Slow Cooker Chicken & Mushroom Congee
Speed - 95%
Simplicity - 98%
Tastiness - 98%
97%
Excellent!
Perfect silky consistency; deep, rich flavors; really easy to prepare. I'm never cooking congee on the stovetop again!
Ingredients
- 1 Whole Chicken
- 150 Grams Shiitake Mushrooms sliced
- 1/2 Cup Glutinous Rice
- 1 Cup White Long-Grain Rice
- 1 2″ Piece Ginger minced
- 2 Stalks Leeks thinly sliced
- 1 Bulb garlic minced
- 2 Liters Water
- 1 Tablespoon Salt
- Sesame Oil
Instructions
- Heat oil in a pan.
- Sautee garlic and ginger.
- Add leeks and sautee for another minute.
- Deglaze pan with 1 cup water.
- Transfer contents of pan to the crockpot.
- Add chicken and salt. Cook for 3 hours on high.
- Wash rice.
- Take chicken out and add rice to the pot. Cook for 1 more hour.
- Shred chicken.
- 20 minutes before serving, add shredded chicken and mushroom to the pot.
- Season with salt if needed.
- Drizzle with sesame oil.
To be honest, I'm not that big of a congee fan but when I do get those rare cravings, there's just no having any other. Having said this, I really haven't mastered cooking this Chinese specialty. For me, those seldom attempts over the stovetop have always been tedious balancing acts between getting that perfect silky consistency and getting the congee too runny. Simply put, I haven't found the perfect rice to liquid ratio for congee, and I do add water as I cook along to get the consistency spot-on, ending up with a process much similar to a preparation of risotto.
With evaporation nearly non-existent in a slow cooker, I just thought I might actually nail it this time – unsupervised. So I stuck to my trusted ratio of 2 parts white long-grain rice to 1 part of glutinous rice for that right “stickiness”, and actually went guessing on a good starting amount for my liquid – 1.5 liters in this case.
Most cooks I know do have a one-pot approach to preparing their congee. I just logically tweaked mine to get the most flavor out of my ingredients.
I begin with a very fine mince of garlic and ginger which I sautee briefly in a little oil. I find that by doing so you'll get a totally different flavor from these aromatics. They actually end tasting sweeter and less pungent against getting them in their totally raw state.
After a minute or so of roasting, the leeks go in. Adding them in together with the other two ingredients, would get them overcooked, eventually tasting bitter.
After they've released their flavors well enough, add some water to the pan to deglaze then tip it all into your crockpot. Add water and some salt to create a stock.
Add a whole chicken in. As you can see, I've simply butterflied mine so it fits the pot better. You could leave it whole too, or cut it up any way you like. The only point worth noting here would be to use bone-in chicken and never go for fillets. The bones are what actually give the broth a flavor base. While the skin and fat do add to your congee's richness and silky texture. So if not on any dietary restrictions, might as well go with skin-on chicken too.
After 3 hours on a high heat setting, your chicken should be fall-apart tender, while remaining perfectly succulent. Carefully get it out of the pot, and get the rice in. By the way, you should have given your rice a few rinses in cold water beforehand.
The rice will take another hour on high to fully cook. Brush the chicken with some sesame oil to keep it from drying up as you set it aside.
From this point, you're practically done. You may cut the chicken into bigger serving pieces or shred the meat completely. This choice is totally up to you.
Just about 20 minutes before serving, add in those mushrooms. By this time I've realized that my starting liquid of 1.5 liters yielded a slightly thick consistency. I've simply added 2 more cups of water to get it right. That would then sum up to 2 liters of liquid, which I'll definitely take note of and put into practice next time.
Ingredients
- 1 Whole Chicken
- 150 Grams Shiitake Mushrooms sliced
- 1/2 Cup Glutinous Rice
- 1 Cup White Long-Grain Rice
- 1 2″ Piece Ginger minced
- 2 Stalks Leeks thinly sliced
- 1 Bulb garlic minced
- 2 Liters Water
- 1 Tablespoon Salt
- Sesame Oil
Instructions
- Heat oil in a pan.
- Sautee garlic and ginger.
- Add leeks and sautee for another minute.
- Deglaze pan with 1 cup water.
- Transfer contents of pan to the crockpot.
- Add chicken and salt. Cook for 3 hours on high.
- Wash rice.
- Take chicken out and add rice to the pot. Cook for 1 more hour.
- Shred chicken.
- 20 minutes before serving, add shredded chicken and mushroom to the pot.
- Season with salt if needed.
- Drizzle with sesame oil.
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