inconsequential concourse

52 Week Cooking Challenge

Week 42: Chicken congee

For people unfamiliar with what congee is, it’s a traditional Chinese dish which can essentially be described as “rice porridge” or “rice soup”. In fact in Malaysia, we just called it porridge (as the Western concept of porridge doesn’t really exist there). It’s made by boiling rice in stock and/or water for an extended period of time, stirring regularly (so the rice doesn’t stick to the bottom and burn the pot) to break down the rice til it becomes creamy goodness.

I add a little bit of ground chicken marinated in oyster sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil and white pepper (my standard Chinese marinade) once the porridge is near the consistency I want it to be - though you can use any meat (the chicken should be in there for at least half an hour). Garnish with spring onions, ginger, soy sauce, white pepper, and a little garlic sesame oil. I also like to add a raw egg in my bowl before I scoop the porridge in there and mix it all up (hence you can see a little bit of egg whites, and the slightly yellow colour to my congee). Sometimes I add century egg as well, but I didn’t have any lying around.