Chicken fat is the key to a good Hainanese chicken rice. The chicken fat adds so much flavor to the rice, you won’t believe it.
Collect. Trim any excess skin off of your thighs. I tend to collected a bunch of chicken skins, freeze them, then make a big batch of chicken fat and crispy chicken skin when I have a good amount. Every time you have a recipe that calls for boneless skinless, just save buy skin on, take the skins off and freeze them. Soon you’ll have a bunch of chicken skin perfect for this.
Chop. Use a sharp knife and chop the chicken skin into small 1/2 inch pieces. You can use a pair of scissors for this too.
Slowly render. Put all of the chicken skins in a non-stick (or cast iron) skillet, pot, or pan. I like using a pot to keep everything from splattering but it’ll be faster in a pan or skillet. Cover and cook on medium low for 15 minutes. The fat will start to render out and collect.
