In Cantonese we have a name for those who simply love eating rice.

Faan toong literally translates to ‘rice bucket’… though for us it’s more like a shovelling action!

Why do we love those fluffy white grains so much? For us, the answer is usually in the sauce…

Just picture it: after a hard day at the library you retire to your cold student flat with a rumbling belly. Upon opening the creaky pantry doors there’s a sigh of despair: soy sauce, stale cornflakes, and a half a bag of rice. The fridge is no better: two chicken thigh cutlets left over from last night’s stir fry, a lonely sprig of spring onion on its last legs, half a bottle of cheap white wine, and something that looks suspiciously like pizza, only more furry.

What on Earth will you have for dinner?!

Well, if you were *really* hungry, you could simply cook the rice and sprinkle on some soy sauce. The rice soaks up the soy sauce like a sponge, giving it a very pleasant savoury flavour. It’s also money-saving to the max!

But say you wanted to prepare something mega-delicious. Something that’ll have you scooping up every last grain of rice and sitting back in complete satisfaction afterwards.

With pretty minimal ingredients and hardly any effort you can whip up one of our favourite go-to meals, syrupy soy sauce chicken. This dish is the perfect marriage between a rich, savoury sauce and fluffy jasmine rice. And it feels very indulgent, even though there’s hardly any added fat. There’s just something so appetizing about the way the sticky sauce coats the grains, like little gleaming jewels that taste just as lovely as they look.

Without doubt, the syrupy sauce and rice combo makes this dish. But it certainly doesn’t hurt to have succulent chicken thighs* and tender aubergine too – both are perfect vehicles to carry the rich flavour of the sauce, and all you have to do is chuck ’em in!

So if you ever find yourself longing for something delicious but dead easy, give this recipe a go. We like to think of it as the Chinese version of macaroni and cheese: supremely comforting, and never disappointing!

* You might feel tempted to substitute the thigh for breast, but PLEASE DON’T DO IT! This recipe is the perfect example of why we usually prefer thigh over breast. Not only is thigh meat more cost-effective, it’s also far more moist than breast meat and holds up better when there is a longer cooking time.