Easy Chicken Porridge
This is an easy chicken porridge recipe with shiitake mushroom and carrot. The porridge was made in under 30 minutes as I used cooked rice as the starting point for making the porridge, instead of cooking the porridge from scratch.
See Also:
These are the main ingredients for the porridge: carrot, cooked rice, marinated chicken & dried shiitake mushroom. About the cooked rice, I always ‘tabao‘ an extra 1-2 packets of plain white rice from the fish soup stall the night before. It saves me at least 20 minutes to simmer porridge from scratch, plus rice from the fish soup stalls has the most perfect texture (slightly wet) for making such rice porridge. As for the dried mushrooms, use quick cooking ones (usually the thinnest and cheapest variety) so that they cook within 5-10 minutes. Don’t forget to re-use the mushroom soaking liquid for added umami depth.
When cooked, the porridge is still quite watery & the rice grains are soft and slightly mushy. This is my favourite consistency for home-cooked rice porridge.
Easy Chicken Porridge Recipe
Use quick cooking dried mushrooms (usually the thinner and cheapest variety) for fast cooking. Alternatively, use fresh shiitake mushrooms (skip step 1 if using fresh ones).
This recipe uses cooked rice as a short-cut. Alternatively, you can cook the porridge from scratch on the stove or the rice cooker.
Ingredients:
- 4-5 dried shiitake mushrooms (use thin, quick-cooking type)
- hot boiling water enough to cover mushrooms in a small bowl
- 100g minced chicken
- half carrot diced
- 500ml water top up with more water during simmering
- 200g cooked long-grain white rice
- 1/2 tbsp mushroom seasoning powder or substitute with any seasoning such as soy sauce
- pinch of salt to taste
- 2 tbsp chopped spring onions with a bit more for garnish each bowl
- 2 tbsp shallot oil optional; with a bit more for garnish each bowl
(A) Seasonings
- 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1/2 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tsp Chinese wine (Hua Diao/Shaoxing)
- 3 dashes of white pepper powder optional
Directions:
- Prepare shiitake mushrooms by soaking them in a small bowl with hot water until softened, about 30 minutes. Discard the stems. Squeeze out excess water from the caps before dicing. Reserve mushroom soaking water.
- Marinade minced chicken with (A) for 15 minutes or up to overnight in the fridge.
- Make chicken porridge. Add prepared mushroom, carrot, mushroom soaking water (filtered), plain water and rice to cooking pot. Simmer for 3 minutes, then add the marinated chicken. When the meat is cooked, add more water appropriately and simmer briefly until the porridge is quite watery & the rice grains slightly mushy. Season porridge with mushroom seasoning powder and salt. Garnish with spring onions and shallot oil. Serve hot.