Hey guys, a few notes: 1. The claypot we used in the video is actually available on Amazon, though it's quite pricey ($50 lol... the same claypot is like the equivalent of $5 here in Shunde). So definitely do check out your local Chinese supermarket first (sometimes they'll have pots and such), but unlike something like a random ingredient, the Amazon premium is at least theoretically justifiable for a piece of equipment. www.amazon.com/Handmade-Chinese-Traditional-Casserole-Porridge/dp/B09GQVMJ42/ 2. This is a glazed claypot. Glazed claypots from other cultures should work fine (e.g. Korean claypots). The rice texture will be good no matter what if you follow the recipe, you may just need to play around with the recipe in order to get that nice crust. 3. I have also heard that enameled cast iron can do a very similar job with this dish, though I don't have any experience with it myself (enameled cast iron = $$). I think someone cast iron would also potentially work. Again, same deal... if you're using something non-standard here the rice texture should still be fine, but you might need to experiment a bit with your set-up for idea crisping. 4. The restaurant Steph is referring to in Hong Kong is called 永合成 or "Wing Hop Sing". Very nice Bo Zai Fan (cn.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g294217-d10156955-Reviews-Wing_Hop_Sing_Restaurant-Hong_Kong.html ). The restaurant that we took footage of in Shunde is unfortunately not on Dianping, though it's right around the corner from Yongfeng Market in Lunjiao. 5. Looking at 永合成's beef and egg claypot rice cutting this video, they appear to slice the beef into smaller pieces than we did in this video, which I think is a nice idea. Would combine better with the rice, I'll probably do that when making this for myself next time. 6. Do check out the "equipment" section of the written recipe in the description box for advice on doing this on different kinds of stoves. It is possible to do this on an induction, but it will be kind klugey. 7. For a vegetarian option, try topping things with some soaked fuzhu (a.k.a. tofu skin/yuba), reconstituted wood ear mushroom, and some soaked red dates. That's all I can think of for now :)
any special maintaining the claypot requires? like any special steps before cooking, after cooking, for cleaning (for example you would never use detergent on a cast iron pan, maybe clay pots have something similar)
Thanks for the oven idea. I have an induction stove top and have made Le Crueset rice. Quite a good bottom, but the sides were a bit stuck on. Will have to try your oil around the sides trick.
I remember back in the early 2000s in Chinatown, NYC. I would get Salted Fish & Chicken w/ Black Bean Sauce claypot rice for $7 bucks take out. And the best part of it all, I got to keep the claypot itself!
I tried this in a Korean clay pot (what I had), with pork belly instead of beef (again, what I had). I've never had such delicious rice. 11/10, I'm telling all my friends. Big thank you for the great recipe that is friendly for home cooks. It is a testament to the recipe that I was able to make it perfectly on the first try. Big thank you!
I make my rice in a Donabe. The directions say to rinse 2 1/4 cups rice. Put it in the clay pot and add 2 1/2 cups of COLD water. Cover it and let it soak for 20 mins. Then cook on medium high heat for 20-25 mins. As soon as the steam pours out of the little hole, you can cook it for 5 mins longer to get that wonderful crust. I use short grain rice from Japan. It it the best rice I have ever eaten. I am looking forward to trying your recipe. It looks so yummy. Thank you for a very informative video.
I was totally expecting to see the dog and instead it was the cat! 😆 Adorable!!! This is a great recipe! I’m going to have my son try it out! He loves clay pot rice and we recently bought a clay pot which I love cooking with! Thanks for sharing! 😃
Pro tip: I have an electric stove, like a lot of Americans do. I use my Staub pots to replicate a clay pot. You can use a clay pot with a heat diffuser, but I find that's kind of annoying and the sides of the pot don't get hot enough, so with something like this you'd basically only brown the small flatish part of the bottom. I actually sub Staub cookware for *a lot* of Chinese cookware. You don't need as much oil as you would with stainless cookware, but you obviously get better browning than you would with nonstick. Most Chinese cookware is also made to be used over a flame, so a rounded bottom makes sense. Things like woks for electric stoves are garbage. The whole point of a wok is more surface area. If you give a wok a flat bottom you have less. An enameled cast iron skillet is a great substitute. (A standard cast iron skillet will also work, assuming it's seasoned well, and you don't mind re-seasoning it often because a fair amount of Chinese dishes will strip the seasoning, and assuming you don't kill the seasoning, you don't mind the seasoning tasting like Chinese food. A lot of people consider high end ECI cookware a pretentious luxury, but it has huge, huge advantages, many of which are pretty surprising.)
I've made this a bunch of times but I FINALLY nailed the crispy rice at the bottom. Truly amazing. You guys are easily the most underrated foodtube channel.
I make mine on a gas grill, mostly using the method for the charcoal grill but with some changes if I recall correctly. Nestling the clay pot between the burners and rotating during stages gets that nice crust on the sides and it comes out beautifully. The single serving pots fit perfectly but I want to try making a big 'family' portion soon and that's going to complicate things.
