This Chinese sausage rice cooker rice is an emergency recipe for busy nights of the week when you don’t have much in the fridge besides a few lap cheong links. It’s so easy that we feel a little silly even calling it a “recipe.”
Just think of it as a dinner trick you have in your back pocket for when you need something quick and simple… With maybe just a vegetable on the side!
Can you even call it a recipe?
This is one of those recipes that you don’t really think to write, because it’s so simple. Can it even be called a recipe? Many Chinese children grew up doing it without written instructions, including this Chinese child.
First, you get ready to make rice the way your mom, dad, big brother or grandma/grandpa taught you, with the “finger trick” in your rice cooker
.
You measure the height of the rice first at night and then by sticking your finger into the rice. After taking note of where the rice level is on your finger, add the same water level.
Then, you throw some links of lap cheong (Chinese sausage) with the rice, drop the pot into the rice cooker and press the button. 20 minutes later, dinner is ready.
We’ve been quietly doing this all our lives, but it always seemed crazy to include this as a recipe here at The Woks of Life
.
However, upon further reflection, it seems crazy not to include it.
Cooking Chinese sausages with rice in a rice cooker is such a nostalgic homemade cooking trick that we had to publish it as a reminder to all the Chinese children who grew up with it, and as an introduction to our readers who didn’t grow up with it.
If you have some lap cheong in your
fridge, this is a quick and easy way to enjoy it
!
Use of other cured
meats
This method will also work with gon cheong (Chinese duck liver sausage) and lap yuk (Chinese cured pork belly).
You can also use a mixture of different meats to make something resembling a Hong Kong clay pot rice in your rice cooker! (Just have the sauce in that recipe drizzle on top.)
What if I don’t have a rice cooker
?
While the rice cooker is probably the most important and ubiquitous electronic appliance in any Chinese home, we understand that you may not have one (yet!).
Do not worry! We’ve included stove instructions for this recipe, so you can prepare it without a rice cooker. It won’t be as obvious/foolproof/simple as the rice cooker version, but we promise it’s still very easy.
Ok, let’s move on to today’s “recipe.”
HOW TO MAKE STEAMED CHINESE SAUSAGE RICE
Rice cooker instructions:
Use your rice cooker cup to measure how much rice you want (2 cups is good for 3 people).
Then fill the
rice cooker
with
water to the line that corresponds to the number of cups you added. Alternatively, you can use the “finger trick” to simply measure the height of the rice (even first) along your finger, and then add enough water to match that height on your finger if you rest it on the rice.
Add the Chinese sausage (1 link per person is a decent bet) on top. (I cut mine in half. This step is optional.)
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Turn on the rice cooker. The pot will vaporize both the rice and the sausage at the same time!
<img src="https://thewoksoflife.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Lap-Cheong-Rice-3.jpg" alt="
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Then you can cut the sausages and serve with the rice!
Stovetop Instructions:
Measure the desired amount of rice and pour it into a medium pot, taking note of the measurement. (You don’t need any special measuring tools for this step. You could use any cup or cup you have.)
Cover the rice with 2 inches of water and soak for 20 minutes. Once the rice has been soaked, drain the water it was soaked in. Now you should only have a pot of soggy rice.
Measure fresh water in the same volume as rice and pour it into the pot. Add the Chinese sausages on top.
Place the pot on the stove over medium-high heat. Once the liquid boils, lower the heat, cover and cook for about 15 minutes, or until all the liquid has been cooked and the rice is fluffy.
Steam the Chinese sausages and serve with the rice!
