Hakka-ish Chicken Congee
Our take on this classic comfort food is perfect for these cold winter days. Use your leftover rice to make something as versatile as it is delicious.
There are so many different recipes for all the versions and variants of congee that exist across South and East Asia, and we find that much like khichdi, everyone does it a little differently! Here is how we make it at Zing HQ!
Serves 4
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour
Ingredients:
- 1 chicken
- 2 cups of leftover rice
- 1 litre of chicken stock (homemade or store bought)
- 4 tbsp Hakka-ish Chili Crisp
- ½ inch piece of ginger
- 2 scallions
Method:
- To start, cook the chicken. Put the chicken in a broiler set to the highest heat. Let it get good and brown, you can go past “golden brown” here, more colour is better than less. When it’s browned, place into the boiling stock, and bring back to a boil. Cover with a lid, put on minimum heat, and simmer for 30 minutes. This step isn’t traditional, but it adds a lot of flavour to the stock, which is often needed when using store bought stock or broth.
- Turn off the heat, and leave covered to finish cooking for a further 30 minutes. Remove from the stock and allow to cool fully on a plate or tray, reserving the stock.
- Add the rice to the stock, bring to a boil, and leave on minimum heat. Cook for 45 mins-1 hour, allowing the rice to fully break down to a porridge consistency. Taste for seasoning, you might need to add salt depending on how salty your stock is.
- Finely chop the ginger, and thinly slice the scallions. When the congee is cooked, shred the chicken by hand.
- Place some congee in the bowl, top with some shredded chicken, ginger, scallions and spoon over the Hakka-ish. Comfort in a bowl.
Notes: Get creative when you serve this, we added white pepper, soy sauce and Chinkiang vinegar, but add anything you want. This dish is perfect for using leftovers; experiment and make it your own. Many days we swap the chicken for mushrooms!