Travel lovers often live vicariously. Through blogs, YouTube videos, books and magazines, we let our minds wander, we discover new paths and taste all sorts of new flavors. Recently, we’ve been escaping to Singapore. This former British trading colony has bloomed beautifully into a vibrant and culturally diverse city, a microcosm of Asia, populated by Malays, Chinese, Indians and lots of expatriates.

Aside from its amazing beaches, temples and colorful landmarks, one of our favorite things about Singapore are the hawker center food stalls. You’ll find them all over the country and are well-known for serving a great variety of local dishes at ridiculously affordable prices. Think fish dumplings, spicy noodles, yakitori, curry rice and the national dish of Hainanese chicken rice — good enough reasons to jump into a plane and travel across the world, if you ask us.

While we get a chance to actually go there, we spent this past weekend studying Singaporean recipes and taught ourselves how to make Hainanese chicken rice. The chicken in this dish is boiled with aromatics and served over a bed of delicious rice. It’s simple but super tasty. Come travel with us to Singapore with this delicious recipe.

Hainanese Chicken Rice

Ingredients

• 4 Chicken thighs, skin on and bone in
• 1 Liter of water
• 10 Cloves of garlic
• 1/3 Cup sliced ginger
• ¼ Cup of minced ginger
• 2 Cups of scallions
• Olive oil
• 2 Cups of short grain rice
• 1 Tbsp soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp salt for broth
• 2 Tsp salt for rice
• Kosher salt
• Sambal sauce (optional)
• 2 ½ Cups Chicken broth

Takes 1 hour, serves 4.

Instructions

1. Rub the skin of the chicken and the chicken with kosher salt. This will clean and smoothen the skin. Rinse well in cold water.
2. Boil water with ginger, 7 cloves of garlic, salt and 1 cup of scallions. (Leave a slice of ginger or two for the rice) Add the chicken and boil for 3 minutes. Remove chicken and rinse in cold water again.
3. Place chicken back in, add soy sauce and cook for 18 minutes. Then, turn off and let it rest covered for 25 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, rinse the rice a few times until the water comes out clear. Cook rice with broth, salt, remaining pieces of garlic and ginger.
5. Finally, prepare the sauces. Mix the remaining scallions with olive oil. In a separate container, mix the minced ginger with olive oil. Serve the chicken over rice and add scallions. Enjoy with sambal sauce, ginger sauce or by itself. Also, serve a cup of the broth to enjoy with your meal.