Poached chicken rice with ginger-garlic sauce

Remove the chicken breasts from the fridge 30 minutes before you start to cook. Put 600ml water in a large pan. Add the salt, salad onion, garlic, ginger and shaoxing wine, and bring to the boil. Prepare a bowl of iced water. Once the pan is boiling, add the chicken breasts, then bring to the boil again. When just boiling, turn down the heat to the lowest setting so it’s barely simmering, with just a few bubbles. Cover with a lid and cook for 3 minutes. After 3 minutes, turn off the heat, keeping the lid on (this is very important, you don’t want to let any heat out) and let the chicken continue to cook in the hot water for 10-15 minutes, depending on the size of the breasts. Check the chicken is cooked by piercing it - there should be no pink meat remaining and the juices should run clear. Transfer the cooked chicken to the bowl of iced water and let it rest in the cold water for at least 10 minutes (the chicken should be at room temperature for serving). Strain the cooking liquid into a jug and set aside, reserving the ginger and garlic.

While the chicken is cooking, wash the rice vigorously until the water is clear and no longer cloudy and starchy. Once the chicken is cooked, put the rice into the pan it was cooked in, along with 300ml of the chicken stock and a pinch of salt. Shake the pan so the rice sits in an even layer, then bring the liquid to a boil. Once boiling, turn down to medium and let some of the liquid evaporate, until you can start to see craters in the surface of the rice. Cover with a lid, turn the heat down to the lowest possible setting, and cook for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat, and rest the rice for 10 minutes with the pak choi on top so that it steams.

While the rice rests, make the ginger-garlic sauce. Put the ginger, garlic, salad onions and leftover ginger and garlic in a mini food processor and whizz until finely chopped. Transfer to a small heatproof bowl with a pinch of salt.

Put the oil in a small pan and heat until it shimmers. Taking care, pour the hot oil over the ginger mixture and let sit for a minute, before stirring through to fully combine. Add the sesame oil and taste, adding a pinch more salt if desired. Use the same pan to quickly heat through the leftover chicken stock.

Serve the rice topped with sliced chicken, lashings of the ginger-garlic sauce, ketjap manis, and chilli and garlic sauce, with a bowl of the leftover stock on the side.