Bao Fa Traditional Food (Bukit Batok)

Who else loves claypot chicken rice!

On the search for nice claypot chicken rice in the west. Today, our search brought us to Bao Fa Traditional Food 宝发传统小食 at Bukit Batok!

We called 45mins in advance to place our order for takeaway, so there was no waiting time required! This was the medium size portion ($16) which is enough for 2 -3 pax! The chicken meat was tender and well seasoned! However, as it was a takeaway order, the rice seemed to lack some charcoal claypot wok hei taste. The chilli used here reminds me of those used for chicken rice chilli, spicy and with kick!
⁣

📍 283 Bukit Batok East Ave 3, Singapore 650283

I wasn’t a huge fan when we first tried Bao Fa’s Claypot Rice, but it really grew on me over time and now I will have random cravings for this hearty bowl 😂

Chicken drumstick chunks are tender albeit a bit bony, with lap cheong, salted fish and spring onions in well-cooked rice. The queue can get quite long during meal times - but call them 20 min in advance (both takeaway and dine-in) and you won’t have to wait long when you arrive!

Their Sesame Oil Chicken was decent, but we felt the characteristic sesame oil aroma was too subtle for our liking. 😅 The boneless chicken chunks were tender and savoury - saucy enough to pair with the generous amount of scorched rice crispies (锅巴) from the claypot rice towards the end!

Raise your virtual hand if you enjoy a yummy CRACKLY CLAYPOT RICE like we do! 🙌🏻 Chanced upon this pretty solid Claypot Rice from Bao Fa Traditional Food 宝发传统小食 at Bukit Batok while running errands. Noticed that only drumstick meat was used here, so the chicken meat was tender and well-seasoned whilst mostly deboned (aside from some slight bony pieces). The rice was well-cooked, neither too dry nor too lumpy, punctuated with the smoky umami from the salted mackerel bits and sizable lup cheong slices. The chilli reminds me of chicken rice chilli, but it's punchy and spicy enough.👍🏻 There's a notice on their signboard saying that the waiting time can take up to 20 minutes, but good things are worth waiting for, right?

Estimated waiting time: over 30mins

Quite a solid claypot chicken rice.

Only chicken Drumsticks are used here, so meat was tender. Generous amount of sausages.

Chilli was also damn shiok.

If I was staying at Bukit Batok, I will definitely eat this regularly.

otherwise known as 煲仔饭, this dish requires both the right techniques and equipment to reach its full potential. i like how their claypot rice tasted the same 10 years ago and in fact, improved, since most of their tender chicken pieces are deboned now. aside from that, you’ll find yourself relishing in every single grain of fragrance topped with umami flavour of the good quality salted fish bits and chinese sausage slices.

the only noticeable difference i noticed was that the 锅巴 (scorched rice) portion are lesser than last time’s! if you enjoy them, leave the rice for a little longer before you stir.