Cooking with Thermal Cooker

Actually I own this thermal cooker for quite some time and its really under utilised! Today I have tried preparing a braised soy chicken and steamed rice together in the thermal cooker. I must say that I'm really impressed with the outcome of both dishes! The braised soy chicken only requires 15 mins of stove time whereas the rice 2 mins. Follow then both inner pots are transferred to the thermal cooker to finish the cooking process. I prepared the dishes at 12 noon and only open the pot at around 5pm. The rice is perfectly cooked and chicken meat is fall of bone! 

Braised Soy Chicken

Ingredient (4 servings)

• 4 whole chicken leg
• 400gm firm beancurd, each block cut into 8 pieces
• 4 hardboiled eggs
• 1 bulb garlic, lightly smashed
• 5 slices ginger
• 4 stalk spring onion, cut into sections
• 2 star anise

Braising sauce :

• 100ml low sodium light soy sauce
• 2 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 2.5 cups water
• 2 tbsp Chinese wine
• 20gm rock sugar, or to taste
• 1/2 tsp pepper

Method

1. Blanch chicken leg in boiling water for 1 minute. Drain away water.
2. Heat inner thermal pot over stove. Add in 2 tbsp oil. Add garlic, ginger, spring onion and star anise and fry until fragrant.
3. Add light and dark soy sauce. Mixture will sizzle. Add water, sugar, wine and pepper. Bring to boil. Do a taste test and add more soy sauce or sugar if desired. 
4. Place the blanched chicken leg, beancurd and hardboiled eggs into the braising liquid. Bring to boil again. Cover the pot slightly and simmer over medium heat for 15 mins. Turn off heat and cover the pot. Place the inner pot into the thermal cooker and close the lid. Let the residual heat continue to cook till the meat is tender for about 1 hour. 

To cook rice in thermal cooker : wash and rinse 2 cups of uncooked rice. Add water and grains into the small inner thermal pot. Bring to boil and stir the mixture well to prevent the grains sticking at the bottom of the pot. Cook over medium for 2 minutes without stirring. Transfer the inner pot into thermal cooker, cover lid and allow to sit for 30 mins. I've prepared and placed both dishes into thermal cooker at the same time and open the lid after 5 hours and it still stays hot enough to serve right at once!