see all the recipes I post!

Happy cooking!

Ingredients you’ll need:

Every time I look at this photo it surprises me how little you need to make this dish!
  • 1 whole chicken (~1.6kg), rinsed
  • 4cm piece of ginger, unpeeled & crushed into pieces
  • 10 cloves garlic, peeled & crushed
  • 8 spring onions, cut into 7cm pieces
  • 1 Tbsp salt
  • 2 chicken stock cubes
  • 2 cups uncooked jasmine rice
  • Optional: 2 pandan leaves, bruised and tied into knots
  • 1-2 Tbsp toasted sesame oil
  • Cucumber slices to serve (optional)
  • Chilli paste/oil to serve (optional)
  • Optional: Spring Onion and Ginger Oil
    • 1 Tbsp ginger, grated
    • 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
    • 6 spring onions, thinly sliced
    • 1 tsp salt
    • 1 cup (250ml) neutral oil (canola, vegetable…etc.)

Directions:

Render the chicken fat: (This is an optional step. You can alternatively buy already rendered chicken fat called Schmaltz from the shops.) The rendered chicken fat will be used for the chicken rice.

  • Before: rear view of a whole chicken placed on its back
  • After: view of chicken with the fatty bits cut out
  • Opening of the chicken, note the two fatty bits at the entrance
  • Close up view of the two fatty bits with skin
  • I’m holding the fatty bits with attached skin to cut out
  • Acquired chicken fat and skin

There are two pieces of chicken fat at the entrance of the chicken cavity. Remove this fat and the accompanying skin by pulling or cutting it out. It doesn’t need to be pretty, you’re just trying to harvest as much fat as you can from this area with the skin. Don’t worry about taking too much skin – you won’t miss it.

Chop the acquired fat and skin into small pieces and put it in a dry non-stick pan on low-medium heat until the fat melts and the pieces become crispy and brown (see photo below). Be patient. This is a slow process and can take about 20-30mins. While you’re waiting you can start on the chicken.

Finished rendered chicken fat with crispy brown pieces

Cook the chicken: Place the whole chicken in a big pot and fill the pot with cold water until it just covers the chicken. Add the ginger, 5 cloves of garlic, spring onion, salt, and chicken stock cubes to the pot. Stir.

Put a lid on the pot and bring the water to a boil over high heat then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes (for larger chickens, cook for 20-25mins). After 15mins, turn off the heat and leave the chicken to poach in the soup for 20 minutes.

While the chicken is cooking, you can prepare the spring onion and ginger oil (follow the link for more thorough step-by-step instructions). (Don’t forget about the rendered fat if it’s still going!)

  • In a bowl, mix together ginger, garlic, spring onion, and salt. Set aside.
  • In a skillet, heat the oil on med-high heat until it just starts to smoke. Add in the ginger, garlic, spring onion and salt and stir for 20 seconds then turn off the heat. Let the ingredients steep in the hot oil and serve when cooled.

After 20mins, carefully remove the chicken from the broth and rest it for 20mins (ideally hanging off a hook or propped up to let any juices drip off into a bowl).

I didn’t have anywhere to hang my chicken so I got creative and used a wine bottle to prop it up. You can use tin can or glass jar as well. 😂

Chicken rice: While the chicken is resting, make the rice by heating the rendered fat (or 4 Tbsps of schmaltz if you haven’t rendered your own fat) in a medium sized pot (big enough to cook the rice in) on med-high heat and add in the remaining 5 cloves of garlic and uncooked rice. Stir fry the rice in the fat and garlic for a couple minutes until it’s completely coated in the chicken fat and fragrant.

Then cook the rice as normal using the broth that was used to poach the chicken in instead of regular water. You can do this step in a rice cooker or in the same pot over the stove:

I like to add in a few spring onions from the broth to the rice for a little extra flavour, texture and colour.

How I usually cook rice on the stove by using the same pot: add 3 cups of broth to the rice (and pandan leaves if using) and cook the rice with a lid on over low-medium heat until the broth is absorbed. Once all the liquid has been absorbed, taste and if the rice is still undercooked, add in half a cup of broth at a time and continue to cook with the lid on until cooked. Once rice is ready, turn off the heat and take off the lid and fluff up the rice with a fork.

