Chicken Congee (Aroz Caldo or Pospas)

CHICKEN CONGEE (Aroz Caldo or Pospas)

This dish is literally means rice soup with the chicken. It is a comfort food but in the Philippines, this is known as poor people’s food because it is so affordable and does not require a lot of ingredients. Without the chicken and eggs, this is called “lugaw” and it is already a complete meal for some people.

If you don’t want to use chicken knorr powder added to the water, you can use chicken broth to get the intense chicken flavor, then you don’t need the knorr from the list of ingredients. The flavor/taste is almost the same. The ginger plays an important role in this dish. Without it, it does not give the good aroma flavor we want! If you don’t like it, just take out the ginger just before serving. Just cut them big pieces so you can easily see the chunks. If eaten, it gives wonder to your body! It has many health benefits!

In other Asian restaurant, you can order this in the menu, called congee or porridge. My husband ordered this at two different Asian restaurants just to find out how it is, but never again! It was not good! In Northern part of the Philippines, this is called aroz caldo, while in the central part where I used to live, this is called pospas. I am pretty sure a lot of people have been cooking this dish with different names. But either way, I sure recommend this recipe as it turns out this is my daughter’s all time favorite! She can eat this three times a day and even take it to school for lunch!

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups chicken breast, chopped into small bites.
1 cup rice
6 cups water
2 tbsp olive oil
1/8 cup onions, diced
3 cloves fresh garlic, minced
1/8 cup of ginger, cut in chunks
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 whole dried bay leaf
1 tbsp knorr chicken powder
sea salt and black pepper to taste
green onions for garnish
boiled eggs, cooked in medium well

INSTRUCTIONS:

In a heated deep pot, add olive oil, garlic, onion and ginger. Saute until a little brown.
Add bay leaf.
Add the chicken cut up. Stir, cover and cook until no longer pink.
When juice runs out from the chicken, add the rice.
Add sea salt, pepper and fish sauce. Stir well.
After 2 minutes, add the water and the knorr chicken powder. Stir.
Do not cover until it boils so that it won’t overflow.
Turn the heat on low, put the lid on and let it boil, stirring occasionally for 45 minutes to an hour until you get the consistency of a soft creamy texture of the rice. That is what we want! Adjust the flavor, add more salt to taste.
Turn off heat. Serve while hot. Garnish with green onions and top with boiled eggs.

We love to serve our congee with boiled eggs. I have a microwaveable egg cooker and electric steamer so I just microwave it for 8 minutes for medium cooked yolk or 10 minutes for hard boiled eggs for a large size. If I use electric steamer I cook it for 13-15 minutes. You can also drop eggs in the boiling pot of congee while it is cooking and just take it out after 8-10 minutes. I place it in cold water immediately so it won’t overcook. The boiled egg in the picture is microwaved for 8 minutes.

Serve warm. Enjoy!