This is a dish I ate allll the time growing up at home and at Chinese restaurants. And on a recent trip to Vietnam just before the world shut down, we had Vietnamese rice porridge at every single hotel breakfast. Oddly, it was the safest and most predictable offering at the hotels, with lots of add-ins that varied depending on the hotel. There are many ways to dress up this chicken rice porridge, but at the core of it, it’s chicken, rice, onion, and ginger. And it’s extremely simple and way better when made at home too in my opinion :). Let’s take a look!
Traditions with Vietnamese rice porridge
Right around the winter holidays is when my relatively large paternal side of the family gathers to celebrate. This means gifts, lil kiddos running around, getting badgered about why one is too over or underweight, and of course, there will always be food. My parent’s generation all emigrated from Vietnam, so the cousins are all first generation born here. Even though typically the parents have prepared the entire Christmas and Thanksgiving meals, we’ve for whatever reason done it American style, with stuffing, cranberry sauce, honey-glazed ham, and of course a massive turkey. The turkey always seems to be three times the size that we never end up eating all of it on the first day, but that’s ok! This leftover turkey serves as the base for our yearly tradition of the morning after holiday cháo gà. I typically brine my turkey and chicken with herbs and spices, and even then those flavors don’t owerpower this cháo recipe, but the chicken is moist and flavorful.
The chicken, turkey, and broth
Leftover turkey – this is perfect for making porridge. Slice off and remove most of the meat now, while it’s not piping hot and you can more easily see what’s what. After simmering, the bird gets extremely hot and soft, so separating meat from the many many bones inside can be more difficult. Brand new raw chicken or turkey – if you don’t have a leftover bird layin around, of course, this works too. You can use a whole bird, or select whichever parts you like best. I prefer skin on and bone-in thighs for more dark meat and more flavor from the fat. The bones will also add more flavor to the broth too. Broth – if you have canned broth laying around, you can use it to supplement the cháo to boost its flavor if you think you don’t have enough meat. You can also entirely use canned broth for this, but won’t be left with any shredded chicken or turkey that typically goes with this dish.
Types of rice to use
Use white rice. My family typically only eats long-grain white rice for their meals such as jasmine rice, so this is what they use in their porridge. But you can mix it up with other types of rice, like basmati rice, for great soup too. Recent versions I’ve made with this substitute 50% of the long-grain with 50% short-grain rice. I usually only stock short-grain since I love how much stickier it is and how it maintains more moisture than long-grain when eaten for sushi, or just normal rice dishes. Short-grain releases more starch into the cháo / porridge so you can have a thicker soup, with softer and less distinct grains. I’ve seen it at restaurants and at mom’s house where they use broken rice too. This is not something I keep stocked in the pantry, but it can be good too!
Aromatics and seasoning
Whichever type of bird you use, just put this into a large stockpot with a halved onion, sliced ginger, salt, fish sauce, and let it simmer for 2-4 hours or until the meat is soft and falling off the bone. Peel the onion, and cut it in half. Since it will be simmering for so long, the entire onion will cook through and will give up all it has to the broth in 2+ hours. You’ll want to peel the ginger and rinse it to make sure it’s clean. I like using a spoon to scrape it since you can work quickly without the risk of cutting yourself. Then smash or slice the ginger so more surface area of the root is exposed to the broth.
Final add-ins & accoutrement
Fried donut / dầu cháo quẩy / youtiao – this “donut” is usually in the shape of a long stick, but always comes in pairs. It’s deep-fried bread essentially. With a seemingly unlimited amount of ways to spell this in Vietnamese, it’s clear that the name and the food are Chinese. This is amazing when fresh: crispy, chewy, fatty, a great addition of texture and flavor to the cháo. We usually pick it up from our local Chinese spot, but have been ordering this via food delivery service Salted duck egg – this is a delicious addition that is verrrry salty. If you plan to serve it with this, consider pulling back the salt or fish sauce levels in the congee so it’s not overwhelming with the duck egg. They look like normal chicken eggs, sometimes individually sealed–I get mine from the local Ranch 99 market. Deep-fried shallots or garlic slices – crispy little hits of allium, there are very few foods that aren’t made more exciting by adding these. But these go great with Vietnamese cháo! Sambal – that red chile paste that’s in so many Vietnamese dishes, usually in the fish sauce, or marinade, or whenever you want to add a garlicky chile paste to anything. You’ll find it on the side in the dipping sauce for Vietnamese pork chops, spring rolls or bò bía, in the sauce for lemongrass chicken or into Vietnamese chicken & macaroni soup. Chopped scallions and cilantro – the famous combo of herbs signature to Vietnamese cuisine, found again in the Viet chicken & macaroni soup or chicken phở.
Serving and storing
You can serve this soup right away, but since it’s hot off the stove, the water in it will continue to evaporate and the soup will thicken. Monitor this, and add more water to it as necessary to hit the consistency and salt levels you like. It keeps great in the fridge in an airtight container for about 4-6 days, but as usual the fresher the better.
Other tasty chicken soups to try
Bún Thang – Vietnamese Noodle Soup with Chicken, Pork, & Egg Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe (Súp Nui Gà) Chicken Phở
