Cháo Gà (Vietnamese Chicken Rice Porridge / Congee)

If you're using leftover or roasted chicken or turkey, remove about 75% of the meat and reserve this to add to your soup / cháo when serving.

In a large stock pot, add the chicken or turkey, 85% of the filtered water, ginger, onion, salt and fish sauce over high heat. Once it hits a boil, reduce the heat so its at a low to medium simmer. The water should just about cover all the meat and bones. If your pot is very wide, keep in mind you may be using more water than listed, and you may need to add less in the final steps later when adjusting for consistency. Skim off any scum if necessary during the boil. Keep adding water to the pot as it evaporates so the bones remain covered.

After about 90-120 minutes or when the meat has softened enough to easily be pulled off the bone, remove the poultry and let cool for about 10 minutes. Using your hands or a fork, remove the rest of the meat from the bones. Add the meat back into the pot. Discard the bones, onion, and ginger, since they've given their all to the broth at this point.

Rice method A (saves time): While your broth is going, cook your rice in a rice cooker. Use equal scoops rice to water, it should finish cooking before your broth above is ready. Add the cooked rice to the pot and simmer on medium to soften the rice. About 10-20 min.

Rice method B (less things to wash): Add all the raw rice to the pot and return to the heat on high until it hits a boil. Then lower the heat to a low-medium simmer until the rice is cooked and hits a soft consistency you like. It will take about 45-60 minutes depending on your stove. Here's the consistency after boiling, but before adjusting with more water.

Once the rice is cooked to the doneness you like, which should be very soft way beyond al dente and beyond how you'd eat it outside of soup, adjust the water level. Fun fact, for my family soup thickness is a huge point of contention. Do what you want. Personally, I don't want the soup like a thick paste, but also don't want it so thin that you only see water when looking down at the pot. I want the soup to have a little substance and feel filling.

Reseason the soup. Reseason with just salt, just fish sauce or equal parts of both to taste. The seasoning measured above is intentially less salt than we need so we can reseason here based on how thick you decided to make the soup.

Remove from the heat, serve with garnish and accoutrement, and enjoy!