Interesting. I’ve been using the same oven method with a small Dutch oven for pretty much the same result too. But I set the oven temperature much lower (300F) for much longer, usually over an hour (I check to see if enough soccarat is formed instead of relying on timers). And yes I do finish on stove top too but it’s more for caramelizing the soccarat. The oven creates it nice and thick and even but it’s less caramelized than what I prefer. As of rice to water ratio I always well soak my rice first, then add enough water so it’s even height with the rice. That’s usually just enough for me. I use the same methods if I’m cooking rice in a well sealed pot too, like when I’m making jambalayas or paella. It is less related to the shape of the rice and pretty handy to eyeball. Also my favorite topping is 腊鸡腊肠双拼. Though it’s really hard to source 腊鸡 in the states 🤷♂️
Crusty rice is also a thing in persian cooking, like the saffron-flavoured tachin. I had some success there with a non-stick bread-tin, foil and an oven. (Not having the persian rice cooker with a "crisp"-setting)
I love this - in fact any recipe that uses the oven is immediately a favourite because it keeps my stove clear for stir frying the vegetables. Brilliant work as always!
I enjoyed this, thanks! I've eaten claypot rice in my (almost) local Chinese restaurant/centre. It was very delicious. As a lover of rice dishes, I can see a common theme in many rice dishes across numerous cultures: Chinese claypot, paella, Korean dolsot bibimbap, even Iranian saffron rice - they all enjoy the toasting of the rice at the bottom of the pan - the Spanish even have a word for it, 'soccarat'! Cheers Tony
I really love this channel, you guys put so much effort into research, and also you share it and make it easy for us to know these recipes, really love it!! Nice content!
I wish I could like this video more than once. It's almost grilling season, and while I did make it a point to make claypot rice everytime we grilled, it still wasn't often enough. I'll be sure to try this out asap :
I make claypot rice at home a lot on a gas burner but it never, ever would have occurred to me to use an oven. I have to say my rice crust is somewhat hit or miss too. Will definitely try your method and all your cool little tweaks.
Good morning from Texas I just cook chicken mushrooms rice exactly as your recipes, 😳 my rice is perfect 👍, I did try many times before but your recipe is amazing good Thankfully
There’s a very similar dish called "tahdig" in iranian cuisine - it consists of a crunchy layer of rice at the bottom of the pot with sometimes other things added such as yogurt or potatoes - and saffron for taste and more importantly color.
Ok, ive made this a half dozen times so far, and I have some feedback: 1) I prefer about 10-20% less rice. 2) It's a great dish, but isnt quite a "1 pot meal" ... it needs a vegetable side or better still something like a bon chon assortment of pickled fare. 3) As mentioned previously, mentsuyu base works fine as a garnishing condiment sauce.
Thank you so much for explaining how to get the rice to water ratio right. I tried making clay pot rice once band it was too, but didn’t have the crunchy bottom. I will try your method next time.
Nice! I've tried Shao Z's recipe for claypot rice on Serious Eats, which was developed with an enameled cast iron pot in mind, and it worked pretty well. That one's entirely on the stovetop and it does take some trial and error to balance the rice cooking time, so I'm actually curious to try doing part of the cooking in the oven like you guys did. Will experiment and report back!
I'll have to check out that recipe! I've done this channel's original charcoal recipe with a clay pot on a portable gas stove and that worked pretty well. I then tried it on my electric stove with my tetsu nabe pot (I replaced the loose wooden lid with an overturned bowl that fit just right) and it turned out great!
I'd love to learn about different kinds of toppings for this dish, including vegetarian ones. It looks like such a fun and tasty base dish to vary with! Thanks for showing us
That looks beautiful. I'll try the enamelled cast iron concept out; I have a lot of cast iron, they can be picked up really cheaply at second-hand shops (thrift stores) or car-boot sales (sort of like garage sales).
You know, it never occurred to me that I could get clay pot rice anywhere BUT home. I live in a city that is famous for not having enough good Chinese restaurants, so I've got to make do on my own. I know I make it better than the place down the street from me, mine actually has a crust on the bottom. I learned a lot from Wang Gang. I learned more here! This channel is a valuable resource to me. I have a good Chinese grocery near me, and I'm ready to learn. I wish you'd do a video on basic Chinese soups. You say in some videos "whip up a pan soup", but I have no clue what that entails!
I had been waiting for this episode for a while. I love 煲仔饭, and the food served at 啫啫 restaurants, which shared the same claypot. I hope you will one day introduce the joys of other 啫啫 dishes to the western audience 😂
Love it. I remember that first claypot rice video that came out in the early days of CCD and me going like wow I love claypot rice but the charcoal grill is not happening haha. Def will make this at some point and will have to find the old claypot rice pot to use the oven method on. Love the tilting method to get the crisp on the rice on the sides of the claypot at the end and I've seen a restaurant or two in SGV that have special angled claypot rice "wok ring"-esque device that helps with holding the pot in the angled position for heat application when using a gas stove. Also what side are you on, immediately go after the crisp or wait until the end to eat it? I go straight for it because my belief is that leaving it will allow for the steam in the moist rice above it to penetrate downwards and make it less crispy and a little chewy. Less 脆 and more 韌 XD
I usually wait until the middle/end (as the rice is super hot at first, so I go topping+mixed with a little rice at first then start working down), but I kind of get what you mean. Something Steph likes doing is swirling the seasoned soy sauce around the very edges of the claypot so that it caramelizes and combines with the rice crust - which I can totally understand being good - but for me it ruins the... purity... of the rice crispy texture haha. That said, I'm a pretty quick eater (nothing to be proud of, generally speaking), so that might be one of the reasons why I don't notice much issue with the rice crust by the time I get to it.
