There's even free chicken soup too—“Hainanese Chicken Rice” with tender, juicy meat and a hint of wine aroma

Photos & Text /San Gao Eats Han

For lunch today, I was planning to keep things light. Although J sometimes gets half a smoked native chicken from Zhulian Market—the one we often buy is pretty good, but still quite oily—I thought of Hainanese chicken instead. So I decided to check out Cheng Ji on Minsheng Road on my own.

I arrived a bit early around 11 AM and somehow became the first customer. The young staff seemed quite youthful, probably in their twenties, but they were all very friendly. I heard the chef trained in Singapore and came back with his skills.

I just ordered the Hainanese chicken leg rice, and also asked them to cut half a chicken for me to take home later. I had to get a bowl of their free free-range chicken feet and peanut soup right away—it’s really generous with the ingredients.

The moment the chicken leg was served, I was mildly shocked—it’s really small... Served with sweet and sour pickled radish and crisp little cucumbers. When I took a bite of the chicken, it was very tender, and suddenly a thought popped into my head: the Chen Yuhua chicken I had in Korea used young chickens, and the texture felt quite similar.

I especially loved the chicken skin—it was smooth with a bit of thickness, and the meat was quite juicy. The soy sauce drizzled on top had a subtle sweetness, and I even detected a hint of wine flavor for extra taste? The sauce station only had dark soy sauce and chili sauce, but a bit of chili sauce on the chicken was also nice.

The chicken rice used Thai jasmine rice, which was a bit loose, but the chicken juice flavor wasn’t weak. You can drizzle a bit of the thick, slightly caramel-flavored dark soy sauce on top to enhance the taste.

Actually, what I liked most about this meal was the free chicken feet and peanut soup. It may be free, but it was really substantial—the soup was rich, the goji berries sweet, and the chicken feet were Q (chewy) and crisp. I ended up drinking two bowls~

The barley water—they actually used real Job’s tears, not barley~

After eating, I felt it was better to dine in, mainly because of the soup. Otherwise, the portion of meat is really not much—I’m almost embarrassed to say... Given the ratio of meat to rice, I could easily eat three portions of meat~

The half chicken I took home was packed into two lunchboxes, but the portion still wasn’t that big (it really is a small chicken..). Because it was so light, I accidentally polished off another box in the afternoon. The breast meat was noticeably more dry.

Cheng Ji Authentic Hainanese Chicken Rice
Address: No. 169, Minsheng Road, East District, Hsinchu City
Business Hours: 11:00 AM–2:00 PM, 4:30 PM–8:30 PM (Closed Mondays)

Savor Taiwan, one delicious bite at a time
San Gao Eats Han’s Food Journey　San Gao Fan Page

Delicious food all day long
Download the “ETtoday News Cloud APP” for the latest food updates→
iOS:https://goo.gl/rmIDdx
Android:https://goo.gl/XPe8Uj