Hainanese chicken is a simple yet flavorful Southeast Asian dish. Made with an Instant Pot and with simpler ingredients, you can make this recipe in a fraction of the time.
While the dish is undeniably delicious, is Hainanese chicken rice healthy?
Hainanese chicken rice is a very healthy dish given that it predominantly consists of protein from the chicken which is poached in nutritious chicken soup steeped in herbal ingredients, and rounded out with carbs from the rice, making it a well-balanced, nutritious meal.
A serving of the dish is 446 calories, with 24 grams of protein, 19 grams of fat, and 44 grams of carbs. The key to making this dish low-calorie is to portion the ingredients mindfully and opt for a healthier dipping sauce.
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💭 What is Hainanese Chicken?
Hainanese chicken rice, also known as khao man gai, consists of fragrantly poached chicken with flavorful rice cooked in the poaching broth. It is often served with a variety of dipping sauces such as chili-based sauce, sweet soy sauce, and ginger scallion sauce.
Similar to Thai Basil chicken and pad kee mao, the dish is a popular dish in Southeast Asia and makes for the ultimate easy lunchtime meal.
🍳 Why This Recipe Works
An easier way to make authentic hainanese chicken rice – No hours of simmering and guesswork or finding your way around a whole chicken.
Restaurant quality taste from home – By utilizing the same methodology to achieve the delicious signature hainanese chicken flavor, you can make it a restaurant-quality hainanese chicken from home at a fraction of the cost and time
Healthy and nutritious – Made with lower calories with careful portioning, this is a great Healthy Thai Food recipe
🍏 Calories and Nutrition – How to Make It Healthy
While Hainanese chicken is delicious, it can easily add up in calories given the high oil usage and fat content from using skin-on chicken. While skin-on chicken is essential for the flavor of the instant pot hainanese chicken, it is also not quite the leanest protein source.
Thankfully, with careful portioning, this instant pot Hainanese chicken is only 446 calories, with 24 grams of protein, 19 grams of fat, and 44 grams of carbs.
Here’s what I did to make this higher in protein and slightly lower in calories:
- Portion the chicken – I used 1 chicken quarter, which gives me enough chicken to make 2 portions of this dish. You can also opt to use chicken thigh if you want to make 1 portion. Some recipes also call for brushing sesame oil on the chicken, but I omitted this given the high fat content of sesame oil.
- Portion the rice – I used 1 serving of rice per serving in this recipe. Rice is a vital part of this dish and carbs are an essential part of our diet, but it’s important to portion it mindfully.
- Use cooking spray – A tablespoon of olive oil adds a whopping 120 calories to the dish, whereas cooking spray is 0 calories.
- Be mindful of the sauce – The chili sauce and dark soy sauce tend to be not as caloric as the ever-popular ginger scallion sauce, which is largely oil-based. However, there are ways I tweaked it to be only 50 calories a serving in the recipe below.
For a detailed breakdown of each ingredient, their portioning, and how they make up the nutrition profile of this instant pot hainanese chicken rice recipe, you may refer to the table below:
📋 Ingredient Notes
To make the instant pot Hainanese chicken, you’ll need the following.
Chicken Quarters – Instead of using a whole chicken, I just used whole chicken legs instead. I opted for the leg because it is juicy and delicious compared to chicken breast, and still overall very healthy. Using a simpler cut cuts down the prep time significantly.
Rice – An important component of this dish is infusing the rice with chicken stock. Traditionally, Jasmine rice is used here. Other types of rice can also work, but you will need to adjust the cooking times accordingly. Check out this guide on instant pot rice cooking as a starting point.
Chicken Stock – To simplify the recipe, I used store-bought chicken stock. You can also opt to make your own homemade chicken stock.
Scallions, Fresh Ginger, and Garlic – These 3 aromatics are the holy trinity of flavor for poaching the chicken and making the stock.
Pandan leaves (optional) – Pandan leaves are often used to give a subtle herbal flavor to the broth. You can buy frozen ones at specialty Asian grocery stores, but feel free to omit if you can’t find any.
See my recipe card below for a complete list of the ingredients with measurements.
🫕 Sauces
Typically, Hainan chicken rice is served with 3 types of sauces.
Chili sauce – Sweet chili sauce can be purchased from Trader Joe's or your local Asian grocer. At 25 calories a tablespoon, this is a manageable sauce option from a calorie standpoint.
Ginger Scallion Sauce – Consists of minced ginger and scallion deep fried in oil. To lessen the oil usage, I used 2 teaspoon of chicken stock and 1 teaspoon oil to make the sauce, since oil is 120 calories for 3 tablespoons. This cuts down the calories to around 50 calories.
Sweet Soy Sauce – Consists of dark soy sauce. It is a slightly sweeter version of soy sauce. It only runs at about 25 calories per tablespoon, so is relatively low calorie.
📖 Substitutions and Variations
Chicken options to use – While I’m usually all about boneless skinless chicken thighs, using bone-in skin-on chicken is essential for the flavor of the instant pot hainan chicken. You can also use the following:
- Boneless Chicken Thighs: 8 minutes
- Boneless Chicken Breast: 8 minutes
- Bone-in Chicken Breast: 10 minutes
- Bone-in Chicken thigh: 13 minutes
Rice – White rice or jasmine rice. If you use other kinds of rice, refer to this guide on instant pot rice cooking and adjust the cooking time accordingly.
