Thit kho

Chicken or Beef Congee/Rice Porridge Vietnamese style
This is my Mom's recipe for making soupy rice porridge. The secret is to fry the uncooked rice in oil until it turns from a translucent to an opaque white.

Ingredients:
1 or 2 cups of rice (2 cups makes a large pot)
Some oil of any kind
Scallions
Water
Cilantro
Thinly sliced or julliened ginger
Salt, pepper and fish sauce to taste
Crushed roasted peanuts (optional)

Chicken Porridge- half a chicken if using 1 cup of rice, a whole chicken if using 2 cups
Beef Porridge - 1 lb. of lean ground beef per 2 cups of rice
diced onion
minced garlic
1 tsp.salt
1 tsp. sugar
black pepper

1. If making chicken congee, put the chicken in a pot and fill with enough water to cover the chicken. Add salt and sometimes ginger if you like. Simmer the chicken for a while (30 minutes-1 hour maybe) while skimming the chicken scum that rises to the surface.

2. (If you want goopy congee, you can skip this step.) Add a little oil to a pan and fry the dried uncooked rice until it gets a little bit golden. About 8-10 minutes on medium heat. The rice will go from shiny to an opaque white. This is to keep the rice from turning goopy in the soup.

3. When the chicken is done cooking, remove it, shred the meat and set aside. Add the rice to the pot of chickeny liquid. Simmer for a while. Season with salt and fish sauce (2 tsp or more) to taste.

4. When serving, add some shredded chicken to the bottom of your bowl. Spoon the porridge/soup over the chicken. Top with some ginger, chopped cilantro, crushed peanuts, scallions, season with fish sauce and black pepper and you're done.

5. If making beef congee, its pretty much the same, but without the steps involving chicken. Cook the minced garlic, onion, sugar, salt and ground beef in a separate pan. The fried uncooked rice is added to plain water or chicken broth. Drain the beef mixture and add it to the porridge.