Time: 3/5
Potentially a two, with nerves of steel

Effort: 3/5
Time sensitive steps. Not something you can walk away from

Warm hug in a pot

I’ve written before about how clay pot rice is a magical winter food. You get fluffy rice. Savoury toppings. A crispy rice crust on the bottom. All served in a clay pot which keeps everything steamy and warm. You open the lid, and the alluring aromas gush out in a whoosh straight into your face.

To recap: a clay pot rice done well will have a layer of crusty, crispy rice on the bottom and around the sides. It’s called the 飯焦 (faan jiu / fan jao) – literally, burnt/crispy rice. Kind of like like the socarrat in a paella. Which reminds me – if you don’t have a clay pot, a paella pan or a round-bottom wok will work as a substitute as long as you have a well fitting lid. Maybe a wide skillet could work too, but I’m not so sure on that.

This attempt at clay pot rice is my second. I made it before with a simple beef topping, along with a runny egg. This time round, I’m going for a classic combination involving chicken and Chinese sausages.

Chinese sausages (臘腸, Laap cheung / la chang) belong to a family of cured meats called 臘味 ( Laap mei / la wei) which also include things like duck liver sausages (wonderful), cured duck legs (delicious), and cured pork belly (amazing).

Chinese sausage is typically made with the meat and fat of pigs, and seasoned with rose-flavoured liquor and a significant amount of sugar. It’s actually sweeter than it is savoury. As for the texture, the casing has a nice snap to it, and the filling has a dense and satisfying chew. I’ll go over how to prepare them when I discuss the ingredients below. And if you have extra Chinese sausage left over after making clay pot rice, go make yourself some Chinese radish cakes!

The amounts and times are really just suggestions. I used the same 8 minutes for rice, 8 more for toppings and 3 minutes steaming off the heat as a template, but you really need to be thinking on the fly. Clay pot rice is not for a rice cooking novice.

Every kitchen, pot, cook and dinner guest is different. However, the times provided for this recipe are even more of a suggestion than they usually are on this website, because they will vary wildly. For example, one of my burners do not go as low as the other. I tried to swap the pots in the middle of the cook time to even things out, but one still ended up being done before the other.

It’s much better to cook by eye, so look at the photos for visual reference. Although, having said that, you need to leave the lid alone as much as possible to trap the steam in there, because it’s the steam that does the cooking. The art of making clay pot rice lies in mastering this paradox. Don’t expect to nail this on your first try, but you will get better with practice. I know I did.

Dramatis Personae

Rice – about 100g uncooked pax

Jasmine rice is what’s usually used in clay pot rice. You’ll need a roughly 1:1 ratio of rice to water by volume, or maybe slightly more water than rice.

This time I did 1:1 plus a splash of extra water, and it turned out better than my last attempt. The extra water acted as a heat sink as it evaporated, and protected the crusty rice bottom from burning too much.

Clay pot

If you have a new pot, you might want to give it a soak in water for a couple hours first. Begin with low heat before turning it up, and likewise take care to cool it down gently. Clay is a a material that is sensitive to heat shocks, and it may crack if you don’t treat it with the appropriate care. Mine is already showing signs of wear, but then again I nabbed mine from an eatery where they have already had goodness knows how many mileage on them already.

Chicken – 100g pax

Thighs, and skin on please. Bones optional. A whole chicken broken down into pieces is also acceptable. You want the extra fat there, to render out and dribble down into the rice. Schmaltzy rice is one of the greatest delights in life.

A simple marinade of soy sauce and finely minced ginger will suffice to bring out the best of the chicken. Don’t skimp on the ginger, it contributes significantly to the very appetising aroma of the final product.

We’re steaming the chicken gently to make sure they stay tender, so there isn’t much heat going around. Be conservative about the amount, and cut the pieces small to make sure they cook through. The rice is the star after all, and you don’t want anything stealing its thunder.

