Make slow cooker brown rice chicken congee for the perfect comfort food this winter, loaded with fresh ginger and cooked in broth, water and soy sauce. This post contains affiliate links.
I’m so excited to share this slow cooker congee recipe because in the past couple of years, I’ve fallen completely in love with congee. Especially as our winters have been extremely cold with all of this polar vortex nonsense.
With cold weather comes comfort food, and while I grew up eating chicken noodle soup, I’m always fascinated by the comfort foods enjoyed in other parts of the world. I especially love my ginger scallion soup at this time of year.
Congee is something that I didn’t grow up eating, but there are different versions eaten all over the world. It’s most popular in East Asian countries, but even Greece and Cyprus have their own (often very lemony) versions of congee.
What is congee?
In basic terms, congee is a savoury rice porridge. In Canada and the US we use oats for our porridge, in many Asian countries, rice is the grain of choice. The rice breaks and disintegrates into the liquid during a long cooking process. It’s a dish that is often served when people are feeling sick.
The first time I tried it was a couple of years ago when a coworker of mine at Chatelaine made congee on a particularly cold day. Right away, I was in love. The savoury/salty combination is one of my favourites so this recipe is inspired by the dish my friend served me which was a ginger chicken congee.
It’s a delicious savoury rice porridge that is created as rice disintegrates after prolonged cooking–sounds perfect for the slow cooker, don’t you think? (p.s. I love my KitchenAid slow cooker and I’ve had it for over five years and is under $100).
I’ve only had congee made with regular rice before, but I wanted to try and make a bit of a different version using brown rice for congee. Along with the brown rice, you add one chicken breast, a clove of garlic, tons of fresh ginger and hot pepper flakes to the liquid.
For cooking the rice I’m using a combination of chicken broth, water and soy sauce. I like to combine water with the chicken broth as if you’re only using broth the final dish may end up a little on the salty side. Using water allows you to better control the salt element of your dish.
The toppings can be whatever you like, but I opt for salted peanuts, green onions, cilantro and a healthy dose of sesame oil.
What I love about this slow cooker recipe is that it is one of those ‘set it and forget it’ recipes that doesn’t require any searing or sautéing ahead of time–everything cooks perfect in the slow cooker because this is the kind of dish that is meant to be “mushy”.
Congee is also a dish that you can literally eat for any meal (breakfast, lunch or dinner)! If you want to make a vegetarian version, just leave out the chicken and swap the broth and you’ve got yourself the perfect vegetarian congee recipe.
Slow Cooker Brown Rice Chicken Congee
Ingredients
- 1 cup brown rice
- 1 boneless, skinless chicken breast, bone-in is fine
- 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 3 cups water
- 3 tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 tablespoon grated ginger
- 1 teaspoon hot chili flakes
- 1 clove garlic, peeled and smashed
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
Toppings:
- 1 tablespoon additional sesame oil
- 2 sliced green onions
- 2 tablespoon chopped peanuts
- 2 tablespoon chopped cilantro
Instructions
- Add brown rice, chicken breast, chicken broth, water, soy sauce, ginger, chili flakes, garlic and salt to slow cooker.
- Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours.
- Once done cooking, stir (add a little more water if needed), remove chicken, shred into pieces and add back to rice (discard bone). Stir in sesame oil and lime juice, serve with toppings.
Let me know if you give this slow cooker brown rice chicken congee a try in the comments below.
Coby
I had leftover brown rice in the fridge that was at risk of being thrown away–this was such a good way to use it up! i put the chicken breast in frozen, and tossed in some chives, fish sauce and gochujang bc why not, but otherwise followed the recipe. Such good comfort food!
Tiffany
Great recipe! I omitted the chili flakes because I was looking for something to ease my stomach acid issues and wanted to avoid the spice and I replaced the lime juice with apple cinder vinegar just because I didnt have the lime and thought it might be a good sub for some acidity and would be good for my issues. This turned out to be perfect for what I needed. Helped ease my “sour stomach”. Going to be making it regularly to deal with my health issues from now on.
Louisa Clements
So glad you enjoyed this recipe, Tiffany! And I hope you start to feel better soon.
Rahael
Is it 1 pound chicken breast or 1 chicken breast?
Louisa Clements
Hi Rahael, it’s one chicken breast, it’s mostly rice with a little bit of chicken throughout.
Gay Chiappetta
I made this a couple of times now and I love it! I love that you put some garlic/sesame oil/soy sauce while it’s cooking. It was delicious.
Louisa Clements
So glad you enjoy this recipe, thank you for letting me know!
Karen
In a moment of inattention, I put in the sesame oil along with the initial ingredients. I guess I’ll find out soon if it keeps the rice from cooking—the cooker is taking awhile to ramp up, not boiling yet at hour 3 of 8, and my long grain brown rice hasn’t changed that much.
Lia
I just made this and it was yummy and the texture was perfect… A wet porridge. My first congee and I’m relieved it was so easy and tasty – now it can become a breakfast staple!
Louisa Clements
So glad you enjoyed this recipe, Lia! Thank you for taking the time to let me know! :)
Jan
I made this yesterday and it was more of a soup, not at all a porridge. I’m trying again with two cups rice instead of one cup. The flavor is wonderful – no complaints there.
Lou
Hi Jan, sorry to hear the texture didn’t turn out the way you had hoped, but I’m so glad that you enjoyed the flavours! I like my congee in between a porridge and soup. :)
Jo
Thanks for the instructions! Am just making a batch myself now. Just commenting to say “1 tsp Hot child flakes” proved to be a little difficult to find but I made do. .
Lou
Ha, thanks Jo! Total auto-correct. I hope you enjoyed!
Cheryl G
What is the congee supposed to look like when done. Thank you
Lou
Hi Cheryl, the congee will have a porridge-like look, the grains of rice will have broken down quite a bit and will be slightly stodgy. Once the slow cooker is done, give it a stir and you can always add a little more water if needed and if it seems too thick. I hope you enjoy!