5:10 SHORTCUT - looking at the ingredients, you could just replace everything in your seasoned soy sauce garnish with 1 tbsp Mentsuyu Base (read: undiluted zarusoba dipping sauce) plus 1 tsp water. Seriously, msg is extracted from kelp, and fish sauce is from anchovies, whereas the dashi used in mentsuyu uses kombu seaweed and bonito flakes, so both the fish and the msg are already there. Not exact, but close and easy. I keep homemade mentsuyu in my fridge.
This sounds really good my grandmother used to make tuna casserole with rice and mushroom soup because the rice was cooked in the soup and not water the edges would get super crisp the extra crusty edge pieces we're always the best part so a dish that captures that vibe would definitely make good comfort food. Now I just wanna make tuna casserole and put an egg on top
Can you please show how you would do the traditional chicken with sausage and mushroom clay pot in this format? I'd love to see how to prep the chicken and when you add it? Thank you ❤
Ive gotten fairly good using a clay pot on a gas stove. I do 1 rice cup of rice to 1 rice cup of water. I let it soak 30-60 min and then fire up the stove. Cover and watch the steam through the hole and use your nose. While steaming it will smell like rice and whwn it dries out it will start changing into smoke. While it steams work your meat and vege in another pan. I like chinese sausage, king trumpet mushrooms and green onion. Anything works really. Once you notice/smell smoke or see theres no more steam open the pot and pour a thin stream of seseame seed oil around the edge. Put the toppings on the rice and recover. Go back yo watchng and sniffing. When you smell a slight burning do another round of oil. After that cooks you are done. I bring that to the table and finish with a quick sauce made of hoisen and soy sauce. That sauce will actually help separate the rice from the pot too. Mix it up and youre good to go.
Dear Ms Stephanie, thank u for this wonderful cuisine. May i know whether i substitute beef with chicken meat. Awaiting for a favourable reply. Thank u
Thank you sooo much for sharing this. I love the recipes you both share and it's easy to adapt to what we have in Australia as well. The texture of the crispy rice is to DIE for. Thankfully, we have some great markets with excellent quality clay pots to try this.
Do you guys have any tips on using/maintaining a clay pot? I know you have to soak it for several hours after you first buy it. Do you soak it before each use too?
Thank you very much for the video. Could you please share which 'outdoor' gas-stove you use for the claypot? Thank you in advance. Greetings from Holland.
This is actually very similar to my method of making biryani. It's the same concept. Slightly precooked rice and baked in an oven. You could cook it over a stove. But the oven, I feel makes for a better product
Thanks for the instructive recipe ... i'm eager to try it out. 🥰 COMMENT regarding Kansui (aka Kansui Water, liquid), Sodium Carbonate (powder), and Baking Soda (Sodium Bicarbonate, powder). While I'm sure all three work fine, it is important to note that all three are chemically different, and DIFFER CONSIDERABLY IN STRENGTH ... in other words, they are NOT directly interchangeable on a 1:1 basis, either by weight, or by volume. I recommend revisiting that ingredient, and researching an appropriate conversion between all 3. Also, it might make sense to include pengui powder as a 4th option, for those inside china. Cheers.
Great job on the basic recipe and technique. REQUEST: since your basic recipe is for sliced beef, I was wondering if you had variants to share that use say, chicken, or seafood, or perhaps sausage, or whatever was featured in the thumbnail pic.
This looks so nice and so simple. I really am making an effort to simplify my Asian style cooking. Westerners stem put too many ingredients in I think.
Closest thing I can find in my area is a Korean clay pot (aka a "ttukbaegi") by Surlasang Royal Chef. Size #3 seems closest to the size called for in your recipe. It cost me $10.50 usd at my local korean/Asian supermarket.
I'm curious about the comment about most kitchens in Guangzhou not having an oven - I had assumed that was a universal thing! What does the cooking setup in the average Guangzhou kitchen look like?
Pretty similar otherwise. The average kitchen will have a gas stove, two burners, ~13-18k BTUs. The grate is open to allow for holding round bottomed woks. There is usually no dish washer, but there is sometimes a dish dryer. One nice feature that the average kitchen has that the US doesn't is an exhaust hood over the stove that - critically - actually vents *outside* of the apartment. The exhaust will go up into a main tube and vents out on the roof of the building. I know some modern houses in the USA have real hoods, but I know it's unfortunately quite rare in older apartment buildings over there.
The first thing I noticed when I moved from Guangdong to Shanghai was that in Shanghai my apartment had a western style oven 😁 even though the two apartments looked quite similar
AMAZING - first video I watched from your channel. Planning to make this for my gua lo and gua po. Subscribed. Tor jie lei :) From Hongkonger from Australia
How much water depends on the ingredients you are using imo. If you are using dried sausages lap mei I tend to add a little more water compared to wetter ingredients like beef or chicken / mushroom. Claypots are porous and you get that charcoaly flavour if you are doing the traditional method. Claypot specialist restaurants/stalls go through hundreds a week because of the constant high heat of the flame.