Sauces – Typically served with 3 types of sauces as detailed above. You can choose your favorite one or make all 3.
Add a poached egg – Many places often give you the option of adding the egg, which adds a delicious touch of creaminess to the rice and chicken.
Cook it in the rice cooker – You can also make this with a rice cooker if you don't have an instant pot. You can follow the instructions in this Rice Cooker Hainanese chicken recipe as a guide.
🔪 Step by Step Instructions
Prepare the chicken – Start by gathering the ingredients. Lay out the chicken thigh and rub salt on the skin liberally. This is essential for seasoning the chicken.
Prepare the aromatics (Photo 1) – Mince the garlic, ginger, and onion finely. You can also use a food processor to make a fine paste. Press sauté mode, spray the inner pot with cooking spray, and sauté the garlic and onion until fragrant, about 2-3 minutes.
Prepare the instant pot (Photo 2)– Add the chicken stock and deglaze the bottom of the pot. Turn off sauté mode. Add in the chicken pieces with the skin facing upwards. Add in the turmeric if using.
Pressure Cook Chicken – Close lid of the Instant Pot and cook on high pressure for about 20 minutes, then let it get to natural release for 5 minutes.
Cool the chicken – Remove chicken pieces and dunk them into an ice bath to stop the cooking process. This will make sure the chicken doesn’t get overcooked.
Cook the rice (Photo 3) – Drain the stock to remove the solid ingredients and add in ½ cup of chicken stock and ½ cup water. Add in ½ cup of jasmine rice and cook for 10 minutes and natural release for 5 minutes.
Serve the Chicken Rice (Photo 4) – Plate the rice and chicken, and add fried shallots to the top of the rice if desired. Garnish with fresh cilantro, slices of cucumber, and serve with your sauce of choice and enjoy your instant pot hainanese chicken!
💭 Frequently Asked Questions
Hainanese chicken rice is yellow sometimes because turmeric is added to the poaching broth. This is an optional step that makes the chicken skin and rice yellow in color.
Depending on the rice and chicken cut use, you will need to cook it separately if you want the optimal done-ness for both the rice and the chicken.
Optimizing for the rice will result in undercooked chicken, and optimizing for the chicken will result in overcooked rice.
After testing the recipe many times, I’ve found that cooking them separately resulted in the most optimal results, and the filter of the stock before cooking the rice allowed for a more-balanced rice flavor.
You can store the instant pot Hainanese chicken in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3-4 days.
💡 Expert Tips
Use Ice Bath – After the chicken is done cooking, dunk the chicken into an ice bath to stop the cooking process. Then dry it on a drying rack. This helps cool down the residual heat and ensures the chicken stops cooking and firms up the skin. Skipping this step may result in overcooked chicken.
Exfoliate the chicken skin – Parboiling the bones will remove any impurities from the bones and help achieve a more nutritious broth. Not doing so will result in an unappetizing broth with all kinds of floating debris. Don't skip this step!
🍽 Related Recipes
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🍳 Recipe
Instant Pot Hainanese Chicken Rice
Equipment
- Instant Pot
Ingredients
Poaching Broth
- 1-2 cloves Garlic (Minced)
- ½ Shallot (Minced)
- 1-2 tablespoon Fresh Ginger
- 1 cup Chicken stock
- Cooking spray
- Salt (To taste)
- Scallions
- 1 Pandan Leaf (Optional)
Chicken and Rice
- 1 Chicken Quarter (Bone in, skin on)
- ½ cup Jasmine RIce
- 1 tablespoon Sea Salt
- Cilantro, slices of cucumber (For garnish)
- 1 teaspoon Turmeric
Instructions
- Prepare the chicken – Start by gathering the ingredients. Lay out the chicken thigh and rub salt on the skin liberally. This is essential for seasoning the chicken.
- Prepare the aromatics – Mince the garlic, ginger, and onion finely. You can also use a food processor to make a fine paste. Press sauté mode, spray the inner pot with cooking spray, and sauté the garlic and onion until fragrant, about 2-3 minutes.
- Prepare the instant pot – Add the chicken stock and deglaze the bottom of the pot. Turn off sauté mode. Add in the chicken pieces with the skin facing upwards. Add in the turmeric if using.
- Pressure Cook Chicken – Close lid of the Instant Pot and cook on high pressure for about 20 minutes, then let it get to natural release for 5 minutes.
- Cool the chicken – Remove chicken pieces and dunk them into an ice bath to stop the cooking process. This will make sure the chicken doesn’t get overcooked.
- Cook the rice – Drain the stock to remove the solid ingredients and add in ½ cup of chicken stock and ½ cup water. Add in ½ cup of jasmine rice and cook for 10 minutes and natural release for 5 minutes.
- Serve the Chicken Rice – Plate the rice and chicken, and add fried shallots to the top of the rice if desired. Garnish with fresh cilantro, slices of cucumber, and serve with your sauce of choice and enjoy!
Christina
Omg i didn't know you could make this with instant pot - so much easier and so delicious!