Name: Super-Simple Overnight Porridge (Cháo)
Cook time: 30 minutes, plus overnight soaking
Ingredients: 2 cups packed cooked white rice; About 5 cups chicken stock, vegetable stock, or store-bought chicken or vegetable broth; 2 cups water, plus more as needed; 3 thick slices unpeeled ginger, bruised; 2 green onions, white parts kept whole, green parts cut into thin rings; About ½ teaspoon fine sea salt; Recently ground black pepper (optional)

Active Time
30 minutes, plus overnight soaking

Creamy and comforting Asian rice porridges are prepared by gently simmering rice in liquid, such as water or stock, until the starches release. These soups are generically called cháo in Vietnamese, but in America, they’re better known as porridge or congee. The thrifty, versatile soups soothe stomachaches, colds, and hangovers. They’re a breakfast and lunch food, but don’t let this stop you from enjoying them for dinner.

Given that simmering can take a good hour, and the pot often threatens to boil over, Viet cooks have their tricks, such as using broken rice grains to hasten the cooking process. I simply soak cooked leftover rice overnight, and simmer for 15 minutes the next day. Here’s my basic recipe. See the Notes for options using other grains.

Lean, light-tasting cháo responds well to fatty, salty, spicy, herbal enhancements. In addition to (or instead of) garnishing your porridge with green onion and pepper, consider the following, and feel free to mix and match. Try crisp chopped bacon, a fried or soft-boiled egg, and maybe chopped kimchi for punch. Add fried onions or shallots, and coarsely chopped fresh cilantro, mint, or basil. You can also crack a raw egg into the bowl before ladling in the hot soup. Top with crumbled rice crackers and perhaps ribbons of Korean toasted seaweed snacks. Stir well before eating. Or drop 8 ounces of raw peeled shrimp into the soup as it heats. When the shrimp are pink and cooked through, ladle out the soup. Add slivered ginger and maybe some gim.

Ingredients

2 cups packed cooked white rice

About 5 cups chicken stock, vegetable stock, or store-bought chicken or vegetable broth

2 cups water, plus more as needed

3 thick slices unpeeled ginger, bruised

2 green onions, white parts kept whole, green parts cut into thin rings

About ½ teaspoon fine sea salt

Recently ground black pepper (optional)

Preparation

Step 1
In a 4-quart saucepan, combine the rice, chicken stock, and water. Cover and let sit overnight at cool room temperature (around or below 60°F) or in the refrigerator.
Step 2
The next morning, add the ginger and the white parts of the green onions to the pot. Partially cover (a small gap is perfect to minimize evaporation and avoid a boil over) and bring to vigorous simmer over high heat. Lower the heat and gently simmer, partially covered, for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally and adjusting the heat as needed. When done, most of the liquid will have been absorbed (you’ll see little separation between the rice and liquid). Discard the ginger and green onions. Stir the pot, cover tightly, turn off the heat, and let rest for 10 minutes to finish thickening. The desired thickness of the porridge can vary according to taste; it can be rustic and thick, or elegant and thin, or somewhere in between. If needed, add a splash of water to thin or cook a little longer to thicken. Taste and season with the salt.
Step 3
When ready to serve, reheat the porridge to a simmer, then ladle into individual bowls. Garnish with sliced green onions and pepper.

Notes

The soup will keep, covered, in the fridge for up to 3 days and in the freezer for up to 1 month. Splash in water when reheating to loosen it up.

For a brown rice porridge, replace the cooked white rice with cooked brown rice and pulse it in a food processor or blender with the 2 cups water to break up the grains. Don’t add more water during the overnight soak. Cook as directed.

To make a mixed grain porridge, swap in ⅔ cup raw quinoa or hulled millet for 1 cup of the cooked rice.

Cover of Vietnamese Food Any Day cookbook with photo of grains bowls with meat skewers and vegetables.

Excerpted from Vietnamese Food Any Day: Simple Recipes for True, Fresh Flavors © 2019 by Andrea Nguyen. Photography © 2019 by Aubrie Pick. Reproduced by permission of Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House. All rights reserved. Buy the full book from Amazon.

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Reviews (5)

Like a previous poster, it took me over two hours to get this to the consistency that I like (and even then it was not quite as thick as the congee you get in restaurants). I wonder if it was because I used cooked basmati, and whether a short-grain rice would have worked better. But I also thought that the ratio of water seemed high; barely any had been absorbed by the morning. As a result of having to cook it down so much, the saltiness of the chicken stock was greatly intensified. Thank goodness I used 3/4 of the Better Bouillon ratio normally recommended, and that too the low sodium kind. Next time, I will reduce the ratio even more, and use less water to start.
- Maharani
- Washington, DC
- 1/17/2022
I love congee for breakfast, but with all due respect, soaking leftover cooked rice outside of the fridge overnight sounds like a recipe for a very dangerous bacteria that can survive the reheating process: Bacillus cereus. This goes against all the food safety advice I’ve learned about leaving cooked rice at room temperature for more than a couple of hours. Please amend your recipe accordingly.
- Flovariana
- Boulder, CO
- 9/3/2021
This works great in a pressure cooker/ instant pot. Use 4x the liquid (stock, water...) that you'd use to make rice and pressure cook for 45 min with a chicken thigh and ginger slices.
- wali
- Portland, OR
- 10/6/2020
Genius! Congee/jook/chao takes so long to cook, I never made it for breakfast before. But now I will! I like mine with a spoonful of chili crisp!
- AlicethePest
- Pittsburgh
- 12/31/2019
This is easily top of my list of comfort foods. It is so creamy and flavorful. I did have to simmer mine a LOT longer (like about 2 hours) in the morning until it got to a thickness I was looking for, but it was worth the wait.
- nutmeg1760
- Silver Springs, FL
- 12/28/2019