Qi Le Chicken Rice @ Blk 744 Yishun Street 72

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Mention chicken rice in Yishun and 925 Chicken Rice near the old bus interchange would come to mind. I had it years before but did not find it inspiring enough to want to write about it.

Since I am on a food trail around Yishun, I thought why not find another chicken rice stall to try? That is how I ended up at this chicken rice stall called Qi Le Chicken Rice located inside the S-11 Coffee shop near the MRT station.

It is easy to get here: simply exit the MRT station and follow the footpath to the coffee shop on the HDB side. The stall is in the middle of the coffee shop, partially hidden behind a pillar so you might miss it if you are not careful.

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I have heard about the long queue but there was none when I reached at about 11.30am. I quickly ordered a roasted chicken rice for one ($3.50). The server asked if I wanted to add more meat to which I declined. As I did not request for any specific part, I was given the chicken breast.

My order came with a bowl of rice, a bowl of soup and a portion of chicken breast served on a separate plate.

The chicken meat is topped with shredded scallions and fried garlic bits while underneath it is a portion of bean sprouts dressed in a savory mix of soy sauce and sesame oil.

I am glad that I did not top up for more meat as there were two pieces of breast meat on the plate.

One of the pieces did not come with any chicken skin while the other had most of the skin accounted for however, they are not crispy since they were drenched with the sauce. The chicken meat is soft and tender but lacking in natural chicken flavor.

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The rice is not too greasy yet lightly perfumed with the fragrance of pandan and chicken fat.

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Another reason for me to like Qi Le is the nga choi (bean sprouts) hidden under the chicken meat. Some stalls provide cucumber slices while some provide achar. Then, there are those, like Qi Le here that provides nga choi.

Personally, nga choi with the light soy and sesame oil concoction is one of my favorite thing to have with chicken rice hence, I might be bias here since they cater to what I like.

The fried garlic bits deserved a mention here. The garlicky aroma and crunchiness goes great with the nga choi!

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Honestly, one of the main reason why I chose Qi Le over other chicken rice stalls is because I found out from the reviews that they give out a large bowl of soup with every order. It seems the soup they serve here is similar to what your grandmother would make and not the usual sad bowl of tasteless hot water spammed with spring onions.

They have a small selection of soups on a rotational basis like salted vegetable soup, sze chuan vegetable soup, old cucumber soup, winter melon soup, peanut chicken feet soup and corn soup.

I was actually looking forward to the large bowl of soup that I had read about but to my dismay, what I received was the normal rice bowl sized of soup instead.

The soup-of-the-day is peanut chicken feet soup. What I like about it is that it is flavorful and filled with ingredients like peanuts and stray pieces of meat. The only thing is, they are too heavy handed with the msg. Otherwise, it would make for a very tasty bowl of soup.

For most chicken rice stalls, the soup may just be an afterthought but here, the effort put into making it (even though the soup is a tad too salty) makes all the difference for me.

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