To replicate the smoky charcoal-cooked flavor and fragrance, I wonder if doing a quick dhungar would work? To finish off some Indian, Thai, and SEA dishes you burn a small chunk of charcoal inside the lidded cooking vessel for just a couple minutes. I love that flavor so am tempted to give it a shot and try to not go overboard! haha
Thank you!! I was beginning to think I’d be more likely to stumble upon the ark of the covenant than get detailed instructions for making this at home. Very appreciated!
For future videos, Mise en Place is pronounced "MEE-zohn-plahss," not "MEE-zay-ohn-plahss" because there is no acute accent over the "Mise." I thought you'd want to know. Love this video, and using it tonight for my clay pot rice for the family.
I love all your cooking and have done many of them but a fan of Chinese cooking the only one that I love but have failed at many times making is duck do you have a simple duck roasted recipe ?
Thank you for all the great Chinese cooking videos. Clay pot rice using a oven is an excellent idea. What do you think about using a cast iron pot (dutch oven) instead of the clay pot. Unfortunately, i have an induction stove top. Clay dont work.
Regarding cooking with a clay pot over induction or glass-top stove: I have used an iron skillet, inverted, over the burner as a heat diffuser, which works to perfection. Make sure you don't have anything stuck to the inside of the skillet, though, or you will have a very smoky experience until it chars away!
Yes. As long as they are cast iron. Do a UA-cam search and you will find videos on that. Most use Le Creuset cassrole mainly because the brand is popular.
This is only speculation, but: since the recipe has to be finished in the oven, I suspect that the same clay pot that is used in Chinese cuisine could also be used to make a French onion soup!
Not so much taste, but rather claypots are porous(?) and will impart the smokiness of the charcoal much better than metal pots for example, and of course being claypots it has a lot of character. Claypots also retains heat much better as well But my 5 cents is just that this is such a traditional recipe that originated from ancient Chinese times, at a basis it’s just a vessel for which rice was cooked in. So the technique just stuck as a method of cooking it.
Aren't really flavor if you aren't using charcoal, claypot heats up evenly relative to other kind of pots/pans(To create that mostly even crust at the bottom). The essence of claypot rice is the crispy crackly rice crust.
This should also work on a nice thick cast iron or carbon steel pan right? Bigger bottom area should mean more socarrat. With a well fitting lid of course. Oh and this probably takes away the need for the oven as the sides are low and it's not a big deal to miss the socarrat formation up the sides.
Hey guys, a few notes:
1. The claypot we used in the video is actually available on Amazon, though it's quite pricey ($50 lol... the same claypot is like the equivalent of $5 here in Shunde). So definitely do check out your local Chinese supermarket first (sometimes they'll have pots and such), but unlike something like a random ingredient, the Amazon premium is at least theoretically justifiable for a piece of equipment. www.amazon.com/Handmade-Chinese-Traditional-Casserole-Porridge/dp/B09GQVMJ42/
2. This is a glazed claypot. Glazed claypots from other cultures should work fine (e.g. Korean claypots). The rice texture will be good no matter what if you follow the recipe, you may just need to play around with the recipe in order to get that nice crust.
3. I have also heard that enameled cast iron can do a very similar job with this dish, though I don't have any experience with it myself (enameled cast iron = $$). I think someone cast iron would also potentially work. Again, same deal... if you're using something non-standard here the rice texture should still be fine, but you might need to experiment a bit with your set-up for idea crisping.
4. The restaurant Steph is referring to in Hong Kong is called 永合成 or "Wing Hop Sing". Very nice Bo Zai Fan (cn.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g294217-d10156955-Reviews-Wing_Hop_Sing_Restaurant-Hong_Kong.html ). The restaurant that we took footage of in Shunde is unfortunately not on Dianping, though it's right around the corner from Yongfeng Market in Lunjiao.
5. Looking at 永合成's beef and egg claypot rice cutting this video, they appear to slice the beef into smaller pieces than we did in this video, which I think is a nice idea. Would combine better with the rice, I'll probably do that when making this for myself next time.
6. Do check out the "equipment" section of the written recipe in the description box for advice on doing this on different kinds of stoves. It is possible to do this on an induction, but it will be kind klugey.
7. For a vegetarian option, try topping things with some soaked fuzhu (a.k.a. tofu skin/yuba), reconstituted wood ear mushroom, and some soaked red dates.
That's all I can think of for now :)
any special maintaining the claypot requires? like any special steps before cooking, after cooking, for cleaning (for example you would never use detergent on a cast iron pan, maybe clay pots have something similar)
How would this change with brown rice? Unfortunately, this diabetic can’t handle white rice anymore, but I’m dying to taste clay pot rice again!
Thanks for the oven idea. I have an induction stove top and have made Le Crueset rice. Quite a good bottom, but the sides were a bit stuck on. Will have to try your oil around the sides trick.
