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Chicken Congee (Gye Joke)

Congee flavored with chicken bones being served in a bowl.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Micah Marie Morton

Cooking congee in a slow cooker takes patience, but you can cook it overnight if you want it for breakfast. 

Editor's note: If you prefer not to prepare your congee in a slow cooker, you can also make it on the stovetop. Add the rice, chicken stock, and bones to a large pot or Dutch oven with the lid slightly cracked. Bring to a simmer, then reduce to low heat and stir regularly to prevent grains from sticking. It can take anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half to finish cooking; continue cooking until the congee has slightly thickened and the rice begins to lose its shape. Rather than make single servings, you can add all the marinated boneless chicken pieces to the large pot of congee once the rice has begun to melt into the porridge. When the chicken has finished cooking, the congee is ready to serve.

How you enjoy your congee is very much up to you—just be sure to season and garnish each bowl to taste. For extra flavor, Epi assistant editor Genevieve Yam likes to simmer her congee with bones and the carcass left over from roast chicken dinners.

Get more of our favorite Chinese chicken recipes →

Ingredients

Serves 4

200g lean pork (such as pork loin), blanched and sliced
Salt
200g boneless chicken thigh or breast meat, cut into in 1-2 cm pieces
Soy sauce
1½ cups uncooked rice
7 cups chicken stock
Pepper
Oil for drizzling
Spring onions, ginger matchsticks, and fried shallots, to garnish

Condiments for serving with porridge

Century eggs, quartered
Salted eggs, boiled, shelled and quartered
Rice vermicelli, deep-fried to a crisp
Prawn crackers

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Marinate the pork with salt overnight. Just before cooking, rinse with water.

    Step 2

    Marinate chicken meat with soy sauce overnight.

    Step 3

    Cook the rice with the stock and the salted lean pork in a slow cooker. Start cooking at about 9 p.m. over high heat. Just before going to bed, stir the porridge and scrape the bottom and change the setting to automatic or low. The next morning, give it another stir and scrape the bottom. (For stovetop cooking instructions, see headnote.)

    Step 4

    To make one serving, scoop a bowl of porridge into a small saucepan and bring to a simmer. Add a few pieces of marinated chicken and stir over medium heat until the chicken is cooked. Transfer into a bowl and drizzle with a little oil, garnish with fried shallots, spring onions, and ginger strips. Season with soy sauce, salt and pepper. Serve with condiments on separate plates.

Madam-Choy's-Cantonese-Recipes.jpg
Copyright © 2012 Madam Choy's Cantonese Recipes by Choy, Wai Yuen and Lulin Reutens. Published in Singapore by Epigram Books. Buy the full book from Epigram Books or Amazon.
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How would you rate Chicken Congee (Gye Joke)?

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  • Pretty traditional but I would make the fried bread to help soak up the broth and juices from the chicken thighs. My mother made a more extensive version and it was comfort food for us.

    • Swimmer's Mom

    • San Francisco Bay Area

    • 1/10/2022

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