If you’re Vietnamese, you probably heard your mom telling you when you were a child not to waste food because it’s ”tội chết” (dreadfully sinful). Yesterday, I made gà muối ớt (salt and chile chicken) and there was no way I would toss the precious, flavorful chicken broth. So what to do with all the leftover broth? I made chicken rice with it.
The preparation is similar to making basmati rice, with the main difference being that jasmine rice is used. Jasmine rice is a lot trickier to cook though, because the rice will get mushy very quickly if you don’t keep an eye on it.
I served the rice with nước mắm gừng, which is ginger-flavored fish sauce. I wanted to make the flavors more intense so I used pure sugar cane juice instead of regular water. This dipping sauce is so good, I could drink it all by itself!
1. Info for Vietnamese Chicken Rice with Ginger Fish Sauce
- Cook Time: unavailable
- Total Time: unavailable
- Servings: 8
- Calories: unavailable
2. Ingredients for Vietnamese Chicken Rice with Ginger Fish Sauce
- 6-¼ cups leftover Vietnamese chicken broth , as needed
- 3 cups Thai jasmine rice
- 1 tablespoon canola oil (or any neutral oil)
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1-½ teaspoons mushroom seasoning salt (or regular salt)
- 1 drizzle toasted sesame oil (optional)
3. Directions:
- Wash and rinse the jasmine rice thoroughly in several water baths. Unlike basmati rice, no soaking time is needed. Drain as much water as possible.
- Fill a large pot with about 4 quarts of water. Bring to a boil. Add the rice. Bring the liquid back to a boil, then immediately lower the heat to a gentle boil. Cook for about 2 minutes. Drain the liquid from the rice (to get rid of the starch from the rice) using a fine mesh colander. Do NOT rinse. Discard the liquid.
- Add 6 cups of chicken broth. Bring to a boil. Wait for the broth to come back to a boil , then let cook for about 2-3 minutes; place 2 long chopsticks across the pot and place the lid on top (letting a little steam out keeps the rice from boiling over, without letting all the liquid evaporate too quickly). Lower the heat to a bubbly simmer for about 8-10 minutes. Using chopsticks, create 3 evenly-spaced holes (forming a triangle) in the pot of rice and drizzle about ¼ to ½ cup of chicken broth into the rice. Place little mounds of butter all over the rice. Sprinkle with mushroom seasoning salt.
- Seal the pot with an aluminum sheet and cover it. Cook on medium-low for another 10 minutes. Steam should escape from the pot. Turn off the heat and wait at least 5 minutes for the rice to set without removing the lid. All the chicken broth should be completely absorbed. Check doneness of the rice; the rice should be tender and fluffy. If not, add another ¼ to ½ cup of water or more broth (I didn’t) and cook for another 5 minutes.
- Gently fluff the rice using chopsticks (or a fork) without breaking the grains of rice. Cover one more time and allow to rest for another 5 minutes. The rice is ready.
- Drizzle with sesame oil (if used).
- Serve warm. You could also garnish with sautéed chopped green onions and serve nước mắm gừng on the side (recipe