Thank you! So wonderful of you to add these thourghly excellent tips! 😋 😋 😋
Thank you for the veggie suggestion! I was going to ask in a comment. Love wood ear and I have some tofu skin sitting around that needs to be used!
One of the most goated couple on youtube fr
Steph & Chris da 🐐 no 🧢
The hosts: goated with the sauce
Their food: coated with the sauce
I remember back in the early 2000s in Chinatown, NYC. I would get Salted Fish & Chicken w/ Black Bean Sauce claypot rice for $7 bucks take out. And the best part of it all, I got to keep the claypot itself!
Had no idea NYC even had a bozaifan spot, when i lived there i would always crave it and only had it when i traveled to HK
what a deal!
Omg restaurant name?!?
7 bucks only?!?!?!
@@Ohyeahhahaha Yeah, but this was 20+ years ago when everything was cheaper.
I tried this in a Korean clay pot (what I had), with pork belly instead of beef (again, what I had). I've never had such delicious rice. 11/10, I'm telling all my friends. Big thank you for the great recipe that is friendly for home cooks. It is a testament to the recipe that I was able to make it perfectly on the first try. Big thank you!
Just used this technique at home. Cast iron enamel pot, induction hob, toaster oven. Came out perfectly
I make my rice in a Donabe. The directions say to rinse 2 1/4 cups rice. Put it in the clay pot and add 2 1/2 cups of COLD water. Cover it and let it soak for 20 mins. Then cook on medium high heat for 20-25 mins. As soon as the steam pours out of the little hole, you can cook it for 5 mins longer to get that wonderful crust. I use short grain rice from Japan. It it the best rice I have ever eaten. I am looking forward to trying your recipe. It looks so yummy. Thank you for a very informative video.
I was totally expecting to see the dog and instead it was the cat! 😆 Adorable!!! This is a great recipe! I’m going to have my son try it out! He loves clay pot rice and we recently bought a clay pot which I love cooking with! Thanks for sharing! 😃
The cat tripped me out too. I was def expecting the Schnauzer
that always freaks me out seeing that dog near the food while being cooked, now a cat! Yikes. I'm not sure if I want to eat Stef's food now.
Pro tip: I have an electric stove, like a lot of Americans do. I use my Staub pots to replicate a clay pot. You can use a clay pot with a heat diffuser, but I find that's kind of annoying and the sides of the pot don't get hot enough, so with something like this you'd basically only brown the small flatish part of the bottom.
I actually sub Staub cookware for *a lot* of Chinese cookware. You don't need as much oil as you would with stainless cookware, but you obviously get better browning than you would with nonstick. Most Chinese cookware is also made to be used over a flame, so a rounded bottom makes sense. Things like woks for electric stoves are garbage. The whole point of a wok is more surface area. If you give a wok a flat bottom you have less. An enameled cast iron skillet is a great substitute. (A standard cast iron skillet will also work, assuming it's seasoned well, and you don't mind re-seasoning it often because a fair amount of Chinese dishes will strip the seasoning, and assuming you don't kill the seasoning, you don't mind the seasoning tasting like Chinese food. A lot of people consider high end ECI cookware a pretentious luxury, but it has huge, huge advantages, many of which are pretty surprising.)
I've made this a bunch of times but I FINALLY nailed the crispy rice at the bottom. Truly amazing. You guys are easily the most underrated foodtube channel.
The dog turned into a cat! 😮😋
Tried this with shrimp instead of beef. First clay pot experience and it was amazing!
I make mine on a gas grill, mostly using the method for the charcoal grill but with some changes if I recall correctly. Nestling the clay pot between the burners and rotating during stages gets that nice crust on the sides and it comes out beautifully.
The single serving pots fit perfectly but I want to try making a big 'family' portion soon and that's going to complicate things.
Interesting. I’ve been using the same oven method with a small Dutch oven for pretty much the same result too. But I set the oven temperature much lower (300F) for much longer, usually over an hour (I check to see if enough soccarat is formed instead of relying on timers). And yes I do finish on stove top too but it’s more for caramelizing the soccarat. The oven creates it nice and thick and even but it’s less caramelized than what I prefer.
As of rice to water ratio I always well soak my rice first, then add enough water so it’s even height with the rice. That’s usually just enough for me. I use the same methods if I’m cooking rice in a well sealed pot too, like when I’m making jambalayas or paella. It is less related to the shape of the rice and pretty handy to eyeball.
Also my favorite topping is 腊鸡腊肠双拼. Though it’s really hard to source 腊鸡 in the states 🤷♂️
Crusty rice is also a thing in persian cooking, like the saffron-flavoured tachin. I had some success there with a non-stick bread-tin, foil and an oven. (Not having the persian rice cooker with a "crisp"-setting)
Good gravy, *such* a solid explanation. Massive props to all of the backend trials and errors -- although delicious -- which were completed for this.
I love this - in fact any recipe that uses the oven is immediately a favourite because it keeps my stove clear for stir frying the vegetables. Brilliant work as always!