Once the rice is cooked and the chicken has cooled, rub the chicken all over with sesame oil then carve it into pieces. Done! Serve with sliced cucumber, rice, chilli sauce and the spring onion ginger oil. Enjoy!

Optional: you can serve the chicken broth as a side dish to take advantage of that delicious flavour! Bring it back to a boil and adjust with salt and pepper. If it’s too salty, add boiling water to dilute it. Alternatively, you can put the bones back into the broth from the leftover carcass/bones and simmer on low heat for several hours to create a rich chicken stock that can be used in any other recipes in the future or served as a basic stock. This stock can easily be frozen by straining out all the ingredients first. It’s perfect to use next time you make Hainanese chicken rice and use this concentrated stock instead of chicken stock cubes to poach the chicken and use it to make the rice.

Summarized Recipe:

Hainanese Chicken Rice 海南雞飯

Date Published: July 31st, 2020 | Last Updated: July 31st, 2020
Author: Abby |Category: asian, mains
Serves: 4-5 | Prep time: 15 mins | Cook time: 45 mins

Ingredients:

  • 1 whole chicken (~1.6kg), rinsed
  • 4cm piece of ginger, unpeeled & crushed into pieces
  • 10 cloves garlic, peeled & crushed
  • 8 spring onions, cut into 7cm pieces
  • 1 Tbsp salt
  • 2 chicken stock cubes
  • 2 cups uncooked jasmine rice
  • Optional: 2 pandan leaves, bruised and tied into knots
  • 1-2 Tbsp toasted sesame oil
  • Cucumber slices to serve (optional)
  • Chilli paste/oil to serve (optional)
  • Optional: Spring Onion and Ginger Oil
    • 1 Tbsp ginger, grated
    • 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
    • 6 spring onions, thinly sliced
    • 1 tsp salt
    • 1 cup (250ml) neutral oil (canola, vegetable…etc.)

Directions:

  1. Render the chicken fat (optional*): There are two pieces of chicken fat at the entrance of the chicken cavity. Remove this fat and the accompanying skin by pulling or cutting it out. Chop it up into small pieces and put it in a dry non-stick pan on low-med heat until the fat melts and you get crispy pieces (see photo above). This step can take 20-30mins.
  2. Cook the chicken: While you’re waiting for your fat to render, place the whole chicken in a big pot and fill the pot with cold water until it just covers the chicken. Add the ginger, 5 cloves of garlic, spring onion, salt, and chicken stock cubes to the pot. Stir. Put a lid on the pot and bring the water to a boil over high heat then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes (for larger chickens, cook for 20-25mins). After 15mins, turn off the heat and leave the chicken to poach in the soup for 20 minutes.
  3. While the chicken is cooking, you can prepare the spring onion and ginger oil (follow the link for more thorough step-by-step instructions). (Don’t forget about the rendered fat if it’s still going!)
    1. In a bowl, mix together ginger, garlic, spring onion, and salt. Set aside.
    2. In a skillet, heat the oil on med-high heat until it just starts to smoke. Add in the ginger, garlic, spring onion and salt and stir for 20 seconds then turn off the heat. Let the ingredients steep in the hot oil and serve when cooled.
  4. After 20mins, carefully remove the chicken from the broth and rest it for 20mins (ideally hanging off a hook or propped up to let any juices drip off into a bowl).
  5. Chicken rice: While the chicken is resting, make the rice by heating the rendered fat (or 4 Tbsps of schmaltz if you haven’t rendered your own fat) in a medium sized pot (big enough to cook the rice in) on med-high heat and add in the remaining 5 cloves of garlic and uncooked rice. Stir fry the rice in the fat and garlic for a couple minutes until it’s completely coated in the chicken fat and fragrant. Then cook the rice as normal using the broth that was used to poach the chicken instead of regular water. You can do this step in a rice cooker or in the same pot over the stove:
    • How I usually cook rice on the stove by using the same pot: add 3 cups of broth to the rice (and pandan leaves if using) and cook the rice with a lid on over low-medium heat until the broth is absorbed. Once all the liquid has been absorbed, taste and if the rice is still undercooked, add in half a cup of broth at a time and continue to cook with the lid on until cooked. Once rice is ready, turn off the heat and take off the lid and fluff up the rice with a fork.
  6. Once the rice is cooked and the chicken has cooled, rub the chicken all over with sesame oil then carve it into pieces. Done! Serve with sliced cucumber, rice, chilli sauce and the spring onion ginger oil. Enjoy!
  7. Optional: you can serve the chicken broth as a side dish to take advantage of that delicious flavour! Bring it back to a boil and adjust with salt and pepper. If it’s too salty, add boiling water to dilute it. Alternatively, you can put the bones back into the broth from the leftover carcass/bones and simmer on low heat for several hours to create a rich chicken stock that can be used in any other recipes in the future or served as a basic stock. This stock can easily be frozen by straining out all the ingredients first. It’s perfect to use next time you make Hainanese chicken rice and use this concentrated stock instead of chicken stock cubes to poach the chicken and use it to make the rice.

