Cabbage Chicken Rice (古早味阿嬷包菜鸡肉饭)

Quick and easy dinner for tonight after rushing back home from work! Another a childhood dish taught to me by my mum. She'll cook it whenever she's busy with work.  😊

Recipe for 3 adults and 3 kids
Ingredients:

• 3 boneless chicken legs
• Half a medium size cabbage 
• 2 1/2 cups of rice 
• 6 cloves of garlic, skin on, washed and smashed
• Half cup of dry shrimps/haebi (rinsed and soaked with water. reserve water)
• Dry shiitake mushrooms (*optional. soaked to rehydrate. sliced and reseve water) 

Seasoning for chicken: 

• 1 1/2 tbsp light soya sauce
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce 
• 1 tbsp Sesame oil 
• 1 tbsp ginger juice 
• A dash of pepper and Chinese cooking wine 

Method:

1. Sliced chicken into pieces, about 2 inches big. You can use chicken boneless chicken legs with chicken breasts or fillets. Marinate chicken pieces with seasonings overnight or at least 4 hours. 
2. Rinse and soak dry shrimps. Wash and cut cabbage into smaller pieces. Rinse and smash garlic cloves. Wash rice and drained in colander and set aside. 
3. Heat oil in wok. Drained dry shrimps of water and set aside water for later use.  Stir fry garlic cloves and shrimps till fragrant. (Note: add sliced mushrooms to fry first if you're adding. I omitted this time.) 
4. Add cabbage to stirfry for two minutes. Add a tsp of salt and sugar and mix well. Add washed rice and stirfry for two mins. Add another tsp of salt, mix well and off heat. You do not have to cook the cabbage thoroughly as it will continue to cook in rice cooker. 
5. Transfer rice mixture to rice cooker. Add reserve water from dry shrimps and mushrooms to cook rice. Top up additional water if insufficient. Ratio of water to rice is 8.5:1. This means to add 85% cup of water to 1 cup of rice. The reason is that cabbage will release water when it is cooking. After adding water, place marinated chicken on top of rice and pour remaining marinate on chicken. Set rice cooker to cook. Check rice cooker after 20mins into cooking.  Give it a stir to ensure even cooking and another 1/2 tbsp of hot water if you feel that rice is dry. Off rice cooker when rice is cooked and let it sit for another 5 minutes before serving. Top with homemade fried shallots for added taste. ☺️

Note: I'm using Philips rice cooker. The cooking time for every rice cooker differs so please adjust accordingly to your own cooker. The time given is an estimation from my experience in cooking st home.