Leftover roast chicken congee (jook)
A great way to use up your roast chicken leftovers is to make rice porridge (jook)
Servings: 4
Equipment
- Knife and cutting board
- Pot and wooden spatula
Ingredients
- Leftover roast chicken I roasted my chicken with carrots, so will be using both in this recipe
- ¾ rice cup jasmine white rice, washed (slightly over ½ (9/16) a standard cup) The water leftover from washing the rice can be used to water plants! A fellow blogger assures me it is indispensable for making aubergines fruit! Note: 1 rice cup is approximately ¾ of a standard cup so fret not if you don't actually have one!
- 3 cloves Garlic, minced
- 5 slices ginger
- 2 Tablespoon Oil
- Water If you have chicken or vegetable stock, feel free to use that
- Dash of white pepper (ground) White and black pepper are not interchangeable!
- 1 teaspoon fish sauce
- Salt, to taste
- Drizzle of sesame oil
- Optional, spring onion, chopped
Instructions
- Remove all the chicken bits from the leftover roast chicken bones as well as any leftover roasted vegetables. If the vegetables are large, make sure to cut them into smaller pieces. Keep the bones to make chicken stock.
- Wash the white rice briefly but making sure all impurities are moved, drain then set aside.
- Heat the pan over high heat (I used 9 on a Bosch induction cooker), add the oil and when the oil is simmering, add the ginger and garlic and stir-fry briefly till fragrant (note it will sizzle so be prepared!)
- Add the rice, give everything in the pan a toss then add enough water to cover the rice by more than ½ inch. Once boiling, reduce the fire to medium (I used 6 on the induction.) Leave to boil for 20-30 minutes till the rice is almost cooked, stirring every now and then so that the rice does not burn the bottom of the pot. You may need to keep topping up with water as you go along.
- Add the leftover roast chicken and vegetables and simmer for another 10 minutes on medium-low heat (i used 4 on an induction) till the chicken is warm and the rice cooked.
- Add the fish sauce and pepper then salt to taste (I left this for the last step as your roast chicken may already have a very salty marinade).
- When satisfied with the taste, switch off the fire, drizzle with sesame oil and sprinkle the spring onions. Serve and enjoy!
Notes
Jasmine and japonica rice are best for creating the thick texture of congee as they're quite starchy. Avoid using basmati for congee unless you have no choice as you won't get the right mouthfeel- if you must use basmati rice, break it down a bit (you can give it a few whirls in the blender) so that it will release more starch during cooking.