KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 3 — Have you ever hit the jackpot before?
No, I’m not talking about the numbers game but more like hitting a winning combination for every element of an iconic dish like chicken rice.
Chicken rice may seem like a simple everyman’s meal of poached chicken served with rice, soup and dipping sauces, but done right, it’s like a majestic centrepiece in a banquet.
Find a worthy candidate for this greatness in Jalan Alor’s Pin Chen Hainanese Chicken Rice that has been feeding its regulars with their poached kampung chicken for 10 years plus.
In the eyes of tourists, Jalan Alor is where the hustle bustle of all kinds of food can be found as darkness falls.
In the morning, the quiet scene is a huge contrast as nearby residents take back their home turf to languorously sip on Chinese tea, tuck into a hot bowl of noodles or fill the stomach substantially with chicken rice for breakfast.
Finding this place is like playing a game of “spot the difference” as almost every restaurant sports a massive signboard with their menu offerings covering almost all of the shop’s frontage.
Look for Meng Kee Grill Fish in front or a smaller signboard on the walkway that states Pin Chen is inside the restaurant as a stall.
In the early days, about 40 years ago, it was just pan mee sold under the name Uncle Lim.
They have since expanded the menu to include more noodle dishes like lum mee, wantan mee and pork noodles, while Pin Chen offers kampung chicken rice, braised items like duck, pork, pig’s ear, egg and beancurd.
Like all comparisons, one must put the same type like kampung chicken side by side, for a proper analysis, rather than bring the usual poached chicken into the ring.
The two types of chicken rice are just different – flavour and texture – suiting different individuals’ preferences.
With skilled hands here, the free range chicken is prepared with just a slight bite to the meat, retaining its succulent texture and that all-important layer of gelatine under the smooth skin.
It needs just a mere whisper of soy sauce as one gets to taste the flavour of the chicken better.
The rice is brown in colour, a clear sign that chicken broth was used to cook it versus the typical yellowish tinge that indicates margarine.
Even the grains aren’t the broken small pieces but distinct and looking almost uncooked, giving texture to the rice that carries a hint of ginger.
There’s a bright red chilli sauce and their ginger sauce is an interesting green hue with the addition of probably spring onions.
It definitely has the ginger flavour, in a less pungent form and a fine smoothness with more time in the blender.
Even the clear broth was a surprise, as each spoonful revealed a delicate scent of herbs and a light chicken flavour that I happily drank it up, when I usually ignore the broth.
For a lower quarter cut, it was RM36 but bigger appetites can opt for the whole chicken for RM100 or a halved portion for RM55.
Solo diners can order their kampung chicken rice for RM14 and if you prefer the drumstick, it’s an extra RM2.
It’s not the cheapest in town but with that flavourful, succulent meat accompanied with the fragrant rice and sauces, it’s a keeper for kampung chicken rice fans who seek the unadulterated taste of chicken.
Pin Chen Hainanese Chicken Rice
29, Jalan Alor,
Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur.
Open: 8am to 3pm. Closed on Sunday
Tel: 016-3591943
* This is an independent review where the writer paid for the meal.
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