Abby1 Comment

Sloppy Joes


Date Published: July 31st, 2020 | Last Updated: July 31st, 2020
Author: Abby |Category: mains, healthy/low cal, kid-friendly
Serves: 4 | Prep time: 15 mins | Cook time: 40 mins

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Sloppy Joes – a classic American dish made of beef (or pork) mince, onions, green peppers/capsicums and a buttload of ketchup. This recipe is super easy, doesn’t need any fancy ingredients, and only requires one pot. The best part about this recipe is that it’s also surprisingly low in calories (roughly 200 calories per serving without the bun) yet still filling.

If you’ve never had a sloppy joe before, it’s kind of like a sweeter spaghetti bolognese but without the spaghetti, sandwiched between a hamburger bun. You can’t eat it without making a mess – hence the “sloppy” in the name. It’s a popular dish in North American and is commonly served to kids and picky eaters due to its simple flavours. It’s not the dish for date night nor a dish to impress foodies, but it’s easy, filling and satisfying. It would actually be really good to bring to a BBQ lunch and you can cook up a big batch in no time.

It’s a pretty straight forward recipe but you can watch the video below to guide you through if you need any help.

Anyways, without further ado, here’s the recipe! If you have any comments or suggestions, I’d love to hear from you in the comment section! You can follow me on instagram, youtube and facebook to see all the recipes I post!

Happy cooking!

Ingredients you’ll need:

I doubled the recipe in the photo so it’ll look much more than what you need
  • 500g lean ground beef
  • 1 small onion, chopped
  • 1 green bell pepper/capsicum, chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 2 tsp yellow mustard
  • 1.5 cups ketchup
  • 1 Tbsp brown sugar (optional)
  • 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 4 hamburger buns

Directions:

Brown the ground beef in a pan over medium heat. Drain off any excess liquids.

Add in the onion, garlic, and bell pepper/capsicum. Cook until soft.

Drain out as much liquid and oils as you can. I only had regular mince meat in my freezer rather than lean so I had quite a lot of fat to strain!

Drain off any excess liquids and oil.

Mix in garlic powder, mustard, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce and brown sugar. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 mins.

Season with salt and pepper, add more sugar or ketchup if you prefer it “sloppier”.

Serve over hamburger buns. Done!

Watch the Video Tutorial!

Summarized Recipe:

Sloppy Joes

Date Published: July 31st, 2020 | Last Updated: July 31st, 2020
Author: Abby |Category: mains, healthy/low cal, kid-friendly
Serves: 4 | Prep time: 15 mins | Cook time: 40 mins

Ingredients:

  • 500g lean ground beef
  • 1 small onion, chopped
  • 1 green bell pepper/capsicum, chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 2 tsp yellow mustard
  • 1.5 cups ketchup
  • 1 Tbsp brown sugar (optional)
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • hamburger buns

Directions:

  1. Brown the ground beef in a pan over medium heat. Drain off excess liquids if any.
  2. Add in the onion, garlic, and green pepper/capsicum. Cook until soft. Drain off excess liquids and oil.
  3. Mix in garlic powder, mustard, ketchup and brown sugar. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 mins.
  4. Season with salt and pepper, add more sugar if needed or more ketchup if you prefer it “sloppier”.
  5. Serve over hamburger buns. Done!

