Arroz Caldo - Filipino Congee Recipe

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Ingredients

• 4 chicken thighs (or drumsticks)
• 2 cups of sticky rice (uncooked)
• 1 qt of chicken stock (fat free, sodium free)
• 2 knobs of ginger (peeled, chopped 1/4 inches)
• 4 cloves of garlic (chopped roughly)
• 1 onion or 2 shallots
• green onions
• 2 tablespoons patis (fish sauce)
• salt and pepper

How to make Arroz Caldo - Filipino Congee

Total comfort food and perfect for a loved one with a cold.

Arroz Caldo literally translates to "hot rice" and this was one of my favorite dishes growing up in the Philippines.

1. Get a big pot hot and add some olive oil, and brown the chicken. This means don't move it until it has sufficiently browned on one side. Salt and pepper.

2. When you flip over the chicken, add the chopped onion or shallots and let it sautee until the other side of the chicken browns.

3. Add garlic, give a quick toss and add uncooked rice.

4. Mix around the rice and add the patis (vietnamese fish sauce works well too). Add ginger. Mix around and add chicken stock.

5. Cover and bring to simmer.

6. When simmer, bring heat to medium and continue to stir. Making sure rice doesn't stick to the bottom of the pot.

7. Continue to check the tenderness of the rice (much like risotto). If mixture is getting too thick, loosen with tepid water.

8. When rice is cooked just right, serve with chicken in a bowl and garnish with green onions and/or deep fried shallots and garlic and a grind of black pepper (white pepper works well too).

Halway through eating a bowl, squeeze a bit of lemon juice (or calamansi) on top of the hot rice to jazz things up again.

Also, this tastes much better with those big chinese soup spoons.

• 
  yongfook says

  Didn't know you grew up in the Philippines!

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  dubow says

  congee...........*drool*

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  iconsam says

  YF > Yep! South East Asia, Represent! *throws up gang signs*

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  telliecoin says

  love congee :)

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  telliecoin says

  sticky rice is unnecessary, if you leave the rice in the rice cooker for 20 minutes with slightly more water than usual, the rice turns out stickier after you cook it :) saves you money on sticky rice

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  iconsam says

  I agree that sticky rice isn't unecessary, but congee made with the short-grain rice compared to the ones made with medium grain rice really makes a difference for me. Perhaps I should reword and say that short-grain rice should be used. Sometimes the medium grain rice splits when cooked for a long time, which sort of gives that powdery feel when bitten into. Whereas the short grain is almost like a firm mocchi, which is the texture that I really like.

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  shirota says

  a bowl of this stuff kicks the gloomy weather away. calamansi rocks!

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  iconsam says

  Agreed. It's almost impossible to find it here in NYC.

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  ted says

  As someone who grew up as a first-generation Filipino American (my folks immigrated in '79), this is one of the classic recipes that is not oft-shared with people outside of the family (primarily because everyone asks for adobo and lumpia). I personally use just a whole chicken chopped up, using the bones to render the stock - depends on how fast you want to make it, I guess. You can stretch this for some time before it goes bad, too! I managed to stretch a half a stockpot's worth for a week once a few years back and I'm still alive...I think.

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  iconsam says

  haha good to hear. Yeah I've had it go as long as a week as well. :)

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  rockchick says

  I'm a vegetarian, but I think I'm going to attempt this with some "chicken" substitute. Looks and sounds great!

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  iconsam says

  You can definitely use mushrooms instead of chicken, and with vegetable stock instead of chicken stock. And it's pretty damn good. Make sure to use fresh ginger (break off a piece and make sure it's all yellow and smells lemony and not gingery).

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  MeltingWok says

  hey there, thx for ur comment on my post :) For some reason, ur congee reminds me so much of claypot chicken rice, using sticky rice w/mushrooms, ginger chicken, quail eggs and chinese sausage.. yummys !

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  celyn916 says

  i agree that short grained rice or what we call calrose here in the us makes better congee.. + i add saffron

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  worldpeas says

  arroz caldo reminds me of home, too :)

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  Jom says

  Some add safflower for color. I still live in the Phil and the rice doesn't matter that much. In the streets they use the lowest quality rice for bigger income. Gald to see Filipino dish here

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  scorpio says

  I am thankful for sharing the recipe. It helps me a lot and it is simple to cook and it taste good. In my own opinion using sticky rice is the best choice for this recipe because it smells pleasant and it has other taste than just the normal rice.

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  kimmallari says

  ooooooh yumMMMMM! this with calamansi + fish sauce/soy sauce + toasted garlic + crushed chicharon (pork rinds) = HEAVEN!!!! :)

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  iconsam says

  Hey, that's a great idea! Make an arroz caldo base and make about 10 different condiments that you can add to it one at a time per byte to keep it interesting! One of them MUST be chicharon... *drool*

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  berks2click says

  Have you been here in Philippines? can also put egg, calamansi and shrimp.. more I like if have chilli ^_^

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  iconsam says

  I really need to make a version of this with you're simply served the plainest version of the dish and also served an accoutrement or side dishes that go with it.

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  thisgirlemily says

  To make it even more filling, add a hard boiled egg on bowl when serving

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