Chicken Congee

Congee was a poor Chinese dish.  During the time of famine, the Chinese people had to make a lot of food with very little ingredients.  Now everyone eats congee because it is just delicious.  My favorite is the Thousand year old egg (no the eggs are not really that old!) with pork but I am not even going to attempt to make that.  My chicken congee is so easy to make that anyone can do it.  I am a fan of Jasmine rice and it is what I always have at home.  In my 3 1/2 quart pot, I add about 1/4 cup of rice, 1/2 tablespoon of salt and water up to 2/3 the way.  Add about 3 tablespoon of julienne ginger (depending on how spicy you want it) and chicken.  Bowl about 1 1/2 hours, until the rice is broken up and the water is all starch.  Serve with green onion and soy sauce.

Hint: Ginger is so expensive in non-Asian stores.  Therefore when I am in a Chinese store, I stock up on ginger.  It is 1/3 the price and much fresher than the ginger in the American supermarkets.  After you julienne it, put it into the freezer bag and freeze.  It is good for a few months in the freezer.  I do the same for the green onion because I always use so little and always have excess.  With the green onion, you have to first put it into a bag then into a container to contain the smell of onion.