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Chicken rice burger hits town

SINGAPORE – First came nasi lemak burger. Now, there’s chicken rice burger.

Makcik Chicken's chicken rice burger (S$9.50) consists of two Japanese rice buns, sous vide chicken thigh meat topped off with shredded cucumber and tomato. Photo: Makcik Chicken

Makcik Chicken's chicken rice burger (S$9.50) consists of two Japanese rice buns, sous vide chicken thigh meat topped off with shredded cucumber and tomato. Photo: Makcik Chicken

SINGAPORE – First came nasi lemak burger. Now, there’s chicken rice burger.

The latest localised burger is, however, made by the people behind Makcik Chicken. Less than three months since opening their delivery-only chicken rice establishment in late May, Saldriana Idris and Haziq Yusoff will launch their chicken rice burger on Saturday at the Civic District Outdoor Festival.

The husband-wife team wanted to create an easier way to consume their dish and had been working on creating a burger when McDonald’s beat them to it with their nasi lemak burger, which launched on July 13.

The quick-thinking couple, both 30, decided to ride on the hype and released promotional pictures of their offering on their Instagram and Facebook page on the same day with the caption “not the only national dish that’s turned into a burger", along with the hashtag #MakcikvsRonald.

Haziq told TODAY: “For the past one month or so, we had been prototyping the chicken rice burger already. (Then) we saw Mcdonald’s post and decided that we need to ride on this.”

And it worked, according to Haziq, who said the post gained traction, with many of their social-media followers asking when the burger will be available.

Both Haziq and Saldriana worked in advertising before they decided to venture into the food and beverage (F&B) industry and started their chicken rice business with a family recipe.

“We are trying to create cooler ways to consume chicken rice. We wanted to create a burger to make it a lighter version of chicken rice,” Haziq shared.

They also intend to be “heavily involved” at pop-up events. “We don’t provide tables and seats for them to consume (their food) at those events, so we need to come up with another version, and the burger is easy to consume when you’re on the go,” Haziq added.

The transition from chicken rice to chicken burger, was “very easy” as they had gone through more than 40 rounds of taste-tests for their original rice dish offering. The challenge, Saldriana said, was getting the texture of the rice right for the burger. “We do not want it to crumble on the first bite, if not it will be very messy,” she said.

The chicken rice burger is held by Japanese short grain rice cooked with chicken stock, ginger garlic and pandan leaves to maintain its shape, and contains sous vide chicken thigh meat topped with shredded cucumber, tomato, garlic and hanjuku egg sauce.

“We experimented with different sauces, with different patties and different methods of cooking the chicken,” Haziq added. And after a further “seven or eight taste tests”, the Makcik chicken burger was created.

The burger will come as a set and will be served with two side dishes — a house-made coleslaw and mashed potato.

Priced at S$9.50, the burger will be available only at pop-up events. “We want to make it exclusive and not a regular thing,” Haziq said.

Moving ahead, the couple plan to experiment with different side dishes and “a new spicy sauce”.

“There’s some new dishes in the pipeline as well,” Haziq hinted, without divulging more.

Makcik Burger is priced at S$9.50, and will be available on Aug 5 at the Civic District Outdoor Festival and at the National Museum of Singapore Festival 2017 on Aug 9.

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