Claypot rice with chicken and mushroom

Ingredientsserves 4

Method

1. Rinse and soak the rice half an hour, then drain. Soak the mushrooms, squeeze them dry and slice.
2. Toss the chicken with two tablespoons of light soy, the oyster sauce, a teaspoon of sugar, the ginger juice, wine, white pepper and starch, fold in the sesame oil last, and marinate with the mushroom slices and ginger shreds for thirty minutes; the starch and oil are what make it slippery. Cut the pieces small and flat, because thick pieces do not cook through on the low heat over the rice.
3. Rice, the same volume of water, a teaspoon of oil and a pinch of salt into the pot; lid on, medium-high to the boil, then medium-low five to eight minutes until half the water is gone and the surface is pitted.
4. Lay the chicken and mushrooms over the rice in one layer, sausage slices on top; lid on, lowest heat ten to twelve minutes.
5. Pour a tablespoon of oil round the rim, medium-high heat, rotate the pot ten to fifteen seconds a side, four or five turns, until it smells of toast. On an induction or ceramic hob use a 16 to 20 cm heavy cast-iron pot instead of a claypot: drop to the lowest setting the moment it boils, do not spin the pot, and at the end turn up to medium for two to three minutes until it crackles, then off; the crust forms across the base only.
6. Off the heat, lid on, rest five to eight minutes; on a ceramic hob move the pot off the element. Lift the lid and cut the thickest piece of chicken: it should be white through, no pink, juices clear; if not, lid back on and three more minutes on the lowest heat.
7. Scatter the spring onion, boil the pot soy (three tablespoons of light soy, the dark soy, two teaspoons of sugar and two tablespoons of water) and pour it over at the table, then stir from the bottom up so the crust comes with it.

Take care

• Chicken must be cooked through: the low heat over the rice is the weak point, so cut the pieces small and cut the thickest one open before serving, no pink and juices clear. The soy contains soy and wheat; oyster sauce contains mollusc (oyster). The sausage contains nitrite and salt and must be steamed through.

The story

Chicken and mushroom was one of the original four toppings the Temple Street claypot stalls sold, and the one children order; the slipperiness in the name is the velveting, the starch-and-oil marinade that keeps the meat tender in the dry heat over the rice. It is also the claypot rice most often cooked in a rice cooker in Hong Kong flats without a gas ring.

Same technique

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Lo Fo Tong is cultural food-heritage reference, not medical advice. If you are pregnant, unwell or on medication, talk to your doctor or registered practitioner before changing what is in the pot.