Easy Ginger Scallion Chicken Rice For Toddlers (Hainan Chicken)

Prep, Cook, and Assemble

1. Rinse the rice until the water runs clear, then pour rice into a medium-sized pot or Dutch oven. Lightly salt and pepper chicken pieces
2. Poor broth over rice. Grate ginger into the broth-rice mixture.
3. Heat contents of the pot; once boiling, add chicken breasts on top of the rice, then reduce heat until broth gently simmers.

4. Cover pot and cook until no broth remains and rice is tender, roughly 13 to 15 minutes. Remove pot from heat and allow to sit, covered, for five more minutes.

5. While chicken and rice cook, make the sauce (Part I): dice scallions to make small rings, then cut a small thumb of ginger into small pieces; place on the bottom of a bowl not made of plastic. Add two pinches of salt, one pinch of sugar, and one pinch of garlic powder; shake to distribute.
6. Sauce, Part II: heat a wok or small sauce pan to Medium High; once hot, pour in oil and cook for one minute. Pour hot oil into bowl of cut scallions and ginger, shaking bowl slightly to ensure all of the bowl’s contents are in the oil. Allow the liquid to steep and cool for a few minutes before using.
7. Sauce, Part III: when ready to serve, add a splash each of rice vinegar and chicken broth and stir vigorously. Do a quick taste test: if not fresh and bright, start first by adding another pinch of salt; if the ginger is too prominent, add a pinch of sugar to tame.

8. When ready to serve, lay the breast horizontally and cut thin slices vertically. If your child needs or prefers smaller pieces, halve the strips or cut each piece into smaller nubbins.

Serve

1. In restaurants the components of Hainan chicken are typically served separate, with the chicken to the side of a mound of rice; the ginger-scallion sauce is served separately, allowing diners to dispense as they see fit. You could do that, of course, especially if your child doesn’t like mixing components of dinner and/or if (s)he likes to dunk things in sauce; that said, because the chicken and rice have complementary textures, we have found this meal to be an easy way of encouraging our son to eat foods together, so we usually drape the chicken over the rice and then pour the sauce on top (see recipe pic). The use of a bowl rather than a plate with multiple compartments is no accident: it helps facilitate scooping and digging through the chicken and rice.

Adapt

1. while we keep our son’s bowl simple, we grown-ups bowls are vivid: jalapeno slices, cilantro leaves, and pickle or cucumber slices are all tossed on top. If you’re leery about pouring a bunch of infused oil on your child’s dinner, a good substitute is peanut sauce: just mix a scoop of PB with a splash of soy, a splash of sesame oil, and a squeeze of lime; thin with some water if needed.