Claypot Seafood Rice

Claypot Seafood Rice
Claypot Rice is a pretty standard Malaysian dish which is basically rice and your choice of meat (usually chicken) marinated in soy and oyster sauce cooked in a claypot. It’s a simple concept that yields delicious fluffy flavoursome rice, with lots of surprises within. 

This was probably my favourite rice dish to make during my years in university and once even whipped this up at 2am in the morning after a heavy night out with some friends who were visiting. Not very clever playing with fire when inebriated but when the craving hits, it really hits!

For those who don’t own a claypot, fret not as this dish can be easily replicated in a rice cooker (which I did when living abroad) or even on a pan, although there is the likelihood that you won’t get the semi-burnt crispy bits of soy infused rice at the bottom of the pan. 


 Marinade seafood/chicken, partially cook rice, sauce, seafood
Much like any one-pot meal, this is simple, hearty and so very delicious. 

Since embarking on a pescatarian diet, I decided to adapt my original recipe to suit my needs, so instead of the chicken, I replaced the protein for a mix of seafood namely prawns and squid.  I served this for lunch one weekend when my aunt and cousins turned up unexpectedly and it went down a treat. 


Claypot Chicken/Seafood Rice

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

1 stock cube, either chicken, fish or vegetable
2 tsp oyster sauce
500g mixed seafood/chicken pieces
A handful of mushrooms, sliced
¼ tsp ground black pepper
1/8 tsp salt
3cm ginger root, finely sliced
2 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
2 cups rice
2 cups water

Sauce 
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp cooking oil

Garnish
Spring onion, 1-2 stalks sliced
Fried onions, optional
Chillies, optional

Method
  1. Place chicken/seafood and mushrooms in a bowl. Add the crushed stock cube, oyster sauce, dark and light soy sauce, sesame oil, salt, pepper and ginger and mix well. Leave to marinade for ½ - 1 hour.
  2. Wash and cook rice in a claypot, rice cooker or in a pan until half cooked.
  3. When rice is half cooked, add the marinated chicken/seafood on top of the rice, pouring the marinade all over the rice. Cover with lid and leave to cook for a further 10 minutes. Do not mix the protein into the rice!
  4. In the meantime, prepare the sauce by mixing all the sauce ingredients in a bowl. At the end of the 10 minutes, remove lid, pour the sauce into the pot and cook until rice is done and meat/seafood is cooked through.
  5. Remove the pot from heat, leave the lid on and rest for 5 minutes.  Remove lid and mix the chicken/seafood and sauce into the rice.
  6. Top with spring onions, dried onions and sliced chillies.