Is there a better Hainan chicken option anywhere in Los Angeles? Johnny Lee (of Sticky Rice, Genghis Cohen and Eggslut fame) is slinging an excellent rendition of the poached bird out of the Westfield Santa Anita's new Food Alley concept (located right of the Din Tai Fung entrance down the hall). The chicken is just on the warm side of lukewarm (it's normally supposed to be served room temperature), but the flavor of the poaching brine sneaks in through a silky and tender bird.

Though Dong Nguyen doesn't provide pickled vegetables with its rendition of Hainan chicken, the Alhambra establishment serves up a genuine-article Vietnamese preparation of the dish. The skin is tinged a pale gold, the result of not blanching the chicken skin. The rice has a distinctive grain and goes easy on the flavor to allow the chicken to take center stage.

Savoy's Hainan Chicken is a user-experience marvel. The supple, oily rice lends itself a little too well to eating by the spoonful and would break even the most carb-averse diner. White meat is plenty juicy and well-executed, but the dark meat only option costs extra for a reason. Rich, fatty meat comes in a heaping 8.5-ounce portion and served alongside three dipping sauces. The fine grate of the ginger dipping sauce keeps the punch in check for a worthy standard-bearer of Hainanese chicken rice in L.A.

Green Zone prides itself on organic ingredients, and they don't fool around with the fowl. For a beak-to-tail dish that's especially dependent on the quality of chicken, Green Zone has it in spades. Topped with a smattering of slivered green onion, Green Zone's rendition is a little dainty on the portions but big on flavor, with a ginger slurry to rival Sidechick's.

Sham Tseng isn't terribly popular with the Yelp crowd (turns out it's hard to replace a Sam Woo even in the SGV), but its meat dishes are mostly standout. While the soy sauce chicken is an under-the-radar classic, the Hainan chicken is serious business, too. The white meat is tender and flavorful and for a preparation that's cleaved without regard to bone placement, the meat separates nicely from the bone.

Sanamluang's rendition of Thai Hainan Chicken does run a tad dry on the white meat, but the sauce can cover up a multitude of sins, and the mountain of not-that-greasy-yet-surprisingly-flavorful rice will help you forget that you ordered Hainan chicken. It's a standard bearer of the Thai format and accessible to those in LA proper.