Can you make Claypot Rice in a home kitchen?

Cantonese claypot rice! An absolute classic lunchtime thing in both Hong Kong and mainland Guangdong... though generally it's the type of thing that you find at restaurants. In this video, we wanted to show you how to make claypot rice in a home kitchen, in order to have it be an everyday sort of thing!

0:00 - The Culture of Claypot Rice
0:31 - The Problem of Claypot Rice at home
1:51 - Key Point 1: Soak in Hot Water
2:13 - Key Point 2: Weigh your rice, Weigh your water
3:51 - Beef Marinating
5:09 - Claypot Rice Seasoned Soy Sauce
5:26 - Making the Claypot Rice
7:59 - Mise and Making a Full Meal

EQUIPMENT

The Amazon product is very pricey for a claypot, so do check out your local Chinese supermarket to see if they carry any first.

Claypots from other cultures should work fine so long as they're glazed. If you don't have a claypot, I've heard enameled cast iron can be a suitable substitute. Something cast iron *should* also be able to work with this recipe (rice texture will be fine), but you might need to play around with it in order to get ideal crisping.

Regarding stoves, if your gas stove burner cover does not allow you to dip the pot into the flame, see if you can remove it for that final blast. If not, *only* do a 30 second blast to crisp up the very bottom (the sides will not be crispy, but that's ok).

If you have an electric stove, make sure the burner is up to temperature before placing the claypot on it (otherwise the timing'll be a bit goofy). Then for the final blast, just do the same as those with immovable gas grates - 30 seconds only to crisp up the very bottom.

For those with induction, I have heard the best way to cook with clay is to place your claypot over a preheated cast iron skillet (i.e. have the cast iron be the medium between the stove and the claypot). I have not had experience with this before. Assuming it works (I see no reason why it wouldn't), handle just as you would if you were using electric.

Also, this recipe assumes you have a kitchen scale. If you don't have one already, buy one. They're cheap and super useful.

INGREDIENTS

For the rice:

* Jasmine Rice (泰国香米/粘米), 210g
* Hot, boiled water. Follow as per the video, as the rice will already take on some water from rinsing. The rice plus water TOGETHER should equal 440g. You will likely have ~20g of water from rinsing the rice, so that implies ~210g of hot, boiled water.
* Oil, preferably peanut. ~1 tsp to rub on the claypot at the beginning of cooking, ~1 tbsp to swirl around the sides right before putting in the oven

For the beef:

* Beef - loin, flank, whatever - 100g (we used loin)
* For the marinade: Kansui (枧水) -or- sodium carbonate (碱面) -or- baking soda, 1/4 tsp; salt, 1/4 tsp; sugar, 1/4 tsp; cornstarch (生粉), 1 tsp; black pepper, 1/8 tsp; soy sauce (生抽), 1/4 tsp; dark soy sauce (老抽), 1/2 tsp; liaojiu a.k.a. Shaoxing wine (料酒/绍酒), 1/2 tsp; oyster sauce (蚝油), 1 tsp; water, 2 tbsp; oil, ~1 tsp
* Optional: ginger, ~1/2 cm, julienned

For the seasoned soy sauce:

* Sugar, 1/4 tsp
* MSG (味精), ~1/16 tsp
* Soy sauce (生抽), 2 tsp
* Fish sauce (鱼露), 1 tsp
* Water, 1/2 tbsp

PROCESS

Rinse 210g of rice, add to a bowl on a scale. It should have already taken some liquid (likely the scale will read ~230g). Add enough hot, boiled water from the kettle to hit 440g. Let sit for 30 minutes.

During that time, mix your seasoned soy sauce and prepare the beef. Slice the beef into thin ~2mm sheets. Mix with all the ingredients for the marinade, really stirring in that water - the mixing might take 1-2 minutes until the water is fully absorbed.

After the rice is done soaking, rub the ~1 tsp oil onto the claypot, then add in the rice together with the soaking liquid. Place over a medium high flame.

Once strong steam is coming out of the rice cooker (~6-7 minutes), let it go for one minute longer. Then uncover - you should not see any liquid remaining. Pour the ~1 tbsp oil around the sides, pop in the oven for 20 minutes at 230C on the bottom rack.

Add the beef when there is 5 minutes remaining.

After its done, drizzle on the seasoned soy sauce. Then blast the claypot rice on a medium-high flame to accentuate the crust, 30 seconds each side (for 2.5 minutes, total). As per the discussion about equipment, only do a 30 second blast on the bottom if your stove is uncooperative.

Add the egg. Cover, steam for 30-60 seconds. Sprinkle over some chopped scallions.
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Outro Music: คิดถึงคุณจัง by ธานินทร์ อินทรเทพ

[ChineseCookingDemystified]

Hey guys, a few notes:


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.


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 :)

[muhammadahmar]

One of the most goated couple on youtube fr

[DeadbyDaylightDUO]

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! 😃

[Jayeeyee]

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!

[garfieldclass]

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.

[alyss]

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!

[Apocalypz]

Good gravy, *such* a solid explanation. Massive props to all of the backend trials and errors -- although delicious -- which were completed for this.

[tonydeltablues]

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

[Bunny-chul]

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.)

[lisakaye]

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.

[thenowhereman]

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.

[paulvanduck]

Just used this technique at home. Cast iron enamel pot, induction hob, toaster oven. Came out perfectly

[mustangunique]

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!

[GabrielePastoreAlchemikal]

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 😂

[tcgetsbored]

Tried this with shrimp instead of beef. First clay pot experience and it was amazing!

[SpenserLi]

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 🤷‍♂️

[alandreau]

Thank you got your clear explanations with hacks for western kitchens!

[JeffWhite]

Nice video...thanks for all the work you both do!

[conwaywang]

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

[Cyberia]

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!