Updated photographs of leftover congee
The weather in Canberra today has been hideous. South east Australia is apparently experiencing a cold snap with winds from the Antarctic forcing cold air along with rain and wind to most of the southern part of Australia. The glorious north remains heavenly while the south is chilled to the bone.
The best way to handle cold weather is with comfort food and when I think of comfort food I immediately think of congee (we used to call it jook as kids but the name most people know is congee).
Given I’m trying to reduce fat in my diet I decided against a whole chicken with all the fatty skin. Instead I bought four skinless chicken thighs along with about a kilogram of chicken necks for flavour.
In addition to arborio rice I also used some quinoa to give it a modern nutty flavour.
- Chicken necks
- Chicken thighs
- Arborio rice
- Quinoa
- Chicken stock
- Curry powder
- Star anise
- Lettuce
- Soy sauce
- Get out the slow cooker
- In the bowl add a cup of rice and a handful of quinoa
- Add two cups of chicken stock and a tablespoon of curry powder
- Add two star anise
- Add the chicken thighs and necks and mix everything around
- Turn on the slow cooker and cook for six hours
- Once cooked pull out the star anise and chicken necks
- Stir everything through shredding the chicken thigh meat at the same time
- The thigh meat will just fall apart and mix in with the rice and quinoa
- Put most of the congee aside in a bowl in the refrigerator for another day
- Put some congee into a bowl
- Shred some lettuce and put on the congee
- Add a splash of soy sauce
- Shoot a photograph
- Eat the congee
- Get warm from the congee
- Wash the dishes
- Write the recipe
- Blog (verb)
I reckon chicken necks are as good as a carcass for flavour. They are more expensive than they should be.
Check out the fat, I was hoping for less fat on the chicken. I hope there’s less fat than if I cooked a whole chook with the skin on.
For breakfast I had an egg fried in a nonstick pan along with some smoked salmon and avocado.
For lunch I had some soy and linseed toast with salmon and avocado.
My Mum makes the best congee. She uses a pressure cooker. I have fond memories of winter in Brisbane and eating multiple of bowls of Mum’s chicken congee.
This slow cooker version worked fine. I think next time I’ll make it 3.5 cups of stock to 1 cup of rice. Mum’s congee usually has more water content.
Do you like chicken congee? How do you make it?
The other good thing about today is that the owner of the apartment I rent installed a new clothes dryer. I’m so happy.
Updated photos of leftover congee
So today (Sunday 2015-07-12) I heated up some leftover congee and put it on a toasted English muffin. A east meets west fusion lunch.
We were just taking about congee last night. I will have to give it a go. I adore healthy comfort food.
A year ago I would never have thought of making it with quinoa, in a slow cooker or without using a whole chook. Times have changed at how I look at food 😀 If using a slow cooker next time I’ll use half as much stock or water, the recipe in the post produced a ‘stiff’ congee. I prefer congee to have a little more water content. That said, the ability to put it on an English muffin or in a toasted sandwich is making leftovers amazing 🙂
I never thought to use chicken necks Gary! Agreed the weather has not been great but we’ve been comparatively lucky compared to Canberra! Stay warm 🙂
I was just chatting with Mum Lorraine and she suggested I make the stock with the necks to avoid neck bones in the congee. That’s why Mums are brilliant. I’m keen to make this again soon 😀