Easy Chinese Canned Abalone Porridge

Close-up of a bowl of chicken porridge with a huge abalone on top.

5 from 46 votes

Easy Chinese Canned Abalone Porridge

A no-fuss, easy Chinese Canned Abalone Porridge recipe, also known as jook or congee, which can be made using store cupboard ingredients. So easy there's only 1 photo for the step-by-step instructions, it's the perfect comfort food and a delicious recipe for a weekday dinner.

Prep Time10

Cook Time40

Course: Breakfast, Main Course

Cuisine: Cantonese, Chinese, Hong Kong, singaporean, Southeast Asian

Servings: people

Calories: 1609kcal

Author: Zen

Equipment

Large pot
Wooden spatula

Ingredients

1 Cup White jasmine rice, rinsed Rinsed- don't wash till the water runs totally clear as you need the starch for the congee! You can substitute with brown rice (longer cook time) or short-grain white rice (which can reduce the cooking time.)
9 Cups Chicken broth Substitute: chicken bouillon cube. Top up with plain water if you don't have enough chicken stock.
1 Can abalone Cut into small pieces or thin slices. Add 3-4 Tablespoons into the porridge and keep the rest for stir-fries or noodle soups.
5 dried scallops/ conpoy Soak in hot water for 10 minutes. If you don't have time to soak, don't worry- just boil the porridge over high heat for 1 hour and your scallops will be soft. These give the rice porridge umami and depth of flavour but are quite expensive. (They'll also add a bit of salt to the porridge so taste before seasoning later.) Feel free to substitute with dried conch, dried squid or 1 of these dried scallop alternatives.
3-5 Slices ginger
salt to taste. You can substitute with fish sauce which is not traditional but I love the depth of flavor which goes well with abalone.
1-2 Tablespoon goji berries Optional. Goji berries are good for your eyes and both make the porridge a little sweeter which helps if you're using unsweetened homemade stock (Shop bought or bouillon cubes are usually heavily seasoned and may not need this.) S
1-2 honey date Opyional. Note that there is a seed in the middle of the date so you may want to cut it out when it has softened after cooking! Sweetens the porridge naturally and can be substituted with minced carrots or red dates. The red dates have a herbal flavor though.C

Garnishes

Optional: sesame oil Drizzle on top of each bowl
Optional: spring onions, sliced Click here for alternatives to green onions.
Optional: think sliced ginger
Optional: fried shallots

Instructions

Quick & Easy method

Add the rinsed rice, dried scallops (along with the soaking water), ginger, abalone juice, honey date (If using) and chicken broth/ water to the pot.
Bring to the boil over high heat.
Once boiling, reduce the fire if necessary. Let it simmer vigorously till cooked to your desired consistency. You may need to top up the water later. Stir it every now and then (or it will burn at the bottom of the pot.) (Cooking will take at least 30 minutes if using white rice.)
5-10 minutes before you switch off the fire, add the cut up abalone and goji berries (if using) to the pot and cook till it's warmed through. (If adding other proteins such as the fresh shrimps and scallops, add them with the abalone and simmer till cooked.)
Taste and season with salt to taste. A pinch of white pepper is nice but remember the taste can be very strong so less is more here.
Ladle into the bowls- if you wish, you can drizzle some sesame oil on top of each 1, along with some sliced ginger and spring onions (or fried shallots/ fried ikan bills.)

For a more fragrant porridge, do this extra step

Heat up some oil in the pot then stir-fry the ginger and the white part of the spring onions till fragrant.
Add the rinsed rice grains and stir fry for 1 minute. (If using carrots, add them at the same time.)
Pour in all the chicken stock/ water, scallop soaking water, abalone juice and and soaking water / honey date (if using) into the pot. Add the soaked scallops and bring to the boil over high heat.
The rest of the cooking steps follows the quick & easy version above.

Notes

To make your abalone go a longer way, dice it up into smaller pieces, so that the taste will better infuse the porridge.

To bulk the porridge up, you can also add shredded chicken (the thigh meat is less likely to overcook and become stringy, and also has more flavour), fresh shrimp or fresh scallops.

Note: the nutritional information is an estimate automatically calculated using the WPRM recipe maker and I am not responsible for its accuracy. (For example, they're using the nutritional info for oysters in place of the abalone info!

Nutrition