Chinese Sausage, Shiitake Mushroom and Chicken Rice Claypot

This is the perfect one pot meal – you get rice, meat and veggies all in the one pot. No need for any other sides or accompaniments.

Cooking in a claypot results in succulent meat and the rice at the bottom of the clay pot will form a dark crusty layer that will impart a smokey flavour which permeates through the rest of the ingredients.  It’s similar to the ‘socarrat’ part of a paella. The meat on top will cook through delicately from the steam that comes through the rice and its juices and the marinade will filter throughout the rice making it very flavoursome. I love how the rice absorbs all the flavours of the ingredients which are added to the clay pot, especially the sweet smoked porky aroma of the lap cheong (preserved Chinese sausage).

(Crust of rice at the bottom of the clay pot)

Ingredients

•    2 Chinese sausages, sliced
•    2 chicken thighs, chopped into bite sized pieces
•    few stems and leaves of bok choy or gai lan
•    3 - 4 shiitake mushrooms, soaked in hot water until reconstituted and sliced
•    2 cups of rice and 3 - 3 ½  cups of chicken stock

Marinade
•    2 tablespoons oyster sauce
•    1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
•    1 tablespoon light soy sauce
•    2 crushed garlic cloves
•    2-3 sprig spring onions, use the bottom third and finely chop
•    1 teaspoon cornflour
•    2 tablespoon Shaoxing wine
•    1 tablespoon grated ginger
•    2-3 teaspoons of brown sugar
•    few drops of sesame oil
•    salt and pepper to taste

Method

Mix the chicken and sausages in a bowl with all the marinade ingredients and refrigerate for an hour. 

Wash the rice and put it in a cold claypot with chicken stock and heat up over a medium heat with the lid on. Bring to the boil and immediately reduce the heat to a low simmer, then leave the rice to cook for around 10 minutes (the rice should be nearly cooked, around 70% done with little holes in the flat surface).

 

 Spread the chicken and Chinese sausage mixture, and shiitake mushrooms all over the top of the rice, and put the lid back on. Continue to cook over a low heat for 20-30 minutes until the chicken is cooked through and the liquid is absorbed. Add in the vegetable stems and steam for 2 minutes, then add in the leaves and steam for one more minute. 

Here's another claypot recipe:

• Vietnamese Braised Fish in a Claypot (Ca Kho To)