AbbyLeave a comment

Maple Salmon


Date Published: July 17th, 2020 | Last Updated: July 17th, 2020
Author: Abby |Category: mains, healthy, easy
Serves: 2-4 (serves 4 if you have sides) | Prep time: 35mins | Cook time: 25mins

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If you ever need a quick and easy dish to impress, this is it. Seriously. This recipe always gets rave reviews and it’s so SO easy and there’s minimal clean-up – perfect for a last minute dinner party or a fancy night-in! Serve it with whatever sides you want. The sauce is sweet-savoury (kind of like a teriyaki sauce, but not?) and a little on the heavy side so I tend to pair it with a lighter side dish such as a salad or some steamed veg and mashed potatoes.

This recipe is easy and cooks up quickly! You can watch the video below to guide you through the recipe.

Ingredients you’ll need:

  • 1/2 cup maple syrup
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1/4 tsp salt (or garlic salt if you’ve got some)
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper
  • 1kg salmon fillet – this would serve about 3-4 people with side dishes (or two people because Toby and I LOVE this salmon so much we would devour it every time). If you’re not planning on serving any sides, then I’d probably double it. The fish doesn’t shrink much when cooked, so you can just eyeball how much you think each guest would eat and shop accordingly

Directions:

Combine all the ingredients (except the salmon) into a bowl to make the sauce and mix well.

Place the salmon flesh side down into the sauce (try to submerge as much of the flesh into the sauce as possible). Refrigerate for half an hour to marinate the fish.

After half an hour, take the salmon out of the fridge and place it skin side down on a baking tray and pour the sauce over the salmon.

Bake the salmon at 200˚C for about 20-25 mins (cooking time will depend on how big and thick your fillet is) until the salmon is easily flaked with a fork. You can spoon the sauce over the salmon halfway through cooking.

Once the salmon is cooked, serve it immediately and drizzle the sauce over it. Alternatively, if you like your sauce thicker, you can put the sauce back in the oven (minus the fish) and let it simmer until it thickens then drizzle it over the fish. Serve!

Ta-da!

If you have any comments or suggestions, I’d love to hear from you in the comment section! You can follow me on instagram, youtube and facebook to see all the recipes I post!

Happy cooking!

Watch the Video Tutorial!

Summarized Recipe:

Maple Salmon

Date Published: July 17th, 2020 | Last Updated: July 17th, 2020
Author: Abby |Category: mains, healthy, easy
Serves: 2-4 (serves 4 if you have sides) | Prep time: 35mins | Cook time: 25mins

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup maple syrup
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/4 tsp salt (or garlic salt)
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper
  • 1kg salmon fillet

Directions:

  1. In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients (except the salmon): maple syrup, soy sauce, garlic, salt, black pepper. Stir well.
  2. Place the salmon flesh side down into the sauce and refrigerate for 30mins to marinate.
  3. Preheat oven to 200˚C.
  4. Once the salmon has marinated, place it skin side down on a baking tray and pour the sauce over it.
  5. Bake for 20-25mins until the flesh is easily flaked with a fork. Spoon the sauce over the fish halfway through cooking.
  6. Once cooked, serve immediately with sauce drizzle, OR alternatively, to thicken the sauce you can take out the salmon and set aside and put the sauce back in the oven for another 5mins until it thickens (you can do this over the stove in a saucepan as well). Enjoy!

Abby1 Comment

Creamy Salmon Chowder


Date Published: July 2nd, 2020 | Last Updated: July 2nd, 2020
Author: Abby |Category: soups
Serves: 6-8 | Prep time: 30mins | Cook time: 30mins

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I LOVE chowders. The first chowder I ever had was a Boston Clam Chowder when I was kid and it blew me away. From then on I will always choose a chowder over any other kind of soup. It’s creamy, rich, hearty and warms you up on a cold day – what’s not to love? It’s comfort food at its best. If chowders weren’t so dense in calories, I’d definitely be having this every day.

