Hainanese chicken rice

Hainanese chicken rice is a dish of poached chicken and seasoned rice, served with chilli sauce and usually with cucumber garnishes. It was created by immigrants from Hainan in southern China and adapted from the Hainanese dish Wenchang chicken.

It is considered one of the national dishes of Singapore and is most commonly associated with Singaporean cuisine, being widely available in most food courts and hawker centres around the country. Variants of the dish can also be seen throughout Southeast Asia, particularly in Malaysia and Thailand, where it remains a culinary staple.

History

Hainanese chicken rice is a dish adapted from early Chinese immigrants originally from Hainan province in southern China. It is based on a well-known Hainanese dish called Wenchang chicken (), which is one of four important Hainan dishes dating to the Qin dynasty. The Hainanese in China traditionally used a specific breed, the Wenchang chicken, to make the dish. They would usually cook rice with the leftover chicken stock to create a dish known as "Wenchang chicken rice". The original dish was adapted by the Hainanese overseas Chinese population in the Nanyang area (present-day Southeast Asia).

Almost every country in Asia with a history of immigration from China has a version. The San Francisco Chronicle says, "the dish maps 150 years’ immigration from China's Hainan Island...to Singapore and Malaysia, where the dish is often known as Hainan chicken rice; to Vietnam, where it is called "Hai Nam chicken"; and to Thailand, where it has been renamed "khao man gai" ("fatty rice chicken")."

In Singapore

In Singapore, the dish was born out of frugality, created by servant-class immigrants trying to stretch the flavour of the chicken.

The first chicken rice restaurants opened in Singapore during Japanese occupation in World War II, when the British were forced out and their Hainanese servants lost their source of income. One of the first was Yet Con, which opened in the early 1940s. There were also sources stating that Wang Yiyuan, a street hawker first started selling "chicken rice balls wrapped in banana leaves " in Singapore during the 1920s. The dish was popularised in Singapore in the 1950s by Moh Lee Twee, whose Swee Kee Chicken Rice Restaurant operated from 1947 to 1997. Hong Kong food critic Chua Lam credits Moh with the creation of the dish.

Hainanese chicken rice is considered one of Singapore's national dishes. It is eaten "everywhere, every day" in Singapore and is a "ubiquitous sight in hawker centres across the country". The chicken is typically served with seasoned rice, with chilli sauce and usually with cucumber garnishes. While most commonly associated with Singaporean cuisine, the dish is also seen throughout Southeast Asia and in parts of the United States, where the dish is named "Singapore chicken rice" in some places. The dish is widely popular in Singapore and can be found in hawker centres, restaurants and hotels.

In August 2021, Singapore's McDonald's launched a Hainanese Chicken burger which is significantly derived from the dish, in part of the country's celebration for National Day which falls on 9 August.

Controversy over origin

In a debate that stretches back decades to 1965, when the two countries split, Malaysia and Singapore have both laid claim to inventing the dish.

In 2009, then Malaysian Tourism Minister Ng Yen Yen said that Hainanese chicken rice was "uniquely Malaysian" and had been "hijacked" by other countries. Ng later clarified that she was misquoted on her intention to patent the foods, and that a study on the origins of the foods would be conducted "and an apology conveyed if it was wrongly claimed."

In 2018, then Malaysian Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng joked that Singapore claimed "chicken rice is theirs (and) if we’re not careful, ‘ char koay teow‘ will become theirs" one day.

The debate has been described as an example of gastronationalism.

Reception

Catherine Ling of ''CNN'' called Hainanese chicken rice one of the "40 Singapore foods we can't live without". It was listed as one of the "World's 50 best foods" by CNN in 2018. David Farley of the BBC
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