Chicken Congee

May 28, 2020

Congee is comfort food for many Asian Americans. It was the first food that my father ate as an infant, and six months after giving birth to my second child, rice gruel was the first solid food I fed my son.

Growing up, I watched my parents prepare congee in a variety of ways. My mother used leftover rice combined with water to create a soupy porridge in the morning. My father's method was to measure a cup of white rice and to add 4-6 cups of water to a small pot that he'd heat on the stove. My father touted congee as a healthful and easily digestible food which seemed to be a part of his daily diet. Being a picky kid, if the temperature or consistency was off on a batch of congee, I'd turn up my nose at it, in the way that I can be a snob about overly dry oatmeal. Neither of my parents' cooking methods worked out well for me and I often struggled to find the right combination of water to rice to get the creaminess of a classic congee.

Since the shelter in place order in Seattle, I've turned back to the comfort food of my youth. We're constantly roasting vegetables in the oven and making desserts and in the interest of slaving over a stove less (particularly while sleeping), I've turned to using my slow cooker. The weather vacillates between 40 and 60 degrees in April and congee feels like the perfect warming food to get us through a long week. I load up the slow cooker before going to bed and in the morning, the perfect breakfast food awaits. With my parents sheltering in place thousands of miles away in Southern California, this food reminds me of my childhood and connects me to the comfort and love that my parents tried to offer me as a young person.

1 cup of Japanese rice
8 cups of water
1 small knob of ginger, grated
3 boneless chicken thighs
Sliced bamboo (optional)
1-2 scallions
Soy sauce to taste

Wash rice until water runs clear.

Place rice, 8 cups of water, ginger and chicken thighs in a slow cooker.

Cook for 8 hours on low.

Remove chicken, shred into smaller pieces and add back to congee.

Serve hot, top with thinly sliced scallions and soy sauce. Add kim chi or other pickles.

Shin Yu Pai is a poet, essayist, and curator.