A taste of home - Nasi tim ayam jamur (Chicken rice with mushroom)

My dad is visitting for two weeks. This means a lot of eating out =). However, for his lunches, I like to cook for him so he doesn't have to end up settling with greasy chinese food most of the time since it's the easiest and closest thing from my house.

This dish was actually a request from a good friend who fell ill and crave for comforting homemade food. His girlfriend cooks to kill so these times, I gladly fill in the role of nourishing him. I've never tried making this dish before, and it is one of my childhood favourites, so when he requested, I happily obeyed it.

I didn't think that this dish was this simple to make. I usually avoids anything that requires steaming, but to my surprise, the rice is actually steamed separately from the chicken, so I can actually make the rice as per the normal way of making rice, in the rice cooker. Only this time, the rice is cooked in chicken stock, not water to achieve the fragrant and tasty chicken rice. Using homemade chicken stock takes this dish into a different level.



Nasi tim ayam jamur (Chicken rice with mushroom)

Chicken rice
2 cups of rice
250ml chicken stock (preferably homemade)
water
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
a dash of sesame oil
1 cm ginger, crushed
2 clove of garlic, finely sliced

Wash rice and rinse thoroughly. In a rice cooker, mix chicken stock, water, soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, ginger and garlic. Add cleaned rise and cook until it's done.


For the chicken
2 boneless chicken thigh fillet, remove excess fat, diced
50-80g of button mushroom or swiss brown
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 cm ginger, crushed
sauce (for the sauce, I didn't actually measure it, mix according to your taste, the taste you should get is a strong garlicky & gingery flavour with a sweet undertone from the soy sauce):
soy sauce, oyster sauce, ketjap manis, salt, pepper, sugar, sesame oil, chinese five spice powder, corn starch, vegetable oil

Marinate chicken pieces with a bit of dark soy, sesame oil, sugar and 1 tbsp corn starch for 1-2 hours. Saute garlic and ginger in hot oil, add chicken pieces until cooked through, add the sauce.

Soup
250 ml chicken stock
1 cm ginger, crushed
1 clove of garlic, crushed
salt & pepper to taste
1 tbsp of soy sauce
dash of sesame oil

In a heavy based saucepan, saute garlic and ginger with a bit of oil. Pour in the stock and cook until boiling. Season with soy sauce, salt & pepper to taste.