Vietnamese Chicken Salad Rice Porridge
by Uyen Luu
Cháo is “porridge” and gá means “chicken” in Vietnamese. It’s a savory and silky porridge that looks unassuming—it’s beige, sometimes white—but is incredibly delicious as is or when served with a crunchy chicken and cabbage salad, crispy fried shallots, and fresh herbs. In Vietnam, cháo gà is usually eaten for breakfast, but you can serve it for any meal. This recipe shows you how to make the chicken broth for the cháo, a basic technique that’s useful to know, but feel free to use good quality store-bought chicken broth and leftover cooked chicken.
Method
Based on 4 servings, adjust as needed.
Step 1
Place the whole chicken into a large saucepan of boiling water (around. 2 2-litre pot filled with 1.7 litres of water). Add the 2 tsp salt, 1 tbsp sugar, chicken stock cube, onion and 2 of the peeled carrots. Add the rice, sliced mushrooms and ginger to the broth, then cover and bring to the boil. Reduce to a medium low heat, cover and simmer for 40 minutes over a low heat until the rice grains have blossomed and thickened the broth. Stir in half of the fish sauce, then turn off the heat and let the residual heat cook the porridge for a further 20 minutes (or until the whole chicken is cooked through).
Step 2
Remove the whole chicken from the porridge and leave to cool slightyl. Discard the onions from the broth but keep the carrot, slice it up and add back to the porridge.
Step 3
Meanwhile, make the salad. Place the sliced red onion in a small bowl, add cider vinegar and a little black pepper. Mix well and let it pickle for about 5 -10 mins. Then make the salad dressing by mixing together the grated garlic and chopped chillies with lime zest and juice with remaining 1 tbsp sugar and the remaining fish sauce. Set aside.
Step 4
When ready to serve, in a large salad bowl, combine the shredded cabbage, remaining 1 carrot, grated, picked coriander, mint and pickled onions. Shred the chicken (with or without skin) and add to the mix. Pour over the dressing and toss well together.
Step 5
To serve, ladle hot rice porridge into soup bowls, add the chicken salad and mix it through the porridge which will blanch and heat the raw vegetables yet it will still remain crunchy. Enjoy with extra black pepper and an option of extra red birdie chillies and crispy onions, if you like.
- Ingredients
- Based on 4 servings
-
3 Carrots, peeled 3x Sainsbury’s Carrots Loose -
150g Chestnut Mushrooms, sliced 1x Sainsbury's Chestnut Closed Cup Vitamin D Mushrooms 300g -
6tbsp Fish Sauce 1x Blue Dragon Fish Sauce 150ml -
1 Red Onion, very thinly sliced 1x Sainsbury's Red Onions Loose -
2tbsp Cider Vinegar, or any light vinegar 1x Sainsbury's Cider Vinegar 500ml -
200g White Cabbage, thinly sliced 1x Sainsbury's White Cabbage Each -
30g Coriander, rough torn 1x Sainsbury's Fresh Packed Bunch Coriander 30g -
30g Mint, roughly torn 1x Sainsbury's Fresh Packed Mint 30g -
2 Birdseye Chillies, finely chopped 1x Sainsbury's Bird Eye Chillies (Red or Green) 20g -
1 Lime Juice, plus its zest, grated 1x Sainsbury's Limes -
1.5kg Free Range Corn Fed Chicken 1x Sainsbury's British Fresh Medium Whole Chicken 1.6kg -
maldon salt, to taste 1x Maldon Sea Salt Flakes 250g -
2 tbsp Light Brown Sugar, or palm sugar 1x Sainsbury's Fairtrade Demerara Cane Sugar 500g -
2 Chicken Stock Cube 1x Knorr Stock Cubes Chicken 8x10g -
2 Onions, peeled and kept whole 2x Sainsbury's Onions Loose -
100g Jasmine Rice 1x Tilda Fragrant Jasmine Rice 500g -
40g Ginger, peeled, finely sliced or chopped 1x Sainsbury's Ginger 100g -
4 tbsp Crispy Shallots 1x Top Taste Crispy Onions 100g -
3 Cloves Garlic, finely grated 1x Sainsbury's Garlic