Cháo Gà (Chicken Rice Porridge / Congee)

Nothing heals the body, mind and soul like a steamy bowl of chicken soup even if you aren’t under the weather. Vietnamese cháo gà is another delicious take on chicken soup with rice, that can feed a large group a delicious meal at a very low cost. 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 varying 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! 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 ever end up eating 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.