Pressure Cooker Chicken Congee with Brown Rice
This Chicken Congee with Brown Rice is an improved version of Vietnamese classic chicken congee. It is healthier, more flavorful and will keep you full longer. Cooking this congee with a pressure cooker yields a perfect creamy texture in a short amount of time.
Servings: 3 people
Calories: 622kcal
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup brown rice
- 1/4 cup white rice (see Notes for suggestion)
- 3 dried shiitake mushrooms (optional)
- 1 chubby thumb-sized piece ginger, thinly sliced
- 1 tablespoon thinly sliced shallots
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- olive oil
- 2 lbs chicken pieces with bones (I use a whole young chicken)
- 4 1/2 cups water (or half water, half chicken stock)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon fish sauce
- black pepper
- scallions, thinly sliced
- cilantro, roughly chopped
- 3 kaffir lime leaves, sliced very thinly (optional)
Instructions
- Prep all ingredients. Rinse the rice under water. Submerge dried shiitake mushrooms in hot water for 3-4 minutes to rehydrate them (if using). Slice ginger, shallot and mince garlic.
- Turn on your pressure cooker and choose Sauté mode. Once the pot is hot, add a little olive oil. Add shallot, ginger slices and garlic and sauté until fragrant. Add both brown and white rice and continue to sauté for 30 seconds to a minute.
- Add chicken, 4 1/2 cups of water (or half water, half chicken stock), dried shiitake mushrooms (if using) and salt to the pressure cooker. Switch to pressure cooking mode and cook for 25 minutes.
- Once pressure cooking period is over, let the pressure cooker release pressure naturally. This may take 15-20 minutes.
- Carefully open the lid, remove the chicken pieces and shred the meat. Discard the bones and skin.
- Switch the pressure cooker to Sauté mode, gently stir, add a teaspoon of fish sauce (more or less to taste). Adjust the consistency of the congee by adding more water or heat it longer with Sauté mode.
- Add chicken meat back to the pot to warm it through. Transfer congee to servings bowls, top with plenty of freshly cracked black pepper, scallions, cilantro and other toppings you like.
Notes
For white rice, you can use long grain white rice like jasmine rice, short grain like Japanese or Korean rice, or sticky rice. Short grain white rice and sticky rice are both starchier than jasmine rice. When I make this dish, I often use short grain white rice.
When I use a whole chicken to cook this dish, I usually par-boil the chicken for a couple of minutes. You can use a combination of chicken pieces with bones such as thighs and drumsticks.
Don't stir the congee too much or too vigorously after it is cooked. We don't want to break the grains too much.
If you don't have garlic, shallot or dried shiitake mushrooms on hand, it's okay to skip them. However, do not skip ginger.
There may be some slight differences among different brands of electric pressure cookers, so experiment with cooking time to achieve the consistency you like.
If you are short on time, it is okay to throw everything straight in your Instant Pot and hit Start. I personally like to use the Sauté function to sauté the aromatics and rice to bring out their flavors before pressure cooking.
Nutrition
Calories: 622kcal | Carbohydrates: 38g | Protein: 42g | Fat: 31g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Cholesterol: 154mg | Sodium: 1097mg | Potassium: 506mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 0g | Vitamin A: 290IU | Vitamin C: 3.6mg | Calcium: 49mg | Iron: 2.5mg