The Chicken Rice Capital of The World

Mention chicken rice to any Singaporean and it is likely that you elicit a paean to what many consider the national dish of Singapore (there are surprisingly many of those). Originating from the island of Hainan, from which many immigrants made their way to Singapore – the dish is simplicity itself. Whole chickens are boiled in a pork and chicken bone stock liberally laced with cloves of garlic and ginger. Separately, rice is prepared with a similar chicken stock – resulting in an oily but intensely flavourful rice. Both chicken and rice are served together, typically with slices of cucumber and soup broth derived from the stock. It is also common to eat this with chilli sauce and dark soya sauce as dipping condiments.

Because of its simplicity, I am of the opinion that there are no bad versions of this dish in Singapore. You just wouldn’t be in business otherwise – the competition would weed you out. You can’t compete on price because chicken rice is so commoditised that it is cheap almost everywhere. There are mediocre ones, sure, but you would have to know your stuff to tell them apart. And even then, the less fussy among us would definitely still eat those versions gladly.

The good versions, though, are a joy to eat, and take care in the preparation of all the different elements of the dish: the chicken, the rice, the chilli sauce, the soya sauce and the soup. I count myself very fortunate in the fact that in the immediate vicinity of my office there are several stars of the chicken rice world. As if lunchtime decisions weren’t difficult enough. But you don’t see me complaining.

Chin Chin

Chin Chin is located near the end of Purvis St, a (comparatively) large eating house always bustling at meal-times. If I had to pick a representative chicken rice as a first-time experience for anyone, this might be it. Both their boiled and roasted chicken are very good without being spectacular, the soup is very tasty, and the rice decent enough. Neither the rice nor the meats are overly oily, and the portions enough to satisfy without being too much. They also have evolved into a more typical tze char place and have a wider menu of alternative and side dishes than the other places on this review. Almost everything is decent to good, and I have rarely been disappointed going here. A trusty fallback with efficient service.

Yet Con

Directly across the street from Chin Chin, this is an old-school, more traditional Hainanese eating house. The furniture and the décor are both stuck in decades past, and the old man at the counter still insists on tabulating your total bill with the use of an abacus. You feel as if you’ve stepped into a time warp. But no matter what time of day you go there, there is often always a line, and with good reason. Yet Con is a little more traditionally Hainanese in that they use older birds, which tend to be springier and have a stronger poultry taste. Not everybody likes this: the Cantonese tend to like younger birds, which have more tender meat; and most palates in Singapore have been attuned to the milder, more agreeable taste of these younger birds. Yet Con also only does their chicken one style – boiled in stock – so there are no options of the roasted variety or other braised meats. But they do have an assortment of great Hainanese side dishes, including a spectacular Hainanese pork chop in tomato sauce; and the soup they provide with your meal is good and strong and has no hint of MSG or bouillon – which sadly happens to be a common shortcut taken by many others.

Old Swee Kee

There are names, and then there are names. Long before marketing became a management discipline, one brand stood head and shoulders above the rest in chicken rice hawker history. Swee Kee is to chicken rice what Chanel is to haute couture and Cartier is to timepieces: an affirmation of history, tradition and above all, excellence. But the word on the street is that the original Swee Kee clan has long since exited the business and hung up their cleavers, leaving a network of disciples, former cooks and distant relatives to carry on the tradition. And banking on the name is not such a bad idea – I am sure many of the people who come here are drawn by its allure. Old Swee Kee is located on Seah St across from Raffles Hotel – another venerable name in Singapore’s history, but I am unsure of its origins and its connection to the the real Swee Kee. Yet the stall is never very crowded, and from the one time I went there I could see why. All the components of the dish here are quite ordinary – not bad, but just ordinary. And in the chicken rice world, ordinary is a big sin.

Sin Swee Kee

Literally the “New Swee Kee”, this is located down the street from Old Swee Kee and has done a little better. It’s the age-old sales trick of bundling a good product with a bunch of other useless ones to increase revenue. I say this in jest, but in actual fact Sin Swee Kee does offer a “degustation” of chicken together with other various side dishes for parties of 4, 5, or 6. I’m not sure if you can order a la carte, and of the side dishes that I have tried, none have been spectacular apart from the steamed egg, and really, how hard can that dish be? In any case, the chicken here is very decent, and they provide ground garlic laced with spring onions that is a very delectable condiment indeed. The rice is somewhat lacklustre, and the soup almost devoid of flavour, but if you’re not a stuck-up snob like I am, you would enjoy this place very much.

I may have been harsher on the latter two stalls, but in actual fact if you take them in comparison with any other chicken rice versions across the island, I am sure they would be up there. But competition is stiff in the Bugis / City Hall area, and sometimes even good is not good enough. Objectively, I think the best version of chicken rice in Singapore is Tian Tian at Maxwell Hawker Centre; and personally my favourite is the chicken rice on the fifth floor of Far East Shopping Centre, but the versions around my workplace leave me no shortage of very respectable options if ever I crave this dish.