Iconic dishes · Hainan
Wenchang Chicken & Hainan Chicken Rice
文昌鸡/海南鸡饭 — Hainan’s gift to Singapore: Wenchang chicken, poached and ice-shocked till silky, with rice fried in chicken fat and the ginger-scallion sauce that makes the…
The original Wenchang chicken is a free-range breed from the island’s northeast, poached whole and dunked in cold water so the skin sets jelly-tight against the meat. The rice is the co-star — fried in chicken fat and ginger, then cooked in the poaching broth — and the trio is completed by a ginger-scallion paste and dark soy with chili.
Singapore and Malaysia famously adopted the dish, but Hainan still owns the source: chicken farms around Wenchang, and restaurants across Sanya and Haikou serve it with island-style dipping sauces and a bowl of the broth alongside. Order the "white cut" version to taste the bird itself.
Where to eat it
- Wenchang chicken restaurants across Sanya and Haikou
- Old-town Haikou rice counters
Routes that eat their way here
More dishes to know
- Cantonese Roast Goose (烧鹅)
- Big Plate Chicken (Dapanji) (大盘鸡)
- Yangshuo Beer Fish (阳朔啤酒鱼)
- Guo Bao Rou (Sweet-Sour Crispy Pork) (锅包肉)
- Peking Duck (北京烤鸭)
- Hairy Crab (大闸蟹)