Ming Kee Chicken Rice (明记鸡饭): Singapore Food Review

If you frequent Bishan, you’ll be no stranger to Ming Kee Chicken Rice. Frequently dubbed as serving the “best chicken rice in Bishan”, the stall is famous for their ice-chilled chicken.

They are located at Kim San Leng Food Centre and you’ll find that the store is really close to both the bus interchange and Bishan MRT.

It is said that Ming Kee Chicken Rice always has extremely long queues during lunch, so I went down a little earlier to try out their goods. It was the odd brunch hour, but there were already quite a number of people at the coffee shop enjoying their chicken rice.

The chicken here is “shocked” in ice-cold water and stored with ice after being cooked. This produces a soft, jelly-like layer of gelatine below the skin to create a unique texture and mouthfeel.

What I tried at Ming Kee Chicken Rice

As I wanted some veggies with my meal, I decided to get the Steamed Chicken Rice Set A (S$6.50). The set came with the chicken, rice and veggie plated separately, which I found to be extremely appetising, appearance-wise. I think for S$6.50, the portion was quite generous!

If you prefer kailan, you can get it as part of a set at S$7.50, or a la carte at S$4 or S$6, too. Chicken feet lovers will be pleased to find that the store sells Crystal Chicken Feet (S$3/S$5) as well.

In case you haven’t noticed, I love rice. So I was a little disappointed by the rice here. While it was nicely separated and not mushy, it was not nearly as flavourful or aromatic as I would have preferred.

Though, if you prefer “healthier” chicken rice that’s less oily, I think this would fit the bill.

On seeing the chicken, I regretted not going with my usual ji wei rou or the tail end (backside…) of the chicken that tends to be super tender. This time, I left the fate of my meal to the chicken rice Russian roulette and ended up with breast meat.

Nothing wrong with that. But part of me had expected even this part of the chicken to come with that famed, prized gelatinous skin the store prides themselves on.  But, alas, there was none of that here.

While I was bummed that I missed out on the special gelatinous textural contrast that I was looking forward to, the chicken breast was still very tender and soft.

It absorbed the sesame and soy sauce dressing very well and was nice and flavourful. The added spring onion and cucumber were also refreshing.

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The taugeh salad that came with my set tasted savoury and was pleasantly crunchy. I noticed that it was blanched and topped with the sauce, rather than fried, giving it an overall cleaner taste.

The chilli had a decent amount of garlic, but I found it too watery for my liking. It also didn’t pack much of a punch.

Final Thoughts

Perhaps I was simply unfortunate with my visit to Ming Kee Chicken Rice, but I doubt I would make a special trip down to Bishan for it again. Unremarkable rice and chilli aside, their chicken lacked the wow factor to really make them stand out.

Though their cold shocked jelly-skin chicken was supposed to be their “unique selling point”, it was quite odd for me to find that my chicken arrived as it did. Do you have to ask specifically if you want skin on? I know not. I have seen a mix of reviews online: both with and without skin for this particular cut of meat, so perhaps their standard has been rather inconsistent.

Maybe if you know the cheat code to Ming Kee Chicken Rice, you’ll have better luck.

Expected damage: S$4.50 – S$7.50 per pax

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