The SECRETS to Crispy Clay Pot Rice at Home 😍 (Chicken, Mushroom, & Chinese Sausage Bozaifan 煲仔飯)

We're going to make the OG 30-minute one-pot meal. So move over Jamie Oliver. Clay pot rice, bao zai fan, bao zai fan. I think I said it wrong, but it's okay. It is a clay pot full of flavorful rice from the preserved meats, the chicken, the mushrooms, whatever you want to put in there. But the highlight of the dish is the crusty rice around the edges. I'm going to give you tips to make the perfect clay pot rice at home. So to make this dish, you're going to need a clay pot. Comes with a lid and a pot. But before we get to that, we're going to need to soak our shiitake mushrooms. Oh look at this. This one is so nice and thick. That's exactly what you're looking for when you buy these. So put them in a bowl, cover it with water, and place a plate on top to make sure they stay submerged. Now let these soak overnight. Today we're doing a chicken and mushroom combination, but the options here are endless. You can do ribs, you can do meat patties, you can do preserved meats like lap cheong or lap yoke. Whatever you want, you can use it. So feel free to experiment and use whatever you like. I'm going to start with two chicken thighs here. So we're going to cut these chicken thighs into bite-sized pieces. You can have them skin on, skin off, really up to you. It does not matter. I'm going to leave my skin on. Okay, put those into a bowl. Here's a mushroom that we soaked last night. So I need you to lay them on the counter and choose your two favorite ones. So we're going to slice them up. The sliced ones allow the flavor to penetrate into the dish, whereas these ones here will have more flavor within them and they'll have a nicer bite. We're going to add our sliced mushrooms to that, all of it, including the big guys because we're going to marinate it. To that we're also going to add some scallion greens and some ginger. I look, I cut them so nicely for you guys. Should be proud. These nice diamonds. To that we're going to add salt, sugar, white pepper, soy sauce, oyster sauce, and Shaoxing cooking wine. So you're going to use your hands here because when you use your hands it really absorbs it and it really massages all of the marinade into the chicken. So you keep going until all of the liquid is absorbed. So you can see here all the liquid now has been absorbed. There's nothing left there. So there we're going to add some sesame oil and corn starch. We'll work that in now. We're going to finish this off by adding a glug of oil on top. This helps to seal in the flavors and also makes it nice and shiny and tender later. Set that aside to marinate for 30 to 40 minutes. Now you can stop there with just the chicken and mushroom, but this is my version and what is life without Chinese sausage. We're going to slice up these Chinese sausages on nice biases. Just set those aside on a plate. So on to the rice. Now this shouldn't be a tip, but wash your rice every single time and wash it before cooking. Wash and drain your rice several times and leave it in a strainer to dry. Back to clay pot now. We're going to get cooking. I always find that it's easier to do this dish on a gas stove rather than a flat top or electric stove because this way you can move around the dish when you need to. So we're going to use our hot pot stove, put on your clay pot, turn it on. We're going to bring in equal part water to rice to a boil. So once the water is boiling, we're going to add our rice in. As soon as you add it in, you're going to stir it until it comes back to a boil. Stirring it prevents the rice from sticking to the bottom and burning right away. It's come back to a boil. We're going to close the lid, turn down the heat to a medium low, and allow that to cook for five minutes. So while we wait, I need to rant here. There is something wrong with this pot and I did not and I still do not understand why they all look like this. This thing here is not a handle. Do you know how difficult it is to open? Every time you try and open it, you burn the hell out of your hand. You need like fingers of like an American Ninja Warrior in order to open this thing. So please, whoever is making this, make a proper handle. Unless there's a specific purpose for this and I apologize for my ignorance, let me know in the comment section below why they make a handle like this. Okay, there should still be water in the pot that's boiling. Add in your ingredients quickly and do your best to make it look good. As you can see, we loaded ours. I'm always sad when I open it up and the clay pot is mostly rice. I'm making this at home, so I'm going to put as much as I want, but be reasonable. Continue to cook this on low for about 10 to 15 minutes. Here's a tip, move the bowl around every two to three minutes to evenly fry all the edges. So the next tip to this dish is you have to listen to it. You'll eventually hear it go from to This is it changing from boiling to frying. When you hear this, add oil around the edge of the lid. This will drain down to fry the sides of rice and give you that signature crispy edge. You need to be patient when making this dish. Low and slow gets you the best crust. The reason you need to wait at the restaurant is because forming the crust takes time. Continue to move it around until it crisps up everywhere. Do this for about 30 seconds a section. It's hard for me to tell you when it's done because each stove, each pot, each rice, each ratio is all different, so just check to make sure your chicken is cooked through. Once you're done, let it sit for five minutes. While it's resting, we're going to make the sauce. Add light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, water, or chicken stock, and sugar to a pot and cook until the sugar is melted. Serve by spooning some of the sauce over top. Garnish with chopped scallions and coriander. This recipe serves two. You can mix it or just dig in. Experiment to play around with the flavors and ingredients that you like best.