Simple comforts

Congee, Rice Porridge, Cháo Gà; whichever name you know it by it’s a comfort food. Warm, and filling, Savory and thick, I could go on, but we’d be here all day. What you need to know is that it’s easy to delicious and easy to make. You should be able to find everything you need wherever you shop for groceries. Some of the optional toppings you might need to make a trip to your local Asian market for, but otherwise it’s quite simple.

It’s Hot Congee Goodness

The way I’m going to be preparing the dish is pretty spicy, depending on your tolerance. If you aren’t down with that try omitting the Thai chilies, or adding a little less ginger. You could also choose to leave the ginger whole and just smash it before adding it to the slow cooker. I smash it into a paste so that it mixes and becomes part of the liquid while making the flavor extra strong. It does make it extra spicy though. If you’re feeling stuffy with allergies or a cold this Congee will clear you right up!

Chicken

If you don’t want to fuss with the way I make the chicken here, you could buy a whole chicken and toss it and all the other ingredients into the slow cooker and start cooking right away. It will honestly taste great still, and I’ve made it that way before several times when I was in a rush. I’ve been slowly tweaking the recipe a little each time I make it and that’s how I ended up with this current variation, but it’s up to you how much effort you want to put into it.

Rice

You might not be familiar with the broken rice I’m using, but that’s ok! It’s a very short grain rice, and adds a lot of extra starch for it’s size. If you can’t find it, you can sub in another short grain rice, preferably Jasmine, or Basmati. Really any rice would probably work, and you might find you like one more than another. I’ve been meaning to try out brown rice to see if that would work. If you do before I do, let me know how it goes!

Toppings

There’s lots of different ingredients to top Congee with. For your greens, cilantro and green onion are nice, but I put in Broccoli as well when I want to make it last a little longer. Pork floss sounds weird if you haven’t tried it, but it’s tasty, trust me. Your average Congee might warrant the use of a lot of sauces to add flavor, but this recipe should come up very strong for you. I do still add a little sambal on top of mine, or some extra siracha the second day once it’s extra thick and starchy. The fried shallots and green onion oil, I’ll usually make together so I can use the oil from the shallots for the green onions too.

Vietnamese Chicken Congee / Cháo Gà

5 from 1 vote

Recipe by Zach Wood Course: Recipe, Soups, Slow CookerCuisine: Vietnamese, Asian

Servings

8

servings

Prep time

20

minutes

Cooking time

8

Hours

Ingredients

• Congee Base

• 1 Cup 1 Broken Rice/Long Grain Jasmine Rice

• 12 Cups 12 Water

• 2 Tablespoons 2 Chicken Base Concentrate

• 1 Whole 1 Onion

• 1 Whole 1 Ginger 3 inches long

• 6 Cloves 6 Garlic

• 2-3 Tablespoons 2-3 Fish Sauce

• 1 Tablespoon 1 Salt

• 8 8 Chicken Drumsticks

• 3 3 Thai Chilies (Finely Diced)

• Toppings

• Cilantro

• Fried Shallots

• Pork Floss

• Sambal Garlic Chili Sauce

• Green Onions

Directions

• Cook the Drumsticks in your preferred spice mix, then remove and shred the meat. Add the braising liquid to the shredded meat, and take the bones and put them into the slow cooker.
• Smash the Garlic and Ginger into a paste, cut the onion in half, then add everything from the base into a slow cooker to cook on low for 6-8 hours
• Taste and add salt or more fish sauce if needed
• Serve with your choice of toppings

Recipe Video

Notes

• If you want the simplest form of this dish, just toss everything into the slow cooker right away after smashing the ginger and garlic, and cook for 8 hours and you’re all done. The meat will fall right off the chicken drumsticks and it might be a little overdone, but it’s still tasty and super easy to make.
• You could also use a whole chicken instead of drumsticks in this recipe.
• Congee is often really thick as well, and if you are looking for that just add some more rice! All that starch will thicken it quickly, and even this recipe gets really thick the very next day.
• If you are looking for ideas about how to prepare the chicken, I personally seasoned mine with a mixture of Soy Sauce, Ginger, Garlic, Sambal, Honey, Red pepper flakes, and Pepper. Cooked them for about an hour at 375 F then took them out and shredded the meat off the bone, and let them marinate in the juices while the bones went in the slow cooker.