I enjoyed this, thanks! I've eaten claypot rice in my (almost) local Chinese restaurant/centre. It was very delicious. As a lover of rice dishes, I can see a common theme in many rice dishes across numerous cultures: Chinese claypot, paella, Korean dolsot bibimbap, even Iranian saffron rice - they all enjoy the toasting of the rice at the bottom of the pan - the Spanish even have a word for it, 'soccarat'!
Cheers
Tony
Thanks for the new word! The Mandarin / Cantonese for it is guo-ba / fan-jiu :)
Thank you for sharing your method. I will try it this way next time.
this is very helpful! I have a glasstop stove so getting it crispy is always a struggle so I'll definitely try this method
This is amazing knowledge to give to your viewers. I'd like to thank you sincerely.
Thank you got your clear explanations with hacks for western kitchens!
I was always curious about how this might be made at home. It looks so delicious! Thank you!
I really love this channel, you guys put so much effort into research, and also you share it and make it easy for us to know these recipes, really love it!! Nice content!
Made this last night. It was FANTASTIC and your process is really helpful and easy to execute !
I wish I could like this video more than once.
It's almost grilling season, and while I did make it a point to make claypot rice everytime we grilled, it still wasn't often enough.
I'll be sure to try this out asap :
Put this on PBS and it would be the new hit cooking series on the station.
Nice video...thanks for all the work you both do!
I make claypot rice at home a lot on a gas burner but it never, ever would have occurred to me to use an oven. I have to say my rice crust is somewhat hit or miss too. Will definitely try your method and all your cool little tweaks.
Good morning from Texas I just cook chicken mushrooms rice exactly as your recipes, 😳 my rice is perfect 👍, I did try many times before but your recipe is amazing good
Thankfully
Made this for dinner last night in a korean earthenware pot and it was superb! Thanks for sharing such a great dish
There’s a very similar dish called "tahdig" in iranian cuisine - it consists of a crunchy layer of rice at the bottom of the pot with sometimes other things added such as yogurt or potatoes - and saffron for taste and more importantly color.
salaam bache kooni!
And in spain, paella.
Cook in the oven? Brilliant Idea! Thank you for sharing!
I used smoked lard I made whilst BBQing to give it that smokey edge
Again, thank you for this amazingly detailed content. I have learned so much from your channel and it has made me a much better cook.
Ok, ive made this a half dozen times so far, and I have some feedback:
1) I prefer about 10-20% less rice.
2) It's a great dish, but isnt quite a "1 pot meal" ... it needs a vegetable side or better still something like a bon chon assortment of pickled fare.
3) As mentioned previously, mentsuyu base works fine as a garnishing condiment sauce.
Thank you so much for explaining how to get the rice to water ratio right. I tried making clay pot rice once band it was too, but didn’t have the crunchy bottom. I will try your method next time.
Nice! I've tried Shao Z's recipe for claypot rice on Serious Eats, which was developed with an enameled cast iron pot in mind, and it worked pretty well. That one's entirely on the stovetop and it does take some trial and error to balance the rice cooking time, so I'm actually curious to try doing part of the cooking in the oven like you guys did. Will experiment and report back!
I'll have to check out that recipe! I've done this channel's original charcoal recipe with a clay pot on a portable gas stove and that worked pretty well. I then tried it on my electric stove with my tetsu nabe pot (I replaced the loose wooden lid with an overturned bowl that fit just right) and it turned out great!
Have you tried it out yet?
I grew up with various kinds of claypot dish. I love them all! Claypot rice, claypot tofu, etc. They are comfort food for me.
I'd love to learn about different kinds of toppings for this dish, including vegetarian ones. It looks like such a fun and tasty base dish to vary with! Thanks for showing us
That looks beautiful. I'll try the enamelled cast iron concept out; I have a lot of cast iron, they can be picked up really cheaply at second-hand shops (thrift stores) or car-boot sales (sort of like garage sales).
You know, it never occurred to me that I could get clay pot rice anywhere BUT home. I live in a city that is famous for not having enough good Chinese restaurants, so I've got to make do on my own. I know I make it better than the place down the street from me, mine actually has a crust on the bottom. I learned a lot from Wang Gang. I learned more here!
This channel is a valuable resource to me. I have a good Chinese grocery near me, and I'm ready to learn. I wish you'd do a video on basic Chinese soups. You say in some videos "whip up a pan soup", but I have no clue what that entails!
I had been waiting for this episode for a while. I love 煲仔饭, and the food served at 啫啫 restaurants, which shared the same claypot. I hope you will one day introduce the joys of other 啫啫 dishes to the western audience 😂
This is my absolute favourite food memory from HK. Can’t wait to try this.
Love it. I remember that first claypot rice video that came out in the early days of CCD and me going like wow I love claypot rice but the charcoal grill is not happening haha. Def will make this at some point and will have to find the old claypot rice pot to use the oven method on. Love the tilting method to get the crisp on the rice on the sides of the claypot at the end and I've seen a restaurant or two in SGV that have special angled claypot rice "wok ring"-esque device that helps with holding the pot in the angled position for heat application when using a gas stove.
