Congee ??

I tried some new foods while in Las Vegas this week.  One of the most delightful foods I tried is called Congee.  I had pronounced it "Con- ghee" but I was corrected by the waitress and she told me it is pronounced Con-gee as in Gee, this tastes good.  It was a thin rice porridge cooked with small amounts of chicken, mostly just for flavor.  I have seen it on menus in San Francisco cooked with abalone and other things. But I never knew what it was!!  It is supposedly a popular Chinese breakfast food.  I found that it tasted like a mostly rice chicken soup and it was DELICIOUS.

Anybody tried Congee before?  It does not appear to have much fat, but I would like someone familiar with the food to explain how it is cooked and maybe a little history on it in China.

Thank you!!

Years ago I had a Chinese girlfriend who used to make congee for me. She would put about 1/2 cup sweet glutinous rice in 10 cups of water and cook it until it all fell apart. That's the basic recipe, after that, you add in what you like, mushrooms, dried fish, chicken. I like mine with pork and preserved (salted) duck egg.

Well, it doesn't necessarily have to be glutinous rice. My mother always made it at home with just normal rice. And that's kind of our 'sick' food instead of, say, chicken soup. Making it with chicken stock will make it tastier, but you can also make it with just plain water and a little salt (I always had it served plain when I was sick).

It is pretty popular as a Chinese food, but doesn't always have to be served at breakfast. In Hong Kong, it's also pretty common to add in a few pieces fried dough sticks (you-tiao) into the congee, which turns into this great crunchy/soft/chewy texture. You'll find different methods to prepare congee across different Asian countries, so try it out at different restaurants (in Vietnamese restaurants it's labeled as chao, I forget others).

Congee is also really low calorie, since it's mostly water/stock! Oh yeah, there's also instant just-add-water packets you can find in Asian grocery stores if you don't feel like toiling over a stove stirring your own.

Funny enough being Chinese, I have had Congee but we call it Juk cos Congee sounds weird lol.

I like it because it is quite filling and you can whatever ingredients you want into the rice. Also its good budget food, being a student its great.

Using normal rice is fine because that is what my parents and I do, apparently a short grain rice is better though. My way of doing it I do not think its right but it tastes good.

I put rice in a pan then add lot of water and let it simmer for like an hour or until most the water has been taken in and its kinda creamy) and voila a plain Congee/Juk

Good ingredients to add include, Chicken, Beef, or any meat really, spring onions and dried scallops, whenever I'm in Hong Kong, I get one called Teng Jai Juk??? without peanuts and it basically a Juk with everything in

Suzic, you must speak Cantonese at home because we call it "Zhou" xD;

We normally eat it with just rice and water, but my parents have added rice wine into it before.  Normally with congee, we would eat salty preserved vegetables or "manto" and other typical Chinese breakfast foods.  In addition, I really love the sweet kind that they sell in cans at the Chinese supermarkets.  I don't know what the brand is; I'll be sure to mentally write it down when I browse through the supermarket again and let you know.  Also, KFC in China has a breakfast congee that they make with stock and vegetables...so good!

Wow, great lessons in Congee / Juk / Zhou!!  I think I will make some up this weekend.  I really enjoyed it.  Will make it with some chicken and mushrooms I think.  I have some dried shitake in the cupboard.  Spring onion too.  YUMMO!!!

This is the weirdest thing I've heard. I am Indian, brought up in India and this is our staple. It's pronounced exactly the way mentioned above. It's made with salt, water and rice only. But it's something we eat everyday for dinner and in older times before bread even for breakfast with an Indian pickle or a slice of mango.... yummy......

I'm so surprised China and India share this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow, that's so cool.  We usually don't put salt in ours, though; we let the salty vegetables, meat, and thousand year eggs pull through for flavor.  Ours is usually for breakfast too, though xD;