Chicken Congee with Crispy Shallots

Name: Chicken Congee with Crispy Shallots
Prep time: 25 min
Total time: 125 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Cantonese
Ingredients: ¾ cup jasmine rice; 1 tsp neutral oil; 2½ tsp kosher salt, divided, plus more to taste; 10 cups water; 1½ lb bone-in chicken thighs, skin removed; 1 3-inch piece fresh ginger, half sliced into coins, half cut into fine matchsticks; ¼ tsp ground white pepper; 4 shallots, sliced into thin rings; ½ cup neutral oil; 3 scallions, thinly sliced; ¼ cup cilantro, chopped; 2 tbsp soy sauce; 2 tsp toasted sesame oil

Cantonese rice porridge simmered with bone-in chicken and ginger until the grains break down silky, topped with crispy shallots, their oil, scallion and soy.

Rinse the rice, toss it with a little oil and salt, and let it sit 30 minutes before it goes in the pot. The grains crack and break down faster, and you get silky congee instead of rice floating in soup.

Ingredients

Congee
¾ cup jasmine rice
1 tsp neutral oil
2½ tsp kosher salt, divided, plus more to taste
10 cups water
1½ lb bone-in chicken thighs, skin removed
1 3-inch piece fresh ginger, half sliced into coins, half cut into fine matchsticks
¼ tsp ground white pepper
Crispy shallots
4 shallots, sliced into thin rings
½ cup neutral oil
To finish
3 scallions, thinly sliced
¼ cup cilantro, chopped
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp toasted sesame oil

Method

Rinse the rice in a few changes of cold water until it runs mostly clear. Drain well, toss with the 1 tsp oil and 1/2 tsp of the salt, and let it sit 30 minutes.
While it sits, put the shallots and 1/2 cup oil in a small cold saucepan. Set over medium and cook, stirring often, until light golden, 10 to 12 minutes. Pull them a shade early, they keep darkening. Drain on paper towels, salt lightly, and save the oil.
Bring the 10 cups water and the ginger coins to a boil in a heavy 6-quart pot. Add the rice, chicken and remaining 2 tsp salt. Stir, bring back to a boil, then drop to a bare simmer with the lid ajar.
Simmer until the chicken is cooked through, about 25 minutes. Stir the bottom once or twice so the rice doesn't catch. Pull the chicken out to cool.
Keep simmering, stirring and scraping the bottom every 10 minutes, until the grains have burst and the congee is thick and silky, 50 to 60 minutes more. Shred the chicken and throw out the bones while it cooks.
Stir the chicken back in with the white pepper. Taste for salt. It should fall off a spoon slowly, like loose oatmeal. Thin with hot water if it went too far.
Ladle into bowls. Top with the ginger matchsticks, scallions, cilantro and crispy shallots, then a spoonful of the shallot oil, a little soy and a few drops of sesame oil.