Chinese sausage – 1 piece pax

These are usually tied together in pairs, end to end, like a set of nunchucks. They’re hung (heh, heh) from the string to be dried under the sun, and typically sold hung from the string as well.

What you need to do to prepare them is to cut the strings off, and give them a rinse in boiling water. The same is true of preparing Chinese cured meats in general.

There exists a tradeoff regarding when you put them on the rice, and when you cut them (if at all; if you do, try not to think about what else it looks like and make yourself wince). The earlier you do either, the more of the sausage’s flavour goes into the rice and vice versa.

Make your own decision on whether you want aromatic, meaty, rich-tasting rice or aromatic, meaty, rich tasting sausage. For myself, I find it easier to just leave them whole and put them in at the same time as the chicken.

Soy sauce – About a tablespoon pax

I just used some dark soy sauce for colour and some extra savouriness. You could go crazy with all sorts of additions – sugar, or a simple syrup, is an easy addition with a great effort to reward ratio. Scallion oil and/or ginger oil would also be very nice, but is quite a bit of work.

Vegetables 

Always eat your veggies! While I went with some choisum last time, I decided to make a quick soup with carp fishballs and 通菜 (tung choi / tung cai; literally “hollow vegetable”, but also known as Morning Glory, water spinach or Kangkung).

Executive summary

1. Marinade chicken, ideally the night before or morning of cooking.
2. Lightly oil the insides of each clay pot with a paper towel.
3. Wash rice, and add to clay pot along with an equivalent volume of water.
4. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Once water is boiling vigorously, turn the heat down to as low as it will go and cover.
5. Set a timer for 8 minutes. Tilt the pot on 4 imaginary sides, changing positions every two minutes to ensure each side gets the same amount of heat.
6. Open the lid, and place toppings onto the rice. Cover again, and let the toppings steam for another 8 minutes.
7. Open the lid, and give the contents of the clay pot a light drizzle with soy sauce. Kill the heat, cover and let steam for about 3 minutes.
8. Serve hot.

Play by Play

Hold the Chinese sausage by the string over the sink and pour boiling water down the sides. Decapitate the Chinese sausage a few millimetres away from where the string goes in to cut the knot off.

Cut chicken into about 1 inch pieces. Finely mince ginger, then mix into chicken along with soy sauce. I’m doing it right on my cutting board because it’s dirty already.

Bring the water to a vigorous boil, then put the lid on and turn the heat down as low as it will go. You could add the Chinese sausage now, and get some very delicious rice.

This was the 8 minute mark. Rice is looking plump and there isn’t any visible water, there is still plenty of steam. That’s important, because it’s time for the toppings to go in.

Decisions to make about the Chinese sausage – snip now or snip later? I’m just cooking for us, so I’d rather not dirty a pair of kitchen shears. It would be a nice touch to have the sausage in little bite sized pieces if you’re cooking for guests.

Giving the clay pots a tilt every now and then. This lets the rice at the sides get some heat and form a crunchy crust, while sparing the bottom from burning.

Another opportunity now to give the Chinese sausage a snip, but I stayed my course. See how the chicken is basically done. Here is when I add some dark soy sauce for aroma and colour. Cover the pot and let it sit there with the heat off, as the trapped steam circulates the various aromas around.

Dinner is served. My SO loves having some soup to go with a meal, so here we are. The minced carp was readily available at the market, so I just picked some up and added them a tablespoon at a time to a pot where I had been simmering some morning glory for about 15 minutes. I let that go for another few minutes, salted to taste and added a liberal amount of white pepper.

The crusty bottom ended up less burnt than my last attempt. Part of it was better temperature control, some of it was because there was more fat coming from the Chinese sausage and the chicken. But I also think it’s because I gave it a bit more water than when I did the beef and egg clay pot. To be honest, a bit of char on the rice crust is all part of the authentic experience – it’s just what you get from cooking rice over an open flame. Brown and crunchy, 9/10, very happy with the results.

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