How to Cook Guam-Style Chicken With Red Rice
Serves: 8
Preparation time: 10 mins + 7 hours (inactive)
Cooking time: 30 mins
Ingredients needed to make Guam-Style Chicken With Red Rice:
- 2 ½ lb chicken thighs, skin and bone retained
- 2 ½ cups jasmine rice
- 1 small yellow or white onion, thinly sliced
- 1/3 cup yellow onion, finely chopped
- 1 cup scallions, thinly sliced
- 1 ½ cups cane vinegar
- 1 cup lemon juice
- 3 cups soy sauce
- 2 tbsp annatto seeds, ground
- 2 ½ red chile flakes, crushed
- 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- Salt to taste
Cooking instructions for Guam-Style Chicken With Red Rice:
- For the marinade, empty a couple of cups soy sauce into a large bowl, along with vinegar, a cup of water, sliced onion and a dash of black pepper.
- Whisk them all together until well combined and add the chicken to it.
- Give it a nice stir or two to coat the chicken well with the marinade.
- Wrap the bowl in a plastic sheet or cling film and leave it in the refrigerator for at least 7-8 hours or overnight if you can manage.
- To prepare the dipping sauce, pour rest of the soy sauce in another bowl, along with a splash of lemon juice, ½ cup water, chile flakes and scallions.
- Stir them together until they blend into a uniform mixture and set aside until required.
- To cook the red rice, spoon the annatto seeds into a bowl of hot water and let it soak for an hour or until the flavours is infused into the liquid.
- Tip this mixture into a mortar, along with the soaking liquid and pound them into a smooth paste.
- Pass this blend through a fine sieve to strain out an orange coloured liquid; reserve the liquid and discard the solids.
- Dump the red rice in a 4 quart stockpot and fill it up with 5 cups of water.
- Pour in the strained orange liquid and cook it over moderately high heat.
- Lower the heat to moderate-low, put a lid on and cook for about 10-12 minutes or until the rice is cooked through and softens.
- Turn off the heat and keep it warm.
- Preheat a charcoal grill over moderately hot fire and sear the chicken for about 8 minutes, flipping it over midway, until it browns.
- Arrange a bed of rice on each serving platter and divide the chicken between them.
- Drizzle the sauce over the chicken and serve warm.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
