Chinese Chicken Congee

Having a Chinese husband, we often eat Chinese Congee at home! It makes for a very humble and light breakfast – if you don’t have time in the morning, you can cook this for dinner or serve with other dishes that you like but make sure you save some Congee for breakfast the next day!

Makes: 2 bowls

Cooking time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

1/2 cup uncooked jasmine rice

1.25L hot water

1 spring onion, chopped

5g ginger, shredded and soaked in water

1/4 – 1/2 tsp salt

150g chicken thigh, sliced

White pepper

Pinch of salt

1 tsp soy sauce

1 tsp cornstarch

1 Tbsp ginger, grated

1 Tbsp Shaoxing wine

Garnish (optional): 

Fried bread 

Deep Fried Shallot

Deep Fried Garlic

Chili oil

Method:

1. First, mix the grated ginger and Shaoxing wine in a ramekin and set aside. We call this ginger wine. 
2. Rinse and wash jasmine rice under cold water and drain. Set aside. 
3. Add oil in a wok and place over a high heat. Add rice, cook for a minute then add hot water. 
4. Bring water to the boil then reduce to a medium high heat. Cover and cook for 35 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. While we wait, let’s marinate the chicken! Put sliced chicken, soy sauce and cornstarch in a bowl and season with white pepper and salt. Squeeze ginger from the ginger wine and add the liquid to the chicken, mixing well. Discard the ginger. Cover and marinate the chicken in the fridge for 30 minutes. You can marinate this for up to 2 hours.
6. Once the rice is cooked, add chicken and cook for another 10 minutes.
7. Add spring onion and ginger then season with white pepper and salt. Remove from heat and serve with fried bread, deep fried shallot/garlic and chili oil if you like!