Chicken Congee

A few weeks ago we had lunch with the family at the Haoke Chinese Seafood Restaurant, who specialise in Yum Cha. I must say, the food was fresh, carefully prepared and everything we had was delicious.

Among the many delicious dishes, we ordered a bowl of Congee. For some reason, I had never had congee before. It was such a deliciously delicate, mild, yet comforting thick soupy dish. I decided to make my own at home yesterday.

Finding a recipe on the internet was no problem at all, but they all varied in the type of rice to use and the proportion of liquid to rice. So, of course, being my first time at it, I added way too much rice! Mine turned out to be a very thick porridge rather than a soup. I had 6 liters of water to 5 cups of rice. Apparently some people like it that way. It was pretty delicious, but I'd prefer it to more soupy. So next time these are the proportions I'll use.

PS. I noticed a lot of recipes only use chicken and rice. But, as the restaurant added a few vegetables I actually prefer it that way as it makes a more wholesome meal.

Chicken Congee

4 liters water
1 cup jasmine rice
1 kg chicken drumsticks
2 carrots, diced
2 sticks celery, diced
2 cloves garlic
2 tsp ginger (heaped)
salt & pepper to season




Toppings:

finely shredded spring onion (green only)
coriander leaves
crispy fried shallots
crispy fried garlic
sesame oil
light soy sauce

Put all of the ingredients in a large soup pot and cook for about 2 hours, or until the chicken is tender and the rice has completely broken down.

Or, like me, put all of the ingredients into your trusty pressure cooker and cook for 30 minutes from boiling point.

When the chicken congee is cooked. Remove the chicken legs from the congee. With 2 forks, de-bone them, remove any skin, shred into bite size pieces and return to the pot. Stir the chicken through the congee and you're done.

To Serve Your Chicken Congee

Ladle the chicken congee into deep bowls add some or all of the toppings, and be sure to add a small drizzle of sesame oil and soy sauce as it makes all the difference.

Bon Apetit xoxo








*  Image by Keerati, www.freedigitalphotos.net