Rotisserie Chicken Porridge

Another busy week flew by…due to the lack of time in our lives, I often cook in huge quantities (enough to last us several meals). It’s not exactly an ideal situation but at least we get to have a home-cooked meal most days. Usually, I would make something tried and true, of course. It has to be a dish we wouldn’t get sick of eating multiple times. :D In addition, the dish would have to withstand reheating without deteriorating in looks, quality, and taste (picky…picky…picky). This week (surprise, surprise…or probably not), I decided to make a personal favorite – porridge. Porridge is a comfort food for me. It’s easy to make and tastes as good on the third day as it does on the first.

I’ve made rotisserie chicken porridge before but this time, instead of using store-bought chicken broth, I used homemade broth made from the leftover carcass of the rotisserie chicken. It is an extra step but it is mostly hands-off time. Of course, you can opt to use store-bought broth and just omit this step. The idea is to get as much chicken flavor in the porridge so that the resulting porridge would be savory and delicious. And can I say it turned out mmm….mmm…good! :D Enjoy!

To make the stock:
1 rotisserie chicken
12 to 13 cups water

Remove and shred meat from chicken, set aside (in the fridge) until needed. Place leftover carcass (bones, skin, and all) in a large pot with water and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour. Discard large pieces of carcass. Then, strain stock into another large pot, discarding the contents of the strainer. Now, you have your flavorful stock.

To make the porridge:
1 cup jasmine brown rice
1¼ cups jasmine white rice
Additional 6 cups water and more if needed
Shredded chicken meat from above
Salt to taste

Rinse the rice with cold water 3 to 4 times, draining the water each time. After rinsing, place both rice and the extra 6 cups water in the pot with the stock. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat and simmer until rice have broken down and porridge has reached the desired consistency (adding more water throughout the cooking process if needed). You can choose to add the shredded chicken halfway through or towards the end…just be sure that the chicken is heated through in the porridge.  Season with salt to taste. Serve hot or warm, as is or with other varied porridge add-ins such as roasted peanuts, chopped green onions, salted spicy radish, and many others.