Also what side are you on, immediately go after the crisp or wait until the end to eat it? I go straight for it because my belief is that leaving it will allow for the steam in the moist rice above it to penetrate downwards and make it less crispy and a little chewy. Less 脆 and more 韌 XD
I usually wait until the middle/end (as the rice is super hot at first, so I go topping+mixed with a little rice at first then start working down), but I kind of get what you mean. Something Steph likes doing is swirling the seasoned soy sauce around the very edges of the claypot so that it caramelizes and combines with the rice crust - which I can totally understand being good - but for me it ruins the... purity... of the rice crispy texture haha.
That said, I'm a pretty quick eater (nothing to be proud of, generally speaking), so that might be one of the reasons why I don't notice much issue with the rice crust by the time I get to it.
OMG, this is delicious 😋... Tried to upload pictures but can't figure it out... Perfect directions...😋😋😋
5:10 SHORTCUT - looking at the ingredients, you could just replace everything in your seasoned soy sauce garnish with 1 tbsp Mentsuyu Base (read: undiluted zarusoba dipping sauce) plus 1 tsp water. Seriously, msg is extracted from kelp, and fish sauce is from anchovies, whereas the dashi used in mentsuyu uses kombu seaweed and bonito flakes, so both the fish and the msg are already there. Not exact, but close and easy. I keep homemade mentsuyu in my fridge.
This is my favorite comfort dish of all time
I've just brought 3 clay pots for my family, can't wait to try this!
For me it's more of a hearty winter meal, but thanks for sharing your recipe.
This sounds really good my grandmother used to make tuna casserole with rice and mushroom soup because the rice was cooked in the soup and not water the edges would get super crisp the extra crusty edge pieces we're always the best part so a dish that captures that vibe would definitely make good comfort food. Now I just wanna make tuna casserole and put an egg on top
Can you please show how you would do the traditional chicken with sausage and mushroom clay pot in this format? I'd love to see how to prep the chicken and when you add it? Thank you ❤
Ive gotten fairly good using a clay pot on a gas stove. I do 1 rice cup of rice to 1 rice cup of water. I let it soak 30-60 min and then fire up the stove. Cover and watch the steam through the hole and use your nose. While steaming it will smell like rice and whwn it dries out it will start changing into smoke. While it steams work your meat and vege in another pan. I like chinese sausage, king trumpet mushrooms and green onion. Anything works really. Once you notice/smell smoke or see theres no more steam open the pot and pour a thin stream of seseame seed oil around the edge. Put the toppings on the rice and recover. Go back yo watchng and sniffing. When you smell a slight burning do another round of oil. After that cooks you are done. I bring that to the table and finish with a quick sauce made of hoisen and soy sauce. That sauce will actually help separate the rice from the pot too. Mix it up and youre good to go.
In Malaysia we commonly use chicken for the protein and a little bit of lap Cheong
Dear Ms Stephanie, thank u for this wonderful cuisine. May i know whether i substitute beef with chicken meat. Awaiting for a favourable reply. Thank u
Thank you sooo much for sharing this. I love the recipes you both share and it's easy to adapt to what we have in Australia as well. The texture of the crispy rice is to DIE for. Thankfully, we have some great markets with excellent quality clay pots to try this.
Do you guys have any tips on using/maintaining a clay pot? I know you have to soak it for several hours after you first buy it. Do you soak it before each use too?
Thanks for sharing your method! Just wanted to ask for cooking times of other kinds of toppings that you have tried.
Thank you very much for the video. Could you please share which 'outdoor' gas-stove you use for the claypot?
Thank you in advance. Greetings from Holland.
This is actually very similar to my method of making biryani. It's the same concept. Slightly precooked rice and baked in an oven. You could cook it over a stove. But the oven, I feel makes for a better product
Great video! Best ever for claypot rice. Can't wait to try.
YOU HAVE A CAT?!?!
I don't believe this one for a minute. Amazing!
Looks and sounds absolutely delicious!
I was already considering getting a clay pot to try to do bibimbap, with this recipe and technique to get the crust i'm now convinced to go buy one
Thanks for the instructive recipe ... i'm eager to try it out. 🥰
COMMENT regarding Kansui (aka Kansui Water, liquid), Sodium Carbonate (powder), and Baking Soda (Sodium Bicarbonate, powder). While I'm sure all three work fine, it is important to note that all three are chemically different, and DIFFER CONSIDERABLY IN STRENGTH ... in other words, they are NOT directly interchangeable on a 1:1 basis, either by weight, or by volume. I recommend revisiting that ingredient, and researching an appropriate conversion between all 3. Also, it might make sense to include pengui powder as a 4th option, for those inside china.
Cheers.
Great job on the basic recipe and technique.
REQUEST: since your basic recipe is for sliced beef, I was wondering if you had variants to share that use say, chicken, or seafood, or perhaps sausage, or whatever was featured in the thumbnail pic.
This looks so nice and so simple. I really am making an effort to simplify my Asian style cooking. Westerners stem put too many ingredients in I think.
Nice! Looking forward to making it.
Closest thing I can find in my area is a Korean clay pot (aka a "ttukbaegi") by Surlasang Royal Chef. Size #3 seems closest to the size called for in your recipe. It cost me $10.50 usd at my local korean/Asian supermarket.
I'm curious about the comment about most kitchens in Guangzhou not having an oven - I had assumed that was a universal thing! What does the cooking setup in the average Guangzhou kitchen look like?