I always thought chowders were difficult to make so I never attempted it. However, when Toby and I went salmon fishing (on a small fishing farm where you fish out of a small pool…) last year, I caught my first ever salmon! It just also happened to be the largest one in the pool, coming in at a whopping 3.5kg! We ended up with 1kg of fish fillet and I was scrambling to find new recipes to use up raw salmon (other than my go-to maple salmon recipe) before it went off since our freezer was too small. This recipe was the best thing that came out of the fishing experience (other than the excitement of catching a big fish)!

The great thing about this recipe is that you can actually use any meaty fish you like. In fact, we went tuna fishing with Toby’s dad earlier this week and we collectively caught 4 tuna, each averaging about 10-15kg! I made this soup for Toby’s parents yesterday to use up some of the tuna fillets and they’ve already requested it again for their dinner party tomorrow! The strong flavours of the soup does a great job masking the overly fishy taste of tuna.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do! This recipe is easy and cooks up relatively quickly compared to some soups. You can watch the video below to guide you through the recipe.

Anyways, without further ado, here’s the recipe! If you have any comments or suggestions, I’d love to hear from you in the comment section! You can follow me on instagram, youtube and facebook to see all the recipes I post!

Happy cooking!

Ingredients:

  • 3 Tbsps butter (or olive oil to reduce the calories)
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 cups onion, chopped (roughly 1 large onion)
  • 2 cups celery, chopped (~4 stalks)
  • 2 cups carrots, diced (roughly 2 large carrots)
  • 2 cups potatoes, diced (~2 large potatoes)
  • 3 cups chicken broth
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp ground black pepper
  • 1 tsp dried dill
  • 450g of fresh salmon (or any fish), cut to 2.5cm chunks (you can used canned fish as well, drained)
  • 1 can (375ml) evaporated milk
  • 1 can (420g) creamed corn
  • 1 can (420g) corn kernels, drained
  • 200g cheddar cheese, shredded (~1 large handful)

It takes a little time to chop up all the veggies, but once that’s done, the cook goes by pretty quickly.

Directions:

Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Sauté the garlic, onion, celery and carrots for a few minutes then put a lid on the pot and steam the veggies until the carrots are soft enough to break with your spatula (~5-8mins). You can alternatively keep cooking the veggies without the lid if you like but it takes much longer for the vegetables to soften.

Once the carrots and celery are soft enough, add in potatoes, chicken broth, salt, pepper, and dill. Turn up to high heat and bring the soup to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat to medium and let the soup simmer with a lid on until the potatoes are soft enough to break with your spatula (~15-20mins).

Note: I used tuna in the video to try and use up our fillets

Once the potatoes are soft, add in the salmon, evaporated milk, and corn. Put the lid back on and bring the soup to a boil then turn the heat down and simmer until the salmon is cooked.

Once cooked, turn the heat off and mix through the shredded cheese until melted. (If you’re using canned fish, then just mix until heated through and add the cheese. Serve when the cheese has melted.)

Adjust salt and pepper to taste. Serve!

You can serve this as a side dish or a main soup with some toasted bread or crackers. I love curling up on the couch on a cold day and hugging a bowl of this creamy soup while binge watching something… then unknowingly end up eating 3 bowls because it’s JUST. THAT. GOOD!

Watch the Video Tutorial!

Summarized Recipe:

Creamy Salmon Chowder

Date Published: July 2nd, 2020 | Last Updated: July 2nd, 2020
Author: Abby |Category: soups
Serves: 6-8 | Prep time: 30mins | Cook time: 30mins

Ingredients:

  • 3 Tbsps butter (or olive oil to reduce the calories)
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 cups onion, chopped (roughly 1 large onion)
  • 2 cups celery, chopped (~4 stalks)
  • 2 cups carrots, diced (roughly 2 large carrots)
  • 2 cups potatoes, diced (~2 large potatoes)
  • 3 cups chicken broth
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp ground black pepper
  • 1 tsp dried dill
  • 450g of fresh salmon (or any fish), cut to 2.5cm chunks (you can used canned fish as well, drained)
  • 1 can (375ml) evaporated milk
  • 1 can (420g) creamed corn
  • 1 can (420g) corn kernels, drained
  • 200g cheddar cheese, shredded (~1 large handful)

