Claypot Rice

Claypot rice is a dish that requires some patience. Made to order, with rice cooked in a claypot over charcoal, it takes about 20 mins. Usually cooked with chicken, Chinese sausage, salted fish and vegetables on top of the rice, other meat options may also be available. The slow cooking enables the flavour from these food to seep into the rice, giving it extra flavour. Some rice adhering to the pot would be charred, making them crispy. It is a must to scrape these and add them to the mix, this is the beauty of a claypot rice.

A bottle of dark sauce, and oil would be provided upon delivery of food. The routine for me after this would be:

1. Remove chicken pieces and sausage from pot (optional)

2. Add dark sauce and oil to rice. Adding less initially allows you to add more if required, there's no turning back if too much is added!

3. Stir rice to give it a mix, scrape off charred rice from pot. Mix well. (mandated 😎)

4. Add chicken and sausage back to rice, mix it around some more so that they are evenly spread

5. Serve!

Of course, you can skip steps 1 and 2. Adding some oil to the rice to add some moisture would be good.

Yew Chuan

Lian He Ben Ji

Claypot Rice

Nov 2021

Perfectly burnt, fragrant, tasty and lots of ingredients. Personal favourite.

You will smell the fragrance from this claypot rice stall at the hawker centre, the smell of claypot char and cooked salted fish fills the air. The claypot rice here is served with chicken pieces, Chinese sausages, and of course, some salted fish, one big piece of salted fish actually.

Every order takes about 15-20 minutes as it is made to order, the hallmark of a legit claypot stall. You order by size (number of persons), tell them your table number, and they’d provide free delivery to the table… Two tubs of oil and soy sauce are given when they deliver, you should use them, pour as much as you want, don’t overdo it though! The oil gives it a glistening texture as the rice can be quite dry so you should put enough; the dark sauce adds a subtle taste, too much can be a bit bitter.

The first thing you’d do after adding the oil and sauce would be to give the pot a good mix, scrapping burnt rice from the sides and bottom of the pot is a must for me. The beauty of a claypot rice is to eat and taste the crispy burnt rice, and this is one of the criteria that separates the good ones and takes a bit of skill. Yew Chuan’s is cooked just right, not charred but crispy burnt, biting into some crispy bits now and then gives me an enormous amount of satisfaction… love it!

While mixing, you might also want to take the big piece of salted fish, dissect it and spread it evenly around, one big piece in a mouthful is too much of a good thing! Better to spread it around.

With claypot rice, there is always the worry that you get cheated with not enough meat; that is not a worry here. In fact, I had so much meat in my bowl I wanted to scoop just rice and that was not easy! Lots of chicken pieces, plenty of sausage and liver sausage, and a huge piece of salted fish that adds fragrance and taste.

Chicken was also cooked just right, tender and juicy. It is not difficult to make a claypot rice, but to do it well with the burnt portion not too much, not too burnt, and having the chicken remaining tender and juicy, that requires some attention and heart. Yew Chuan does these well. Tops!

Yew Chuan Claypot Rice

505 Beach Road, #01-73 Golden Mile Food Centre, s199583

12 – 830pm (starts 3pm on weekdays), closed on Mon and Thu.

Lian He Ben Ji

Claypot Rice

Aug 2023

The original must try claypot rice

This was my first experience as an adult at claypot rice. Here with my school mates then, I witnessed their ritual of how to mix a claypot and thought wow, claypot rice eating was an event! I later found out this friend was just a bit too particular….

There has always been a bit of a wait, from 30-50 minutes for the claypot rice here as they would only cook upon order, the earmark of a true claypot rice stall. However, they have a contact and you can call ahead, just be responsible to arrive ahead of time, you would definitely want to consume it while its hot too.

Ordering here is simple, as there are just 3 options, and only the last one makes sense unless you have dietary restrictions. Chicken, Chinese sausage, or a mix of both. Obvious to go for the mix, the sausages would add extra flavour, but not meaty, which the chicken pieces provide. There are Chinese style boiled soup available, just order any that fancies you... they're all good soup!

Now, the ritual, always, the rice would come in a claypot… together with a bottle/pot/jar of cooking oil and dark sauce. Both are technically optional but I have yet to know anyone not using them. Just common sense, but pouring less would be advised, as you can always add more, whilst you can’t recall oil or dark sauce once poured.

My friend would take out all the chicken pieces and Chinese sausages, out onto a dish, also always given, leaving the salted fish. There seemed to be no use for this bigger dish except for this purpose, that was why I was a little awed by his actions. He would then pour the oil and dark sauce onto the rice and start mixing, making sure to scrape as much if the burnt rice sticking to the claypot as possible. When done, the ingredients would be returned for further mixing.

One important piece of advice, do make sure the small salted fish pieces are well split and mixed throughout, they provide taste. And if not done so, good luck to the person that took the whole piece of salted fish thinking it is chicken! And the rest of the claypot would lack punch.

You got to love the burnt rice to really enjoy claypot rice, they give some crunch and taste, we all love it. One even said what would be the point of eating claypot rice if you don’t eat the charred bits.

The ones here were easily scrapped off, otherwise you might have to work up some sweat doing it. The chicken pieces were fresh and tasty, nicely cooked to retain some succulence. The Chinese sausages could be better but were tasty enough.

They offer a variety of common soup with Chinese flavours, they were quite intense and good company with the claypot rice at a good bargain price of $2.50 per pot. Well worth considering, this coming from a Cantonese boy who don’t usually like soup…

This had been my go-to place for a claypot rice, whenever I can convince friends to endure the wait, we would come here. In fact, after knowing the Mrs. Ziggy’s family, they asked where I wanted for my first birthday spent with them, here….

Lian He Ben Ji Claypot Rice

335 Smith St, #02-198/199 Chinatown Complex, Singapore 050335

3pm – 9pm, closed on Thu

Pre-order: 6227-2470