Chicken & Rice Congee with Ginger & Spring Onion Tops

Ingredients

• 2 chicken breasts
• 200 g jasmine rice, rinsed
• 1.5 litres good chicken stock, gluten-free
• 4 cm piece fresh ginger, peeled, cut into matchsticks
• 2 tbsp tamari
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 4 spring onions, green tops only, thinly sliced
• 1 long red chilli, thinly sliced
• 15g fresh coriander
• white pepper
• Pickled cucumber, to serve

Method

1. Pour the stock into a large heavy pot and bring to a rolling boil. Season the chicken breasts generously with salt and pepper before they go in — congee is a long, gentle cook, and the salt needs the full simmer to work into the meat.
2. Add the rinsed rice and the whole chicken breasts, then drop the heat to the barest simmer — the surface should tremble, not bubble. A hard boil shreds the chicken and turns the rice gluey in the wrong way.
3. Cook for 30–35 minutes, stirring every few minutes with a wooden spoon to stop the rice catching on the base. You're looking for collapsed grains and a thick, glossy, porridge consistency that drips slowly off the spoon. If it tightens past that, loosen with a splash of water or stock.
4. Lift the chicken breasts out onto a board and shred into rough strands with two forks. The meat should pull apart with no resistance — if it fights back, give it another 5 minutes back in the pot.
5. Return the shredded chicken to the pot and stir through the tamari and sesame oil off direct heat. Taste the congee — most of the salt comes from the tamari, but a final pinch of sea salt ties it together, along with a generous hit of white pepper. Taste, season, taste again. Adjust now, not at the table.
6. Ladle the congee into deep bowls. Pile the ginger matchsticks and sliced spring onion tops into the centre, scatter the red chilli rings and torn coriander leaves across each bowl, and finish with a final dusting of white pepper to send the steam up.