Com Ga Hoi An (Vietnamese Chicken Rice) is one of the signature dishes of Hoi An, a small ancient town in Central Vietnam. It features shredded chicken tossed with Vietnamese coriander, onions, and lime juice dressing. The chicken salad is then served with turmeric rice cooked directly in chicken stock. So tasty and refreshing!
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Hoi An, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was once a busy port with merchants coming from all over Asia such as Japan and China. As a result, its regional cuisine blends cultural influences from Southeast and East Asia with Vietnamese taste.
One of the most famous dishes of Hoi An is chicken rice (besides mì Quảng and cao lầu), which is full of flavors and textures. A plate of Hoi An chicken rice includes juicy shredded chicken, crunchy onions, refreshing Vietnamese coriander and beautiful yellow turmeric rice. The rice is so soft and flavorful since it is cooked directly in umami chicken stock.
Ingredients
To make this delicious rice dish from scratch, you will need a whole chicken or chicken parts with bones. You will also need long grain rice (preferably Jasmine rice), onion, Vietnamese coriander (rau răm), limes, and turmeric powder.
Vietnamese coriander (also called hot mint, Vietnamese mint, laksa leaf) is an essential ingredient in this dish and it can be found at Vietnamese grocery stores. It has a bright, lemony and slightly spicy note and goes so well with chicken. If you cannot find it, you may use cilantro or Thai basil, but the dish will taste a little different.
If you have time, I strongly recommend making this dish from scratch because the rice will taste the best with homemade chicken stock. Store bought stock just don’t have the same amount of flavors as well as richness from chicken fat.
Any leftover stock and meat from cooking a whole chicken can be used to make Vietnamese chicken pho noodle soup (pho ga) or bun thang Hanoi noodle soup.
How to Cook Vietnamese Chicken Rice (Com Ga Hoi An)
Making Com Ga Hoi An involves several steps but they are all easy and straightforward, especially if you have a rice cooker. The end result will be worth every effort!
Detailed measurements and instructions are in the recipe card at the end of the post. I will just discuss some important points in this section.
The first step is to cook the chicken. Once it is fully cooked, take it out, remove the meat from the bones and then add the bones back to the stock to continue extracting flavors. Don’t overcook the meat or it will not be juicy.
Once the chicken stock is ready, we will lightly sauté the rice with oil and turmeric powder. Then transfer the rice to the rice cooker and add as much chicken stock as required by your rice cooker. Hit the start button just like how you usually cook rice with your rice cooker.
I have a Zojirushi induction pressure rice cooker which cooks rice beautifully and keeps it warm with no deterioration in taste for a couple of days.
While waiting for the rice, slice the onion as thinly as you can. Then soak it in iced cold water with some lime juice added for at least 15 minutes. This helps keep the onion slices white as well as remove the raw onion taste.
The dressing is super simple, just fresh lime juice, salt, black pepper and a pinch of sugar (optional) to round out the flavors. Feel free to tweak the ratio of these ingredients to your liking. Toss shredded chicken, onion slices with the dressing and give it a few minutes to let the flavors meld.
Serving Vietnamese Chicken Rice (Com Ga Hoi An)
Once the rice is ready, add Vietnamese coriander leaves to the chicken salad and gently tossed. Adding Vietnamese coriander last to avoid bruising the leaves too much.
Stir and fluff the rice with a spatula, then place rice and chicken salad on serving plates. Now, time to enjoy the fruits of your labor.
Traditionally, Hoi An chicken rice also has a sauce made from sautéing chicken giblets with garlic and chicken stock. It is not easy to find chicken giblets even when buying a whole chicken in Western countries so I don’t make this sauce. Instead, I serve the chicken rice with soy sauce and a bowl of hot chicken stock as soup.
This dish is also served with julienned green papaya and carrots on the side in Hoi An. You can also serve it with pickled carrots and daikon radish if you want.
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