Directions:

  1. Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. Sauté the garlic, onion, celery and carrots. Put a lid on the pot and steam the veggies until the carrots are soft enough to break with your spatula (~5-8mins).
  2. Stir in potatoes, chicken broth, salt, pepper, and dill. Bring to a boil, and reduce heat. Cover and simmer until the potatoes are soft enough to break with your spatula (~15-20mins).
  3. Stir in the salmon, evaporated milk, and corn. Put on the lid and bring the soup to a boil then turn the heat down and simmer until the salmon is cooked. Once cooked, turn the heat off and mix through the cheese until melted. (If you’re using canned salmon, then just mix until heated through then serve.)
  4. Adjust salt and pepper to taste. Serve!

AbbyLeave a comment

Char Kway Teow (Stir-fried flat noodles)


Date Published: July 1st, 2020 | Last Updated: July 1st, 2020
Author: Abby |Category: mains, Asian
Serves: 4-5 | Prep time: 15mins | Cook time: 10mins

Jump to recipe | Watch the video

WOOHOO!! The inaugural post of Polyphagic Abby! Welcome welcome. I’m so excited to share my favourite recipes with you!

I won’t muddle this recipe post by going into the hows and whys of starting up this food blog project in this post but if you’re interested, you can read about it here.

I’m new to the video blogging and food photography game, so don’t mind the occasional questionable camera work. We’re still working out the kinks. We’ve ordered a tripod that’s coming in the mail but I was too excited to start this blog to wait! I also got too excited taking videos of recipes that I forgot to take photos of the process as well, so don’t mind the video screenshots as part of the post for the first few recipes. heh heh.

My partner Toby rigging up the camera for my first recipe video hahaha. This is why the start of the video is a little shaky. Only 1 more week until our tripod arrives!

Toby and I have been religiously watching Masterchef 2020 lately. We’ve never watched a show so intently together before. Our favourite contestant Sarah Tiong was recently eliminated. I’ve always loved watching her put together amazing flavourful Asian dishes on the show and to my luck, she has just released a cookbook! I’ve been wanting to cook closer to my Asian roots lately and her cookbook was the perfect gateway. It’s full of amazing recipes. I absolutely recommend getting her cookbook “Sweet, Savoury, Spicy“. This char kway teow recipe was actually adapted from one of hers.

Char kway teow is a popular Malaysian/Singaporean dish. It’s a dish made from flat rice noodles (banh pho) and sautéed in Chinese sausage (lap cheong) and prawns. You can substitute the protein with anything you like and add in any extra veggies you like. This recipe is easy and cooks up quickly! You can watch the video below to guide you through the recipe.

Anyways, without further ado, here’s the recipe! If you have any comments or suggestions, I’d love to hear from you in the comment section! You can follow me on instagram, youtube and facebook to see all the recipes I post!

Happy cooking!

Ingredients you’ll need:

  • 1 packet (1kg) of cooked flat rice noodles (banh pho) – (375g uncooked packet = ~1kg cooked)
  • 1/3 cup (90ml) of any neutral tasting oil (you can substitute with pork lard for extra flavour)
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 large red shallots, finely chopped (can substitute with 1 red onion instead)
  • 2 medium red chilis, thinly sliced (optional)
  • 130g (~4 medium) lap cheong sausages, thinly sliced
  • 15 large fresh shrimp/prawns, shelled and deveined
  • 4 Tbsps (60ml) light soy sauce
  • 2 Tbsps (30ml) dark soy sauce
  • 1 Tbsp (16ml) oyster sauce
  • 1 Tbsp (16ml) fish sauce
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • 1 tsp ground black pepper
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 cups (200g) fresh bean sprouts
  • 2 large spring onions, cut into 2.5cm lengths

Directions:

I’d recommend having all of your ingredients prepped and ready within arm’s reach before starting this recipe. This recipe is quick and you’ll need everything one after another to ensure things don’t become overcooked since you’ll be cooking on high heat for the majority of the cook!

