Winter. It’s that time of year when you get sick, more often. I usually prepare Tinola, a Filipino-style chicken soup, to help me fight off my colds. This time around, this illness is really kicking my butt. It’s winter, and I need more comfort, more than chicken soup. So the craving for Arroz Caldo, or Lugaw, kicked in.
Arroz Caldo is a Filipino rice porridge with chicken. There are only a few ingredients to this comfort food and it takes less than an hour to cook.
Having already made Tinola a couple days ago, this evening I tried making a quick Arroz Caldo by taking the leftover chicken meat and its soup and using that for my base. In my Tinola recipe, the chicken is already cooked in a similar style starting with a base of ginger, garlic and onion. I shredded the leftovers sans the bones and skin and started with that to cut down the cook time.
Ingredients
- 2 cups shredded cooked chicken meat
- 1 medium piece of ginger, peeled and sliced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
- Patis (Fish Sauce), to taste
- 1 pinch of Saffron threads
- 2 tbsp Vegetable oil
- 8 cups water
- 1 cup chicken soup or stock
- 2 cups rice, rinsed and drained
Garnish
- Scallions, sliced
- Hard boiled eggs, sliced
- Fried shallots or garlic
Directions
- In a large pot, heat vegetable oil over medium heat
- Add ginger, garlic and onion and sauté for about 2 minutes. Be sure not to make the garlic burn or else it will taste bitter
- Add shredded chicken, patis, 1 cup of soup, 8 cups of water, and rice
- Stir together and cook for about 20-30 minutes, until rice is cooked. If the porridge is dry, add more soup or broth.
- Add saffron threads and stir. Add more patis to taste.
- Serve hot and garnish with scallions, eggs, and fried shallots.
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