Chicken & Mushroom Claypot Rice

📝 Ingredients

• 600 g boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 300 g jasmine rice + 450 ml water
• 300 g button mushrooms
• 4 tbsp soy sauce (2 for the marinade, 2 for the sauce)
• 2 tbsp oyster sauce
• 20 g fresh ginger + 3 garlic cloves
• 1 tsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp caster sugar
• 2 tsp sesame oil (1 for the marinade, 1 for the sauce)
• 2 tbsp sunflower oil (1 for the casserole dish, 1 for the crust)
• 2 pak choi (about 150 g each)
• 3 spring onions
• Salt, white pepper

🍴 Utensils

• Cast-iron casserole dish with lid
• Mixing bowl
• Colander
• Saucepan
• Grater
• Cutting board and knife

📖 Steps

1. Cut the chicken into 3 cm pieces. Peel and grate the ginger, and crush the garlic. In a large bowl, mix the chicken with 2 tbsp soy sauce, the oyster sauce, ginger, garlic, cornflour, 1 tsp sesame oil and a little white pepper. Leave to marinate for 20 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, rinse the rice in a sieve under cold running water, rubbing it between your fingers, until the water runs almost clear, then drain well. Clean the mushrooms with damp kitchen paper and cut them into 5 mm slices.
3. Oil the base and sides of a cast-iron casserole dish with 1 tbsp sunflower oil. Add the rice and water, bring to the boil over a high heat, uncovered, then cook for 6 to 8 minutes over a medium heat, until the water is almost absorbed and small craters form on the surface.
4. Quickly spread the chicken and its marinade, then the mushrooms, in a single layer over the rice, without stirring. Cover and cook over a low heat for 15 minutes without lifting the lid: the steam finishes cooking the rice and cooks the chicken on top.
5. Check that it is cooked by cutting into a piece of chicken: it should no longer be pink in the middle; if it is, cook for 3 more minutes. Then drizzle the remaining sunflower oil all around the edge, between the rice and the side of the dish, put the lid back on and turn up to a medium heat.
6. Leave to sizzle for 4 to 5 minutes, giving the dish a quarter turn every minute so the bottom browns evenly. A slight smell of toasted rice is normal; if it turns acrid, turn off the heat immediately.
7. Meanwhile, quarter the pak choi lengthways and rinse. Cook for 3 minutes in a pan of boiling salted water, until the stems are tender, then drain. Mix the remaining soy sauce with the sugar and the remaining sesame oil.
8. Take the casserole dish off the heat and leave to rest, covered, for 5 minutes: the crust will come away more easily. Drizzle with the sweetened soy sauce, scatter over the sliced spring onions, add the pak choi and serve straight from the dish, scraping the bottom well.