Cook the rice noodles according to package instructions. Different brands may differ. I bought the XL banh pho/rice stick with the three-headed elephant brand which instructed to cook the noodles in boiling water for 6-8 minutes then drain. Whatever the instructions may be, it should be fairly similar. Always taste the noodles before straining incase you need to keep them in a little longer. There’s nothing worse than tough noodles! Drain the noodles and set aside. You can add a little oil to the noodles to keep them from clumping together and easier to work with later or run them under cold water to stop them from cooking. Be gentle with the noodles so they don’t break apart.

In a large wok or skillet over high heat, add the oil (or lard) until the oil starts to smoke. Then add the garlic, shallots, chili and sausage. Stir-fry for about 30 seconds.

Add the prawns/shrimp to the pan and stir-fry for 1 minute. Shrimp cook very quickly. Don’t worry about cooking your shrimp all the way through at this stage. We just want to mix all the ingredients together. The shrimp will finish cooking once you reach the end of the recipe.

Add in the rice noodles to the pan and mix with the other ingredients while gently breaking up the noodles. Take your time making sure the noodles are mixed thoroughly and clump free without breaking them.

Once mixed, add in: light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, fish sauce, sugar and black pepper (you can combine these ingredients into a bowl first and then toss it all into the wok at once for ease). Stir-fry until combined.

Make a well in the centre of the pan and add the egg. Scramble it quickly until the egg is a little lumpy (~20 seconds), then mix it together with everything in the pan to continue cooking the egg.

Notice the little clumps of cooked egg in the centre? If you like to have more visually obvious eggs in your char kway teow, you can scramble the eggs further by leaving it in the well longer before mixing it in with the rest of the ingredients.

Add bean sprouts and green onion and mix for another 2mins. Turn off the heat and serve immediately. Enjoy!

Yum!!!

Watch the Char Kway Teow Video Tutorial

Summarized Recipe:

Char Kway Teow (Stir fried flat noodles)

Date Published: June 27th, 2020 | Last Updated: June 27th, 2020
Author: Abby |Category: mains, asian
Serves: 4 – 5 | Prep time: 15mins | Cook time: 10mins

Ingredients:

  • 1 packet of cooked flat rice noodles (banh pho) – (375g uncooked packet = ~1kg cooked)
  • 1/3 cup (90ml) of any neutral tasting oil (can substitute with pork lard for extra flavour)
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 large red shallots, finely chopped (can substitute with 1 red onion instead)
  • 2 medium red serrano chilis, thinly sliced (optional)
  • 130g (~4 medium) lap cheong sausages, thinly sliced
  • 15 large fresh shrimp/prawns, shelled and deveined
  • 4 Tbsps (60ml) light soy sauce
  • 2 Tbsps (30ml) dark soy sauce
  • 1 Tbsp (16ml) oyster sauce
  • 1 Tbsp (16ml) fish sauce
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • 1 tsp ground black pepper
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 cups (200g) fresh bean sprouts
  • 2 large spring onions, cut into 2.5cm lengths

Directions:

  1. Cook the rice noodles according to package instructions. Drain and set aside. You can add a little oil to the noodles to keep them from clumping together.
  2. In a large wok or skillet over high heat, add the oil (or lard) until the oil starts to smoke. Then add the garlic, shallots, chili and sausage. Stir-fry for about 30 seconds.
  3. Add the prawns/shrimp to the pan and stir-fry for 1 minute.
  4. Add in the rice noodles to the pan and mix with the other ingredients while gently breaking up the noodles.
  5. Once mixed, add in: light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, fish sauce, sugar and black pepper. Stir-fry until combined.
  6. Make a well in the centre of the pan and add the egg. Scramble it quickly until the egg is a little lumpy (~20 seconds), then mix it together with everything in the pan to continue cooking the egg.
  7. Add bean sprouts and green onion and mix for another 2mins. Turn off the heat and serve immediately. Enjoy!

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