Efficient 3-Part Dinner

I accidentally discovered a very easy dinner that has three inter-connected parts to it. I was simply looking for any Singaporean chicken recipe for which I had all the ingredients on hand, and it turns out that Hainanese Chicken fits the bill. The "authentic" recipe calls for a whole chicken, but A. and I are are only two people, and we don't need that much food for dinner, so here's what I did:

Ingredients:

2 chicken legs--the whole leg, drumstick and thigh
a little bit of onion, chopped
2 clove of garlic, crushed
a chunk of ginger, smashed and bruised
a little sesame oil
a little light soy sauce (not "lite" soy souce, but light--you can get light and dark soy sauces at an Asian grocery)
a few tablespoons vegetable oil
coriander (I only had powder on hand, frsh leave would be nice, though)
scallions for garnish
vegetable oil
2 C. long grain rice, washed and drained
cucumber and tomatoes, sliced for garnish
bok chok
1 squash
a carrot, peeled and diced
1 C. mushrooms

1. Cut the fatty bits off your chicken, and set them aside---we'll use them in step 2. Bring enough water to cover all the chicken bits to a boil, and boil the chicken, garlic, onions and ginger for 15 minutes (authenticity says 5, but this results in undercooked chicken, which makes me nervous. Screw authenticity, I say). Turn the heat off and let the chicken sit in the water for 30 minutes.

2. While the chicken is sitting, put the fatty bits and some vegetable oil in a wok, and fry up the fat until it gets nice and liquid-y. Then take out the chunks. You can throw them away now. Put your clean rice into the wok and stir t all around until it's covered in the oil and translucent. Ladle some of your chicken water over the rice--3 C. or so--and let that cook until the rice has absorbed all the water.

3. Once your chicken has sat for 30 minutes or so, and your rice is cooking away, take the chicken bits our of the pot, throw them in a colander and rinse them with a little cold water bath. Arrange them on plates and pour a tablespoon or so of light soy sauce and a tablespoon or so of sesame oil on top of each piece. sprinkle onto them coriander and sliced-up scallions.

4. Throw a bunch of chopped up veggies (I suggested bok choy, squash, carrots, and mushrooms, but you can use whatever veggies you want--Chinese cabbage, lettuce, peppers, broccoli, spinach--whatever) into the remaining chicken water (OK, I guess we can start calling it chicken stock at this point). Simmer for 20 minutes about, and season to taste with salt and pepper. This soup is not too exciting; A. says it's just to wash down the chicken and rice, and it doesn't have to be exciting. Garnish it with fresh tomatoes and cucumbers.

Serve the chicken with a chili garlic or chili ginger sauce. I didn't make any chili sauce, but A. like belachan on everything, and we had that handy, so that was OK. So, then you can serve a nice bit of chicken, with a side of chicken rice and a bowl of vegetable soup. Very neat!