Quick and Easy Steamed Chicken Sticky Rice (Lo Mai Gai) – 糯米鸡 (2024)

INTRODCUTION

INTRODUCTION

As per Wikipedia:

“Lo mai gai (Cantonese; characters 糯米鸡 nuòmǐ jī in Mandarin), is a classic dim sum dish served during yum cha hours. The dish is also called by the literal English translations such as “steamed sticky rice with chicken in lotus leaf wrap. Lo mai gai is mostly a southern Chinese food. It contains glutinous rice filled with chicken, Chinese mushrooms, Chinese sausage, scallions and sometimes dried shrimp or salted egg. The ball of rice is then wrapped in a dried lotus leaf and steamed. In North America, banana, lily, or grape leaves may be used instead. In Malaysia and Singapore, there are two variants of lo mai gai. The first is the original Cantonese version and the other a takeaway style served at coffee shops and speciality local dim sum shops” （http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lo_mai_gai）

I am not familiar with Lo Mai Gai as it is not my dialect’s cuisine.. It is a Cantonese cuisines. I only tried Lo Mai Gai in dim sum restaurants and most of all, at the hawker’s centre in Kuala Lumpur. It was usually served in aluminium foil cups and sold together with the steamed buns (pao’s). Possibly because it is constantly re-steamed, the Lo Mai Gai that I know is very soft and at time watery with meat and vegetable juices.. I do prefer this softer type with some gravy as compared to the dry Lo Mai Gai usually sold in the dim sum restaurant.. Kids loved this version too..

Therefore in my re-steaming, I have purposely add in more chicken stock to make it softer and with some juices..One reason was for my kids and another reason is because I find that it is more tasty.. The original Lo Mai Gai in dim sum restaurant is definitely not soggy, taking picture in the evening also contribute to the ugly picture.

This is a very fast way of cooking, of course, with the use of the rice cooker. It took me about 1.5 hours to cook this.. No soaking of rice overnight, since rice, sausages, mushrooms were cooked, steaming only provide better binding and cooking the chicken. Depending on what type of glutinous rice texture you want, if you want a softer texture, you can steamed 5-10 minutes more. However, it is generally agreed by foodies that the glutinous rice should be grainy, soft but not soggy.

WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings: about 1- aluminium foil tarts cups

Recipe adapted from: 糯米鸡食谱

• 3 cups of glutinous rice

• 2 Chinese sausages – diced

• Some Chinese pork Jerky (optional)

• 500 grams of chicken meat – sliced into small pieces

• 5 winter mushrooms – soaked and diced into small pieces.

• 3 cups of water

Meat and Mushroom Marinating Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon of sugar

• 1 tablespoon of mushroom concentrate or other preferred seasoning

• 2 tablespoons of Chinese cooking wine

• 2 teaspoons of sesame oil

• 1 teaspoon of white pepper

• 3 cm long ginger squeezes into juices.

• 1 tablespoon of corn flour (not in picture)

Seasonings for Glutinous Rice

• 2 tablespoons of chicken stock

• 2 tablespoons of cooking oil

• 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce

• 1 tablespoon of minced garlic

• 1 tablespoon of sesame oil

• 1 tablespoon of dark soya sauce (not in picture)

• 2 teaspoons of white pepper

• 2 teaspoons of light soya sauce

STEPS OF PREPARATION

• Pound the ginger and squeeze the ginger sauce to the chicken. Put in all meat and mushroom marinating ingredients. Stir until well mixed. Marinate for at least 1-2 hours.

• While marinating the meat, wash the rice and add in dark soya sauce, chicken stock, oyster sauce, white pepper and light soya sauce. Marinate the rice for 5-10 minutes. In this way, it is easier for you to “colour” the rice with soya sauce. In a frying pan, sauté the minced garlic until fragrant and brownish, add in the glutinous rice and stir fry until well mixed.

• Transfer the fragrant uncooked glutinous rice to the rice cooker, add adequate cups of water as per the glutinous rice packaging instruction (I used about 3 cups of water with 3 cups of glutinous rice), select sticky/glutinous rice function. In between the cooking, stir the glutinous rice to ensure that the top part of the rice is equally cooked and there is no burnt rice at the bottom of the rice cooker.

• Meanwhile, grease your preferred steaming bowl or aluminium foil pie cups, layered the marinated chicken meats and mushrooms. Add in the Chinese sausages and/or Chinese pork jerky. Cover the meat with the cooked glutinous rice. Press it as compressed as possible…Steamed in the steamer for 15-20 minutes or until your desired texture.

• For servings, when warm , overturn the bowl and let the Lo Mai Gai sit in a serving plate.

CONCLUSION

Pardon me for the wet rice as I have purposely did it for my kids who prefer very soft or gluey glutinous rice. I concurred as it is easier for the kids to digest. This cut short method made it possible for me to prepare this dish in about 1.5 hours. May be you want to give it a try.

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.