Pretty similar otherwise. The average kitchen will have a gas stove, two burners, ~13-18k BTUs. The grate is open to allow for holding round bottomed woks. There is usually no dish washer, but there is sometimes a dish dryer.
One nice feature that the average kitchen has that the US doesn't is an exhaust hood over the stove that - critically - actually vents *outside* of the apartment. The exhaust will go up into a main tube and vents out on the roof of the building. I know some modern houses in the USA have real hoods, but I know it's unfortunately quite rare in older apartment buildings over there.
The first thing I noticed when I moved from Guangdong to Shanghai was that in Shanghai my apartment had a western style oven 😁 even though the two apartments looked quite similar
Another great recipe! Can’t wait to make it!!!
AMAZING - first video I watched from your channel. Planning to make this for my gua lo and gua po. Subscribed. Tor jie lei :) From Hongkonger from Australia
eeeeeeee amazing! maybe slightly annoying question, can i use brown rice?
Hello Kitty!!
How much water depends on the ingredients you are using imo. If you are using dried sausages lap mei I tend to add a little more water compared to wetter ingredients like beef or chicken / mushroom. Claypots are porous and you get that charcoaly flavour if you are doing the traditional method. Claypot specialist restaurants/stalls go through hundreds a week because of the constant high heat of the flame.
To replicate the smoky charcoal-cooked flavor and fragrance, I wonder if doing a quick dhungar would work? To finish off some Indian, Thai, and SEA dishes you burn a small chunk of charcoal inside the lidded cooking vessel for just a couple minutes. I love that flavor so am tempted to give it a shot and try to not go overboard! haha
Wow! Great food cinema! I love this meal!
Thank you!! I was beginning to think I’d be more likely to stumble upon the ark of the covenant than get detailed instructions for making this at home. Very appreciated!
For future videos, Mise en Place is pronounced "MEE-zohn-plahss," not "MEE-zay-ohn-plahss" because there is no acute accent over the "Mise." I thought you'd want to know. Love this video, and using it tonight for my clay pot rice for the family.
You guys are fabulous!
I love all your cooking and have done many of them but a fan of Chinese cooking the only one that I love but have failed at many times making is duck do you have a simple duck roasted recipe ?
Kitty helper in background!😺❤
Thank you for all the great Chinese cooking videos. Clay pot rice using a oven is an excellent idea. What do you think about using a cast iron pot (dutch oven) instead of the clay pot. Unfortunately, i have an induction stove top. Clay dont work.
It also works. There are quite a lot of UA-cam videos using cast iron pot because Le Creuset is very popular in many Asian cities.
I would probably gain 20 kg on a trip to China. Everything you make looks so delicious.
Ever thought of using a bbq chimney starter? I mean in terms of power
The cat wants in!
Regarding cooking with a clay pot over induction or glass-top stove: I have used an iron skillet, inverted, over the burner as a heat diffuser, which works to perfection. Make sure you don't have anything stuck to the inside of the skillet, though, or you will have a very smoky experience until it chars away!
I was thinking about this exact issue, thanks for sharing !
I have a flat cast iron griddle that I used as a diffuser that I got at a lodge outlet store for like 8 bucks. Works perfectly for this
What if I were making this for a family of 4? Would a dutch oven or casserole dish work instead?
Yes. As long as they are cast iron. Do a UA-cam search and you will find videos on that. Most use Le Creuset cassrole mainly because the brand is popular.
Nice sharing friend watching you from India your new friend here dear
Can you guys cover egg fried tomato with rice?
Hi if I'm gonna do this with lap yuk and lap cheong should I put the meat in before starting cooking on the stove?
What does clay pot bring to the taste of the dish ? does it make a difference ?
This is only speculation, but: since the recipe has to be finished in the oven, I suspect that the same clay pot that is used in Chinese cuisine could also be used to make a French onion soup!
Not so much taste, but rather claypots are porous(?) and will impart the smokiness of the charcoal much better than metal pots for example, and of course being claypots it has a lot of character. Claypots also retains heat much better as well
But my 5 cents is just that this is such a traditional recipe that originated from ancient Chinese times, at a basis it’s just a vessel for which rice was cooked in. So the technique just stuck as a method of cooking it.
Aren't really flavor if you aren't using charcoal, claypot heats up evenly relative to other kind of pots/pans(To create that mostly even crust at the bottom). The essence of claypot rice is the crispy crackly rice crust.
i saw another channel here on youtube using a korean black claypot or even a stone korean pot, to achieve the said crusty crispyness
Can anyone suggest a good vegetarian topping for this dish? Really want to try!
I wonder if I can emulate this with my rice cooker. It has a crisp Persian rice mode.
Another banger, as always
Awesome episode!!!
"Nobody is firing up a charcoal grill everyday"
Is that a challenge?
This should also work on a nice thick cast iron or carbon steel pan right? Bigger bottom area should mean more socarrat. With a well fitting lid of course.
Oh and this probably takes away the need for the oven as the sides are low and it's not a big deal to miss the socarrat formation up the sides.
Actually the techniques from this could seriously up my paella game.
Based Steph delivers the goods