Chicken long rice

Chicken Long Rice

Chicken Long Rice is a classic dish featured in Hawaiian luaus. It is based loosely on a dish of Chinese origin but there are versions of this soup/stew throughout Asia. The Thai's have Gaeng Joot Woon Sen, the Vietnamese version is Mien Ga.

There is no rice in Chicken Long Rice. Not even rice noodles. The noodles are glass noodles, aka mung bean vermicelli.

This dish is comfort food. It is ideal for cold/snowy/rainy days. The glass noodles absorb the rich chicken soup and slither down the throat easily.

Most recipes call for boiling the chicken for an hour, shredding the meat and using the stock to cook the noodles. I decided to use the electric steamer to make mine.


Ingredients:

2 bundles of glass noodles, soaked in cold water for 15 minutes
2 pieces of chicken thighs, marinated in soy sauce, sesame oil and a bit of wine
6 dried Shitake mushrooms, soaked in boiling water
A cup of chicken stock
A knob of ginger, shredded
2 stalks of green onion, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Garnish: 1 slice of cooked ham, chopped into fine bits
Chopped cilantro

Method:

Tip: Leave the string on the bundles when soaking. The string will slip off easily when the noodles have softened.

1. Steam the chicken and mushrooms for ten minutes.
2. Remove the chicken and cut the meat into strips.

3. Drain the glass noodles and put them in the steamer with the mushrooms. Add the soup stock.
4. Steam for about five minutes.
5. Add the chicken, green onion, ginger and salt and pepper. Mix everything together. Steam for five minutes.
6. Dish up. Garnish with chopped cilantro and chopped ham.

Note: the noodles absorb the soup stock. Use more chicken soup if you want a soupy version. Mine was just moist.

Here is a Hawaiian version of Chicken Long Rice.