I posted a different recipe for congee a couple years back. However, as noted in the original recipe, there are a lot of different ways to make congee. I did up a slightly different take on congee recently. It's still the same basic concept, but I decided to write it up anyway. As before, this is a very flexible recipe, so do with it what you will.

For this particular congee incarnation, I started with a cooked chicken and made the stock from scratch, so I've included those instructions below. You can, of course, use store-bought stock or even water. Pork bones also work well. Follow your heart!

Chicken Congee

Ingredients

Broth

• 1 whole cooked chicken
• 2-4 c. vegetable peelings and scraps¹
• 3L water
• 1/2 Tbsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 (7-8cm) cinnamon stick
• 1 star anise
• small knob of fresh ginger

Congee

• 1 c. long-grain brown rice
• 1/4 c. short-grain white rice²
• 2-3 Tbsp. dried goji berries
• Broth from above
• 1/4 of the meat from the chicken
• salt, to taste
• white pepper, to taste

Toppings

• sesame oil
• chopped fresh cilantro
• chopped dry-roasted peanuts
• toasted sesame seeds

Directions

Broth

1. Remove the chicken meat from the bones and reserve both the meat and carcass separately.
2. Combine the chicken carcass with all the other broth ingredients in InstantPot (or in a pot on the stove) and slow cook on "high" for 2-3 hours.
3. Strain the broth and discard the solids.

Congee

1. While the broth is cooking, soak the rice. Place in a bowl with enough water to cover for 30 minutes, then drain and set aside.
2. Place all the congee ingredients in InstantPot (or in a pot on the stove) and simmer for 1-2 hours depending on what texture and consistency you prefer. You may want to cook it either partially or fully uncovered for some of the time (again, depending on your preferred consistency).
3. Adjust seasoning to taste with salt and white pepper.

Serving

1. To serve, top each portion with a drizzle of sesame oil, then place the peanuts, cilantro, and sesame seeds on top.
2. If desired, sriracha or Laoganma can be added to give a hit of spiciness.
3. Other toppings may be added or substituted. Popular choices include: fried wontons/noodles, chopped scallions/green onions, sprouts, microgreens, and/or sautéed mushrooms. Salted duck eggs and century eggs are also popular congee inclusions.

---

¹ I often save vegetable scraps and peels and toss them in a large Ziploc bag in the freezer. When the bag gets full, I toss them in the InstantPot with some water and seasonings (and possibly bones of some sort) and slow cook for a few hours until I have a delicious stock. This time I think my bag contained onion, garlic, bell pepper, ginger, carrot, pink oyster mushroom and lion's mane mushroom (courtesy of Noki Farms), and possibly a few other things as well. If you don't have any vegetable scraps handy, then feel free to just toss in some onions, carrots, mushrooms, and whatever else seems tasty. ^Back
2 I was originally planning to make this congee with only brown rice but, after cooking for a little over an hour, the consistency was still more like rice soup with a clear broth than what I expect for congee. I added the short-grain rice to see if the extra starch would help thicken it up. I also cooked it with the lid off for a little bit. I'm not sure if it was the extra rice or the extra cooking or the time with the lid off that did the trick but, at the end of another hour, it was looking much better! ^Back