Congee is a savory rice porridge that I’ve wanted to make for quite some time. It’s a warm, comforting porridge made with rice, chicken, ginger, and sometimes other fun ingredients. Congee usually needs to simmer for quite some time, so the Instant Pot is a great way to make congee fast, but I’ve included stovetop directions for everyone else (it’s ridiculously simple either way). So, even though I’ve titled this “Instant Pot Congee”, don’t pass up this gem of a recipe just because you don’t own a trendy IP. It’s just toooooo good not to try.
What is Congee?
Congee is a rice porridge that is a staple food in several countries in Asia. You’ll find many different versions and names for this dish, depending on the region, but they all have one thing in common–they’re warm, comforting, and filling. The base for congee is rice that has been cooked for an extended amount of time in water or both until it breaks down into a really thick porridge. It can be as simple as that, or it can have extra ingredients added, like meat and aromatics, to make it more of a full meal.
But that’s just a snapshot of the history and culture surrounding this classic comfort food. If you’d like to try an authentic congee recipe and learn more about congee, I highly suggest checking out these resources:
- Chicken Congee from Made with Lau
- The Secret to Making Chinese Congee from Tiff & Case (Youtube)
- How to Make Congee (Rice Porridge) from China Sichuan Food
- 20 Minute Congee from The Woks of Life
What Does Congee Taste Like?
Congee is a fairly mild dish, but the flavor is deep. Oh so deliciously deep. This version, made with chicken, has a mild chicken flavor, with a little extra umami kick from mushrooms, and a lovely ginger base note. I found the congee to be so velvety smooth and delicious that I could happily slurp it up on its own, but when I started adding fun toppings the meal was elevated to super-star status.
Add Toppings
I’d suggest using at least the base toppings that I have listed on the recipe card below:
- sesame oil
- soy sauce
- green onion
- cilantro
- chopped peanuts
Beyond that, the sky’s the limit. I gave the congee the “soft boiled egg and sriracha” treatment because I add those two things to just about everything, but the congee was really quite filling on its own, so I probably won’t opt for an egg in the future. The sriracha was a nice touch, though.
Here are a few other topping ideas:
- pickled vegetables
- fried onions or shallots
- sesame seeds
- steamed greens
But really, anything goes here. Sweep the kitchen!
Instant Pot Congee (Rice Porridge)
Servings 6 (1.3 cups each)Ingredients
- 1 cup uncooked jasmine rice ($0.52)
- 2 cloves garlic ($0.16)
- 1-2 inches fresh ginger ($0.10)
- 3 shittake mushrooms ($0.63)
- 2 lb. bone-in chicken pieces ($3.66)
- 7 cups water ($0.00)
- 1/2 Tbsp salt (or to taste) ($0.05)
TOPPINGS
- 3 green onions, sliced ($0.23)
- 1/4 bunch cilantro (optional) ($0.20)
- 1/3 cup peanuts, chopped ($1.12)
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce ($0.05)
- 1 Tbsp toasted sesame oil ($0.33)
Instructions
- Peel and slice the ginger, and crush the cloves of garlic. Slice the mushrooms into thin strips. Remove the skin from the chicken pieces.
- Place the uncooked rice in the bottom of the Instant Pot and add the crushed garlic, sliced ginger, and sliced mushrooms on top. Lay the chicken pieces over the rice and aromatics. Finally, add seven cups of water.
- Close and lock the lid of the Instant Pot. Turn the steam release valve to the “sealing” position. Press the “porridge” button to begin cooking (no need to adjust the time or pressure). After ten seconds the pot will begin to heat and build pressure. Once it reaches the required temperature and pressure, the display will begin to count down 20 minutes.
- After 20 minutes, the pot will switch to the “keep warm” setting and begin to drop in pressure. Allow the pot to reduce in pressure naturally, without opening the steam release valve. When the float valve falls back to the down position, open the steam valve, and then open the lid.
- Using tongs, carefully remove the chicken pieces and place them on a clean cutting board. Use two forks to shred the meat and remove the bones. Return the shredded meat to the pot.
- Stir and taste the porridge, and add salt as needed (I added 1/2 Tbsp). Only add enough salt to amplify the flavors, but leave room for the addition of soy sauce as a topping.
- Ladle the congee into each bowl and drizzle a small amount (1 tsp) of toasted sesame oil and soy sauce on top of each bowl. Sprinkle the sliced green onions, cilantro leaves, and chopped peanuts over top, then serve.
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Notes
Nutrition
Scroll down for the step by step photos!
How to Make Congee in an Instant Pot – Step by Step Photos
Start by peeling and slicing 1-2 inches of ginger (I really like ginger, so may use more next time). Thinly slice three shittake mushrooms and crush two cloves of garlic. Shittake mushrooms are pretty expensive ($8.99/lb. at my local stores), but since they’re mostly air and weigh next to nothing, I was able to get three fairly large mushrooms for $0.63. Not bad.
Remove the skin from about 2 lbs. of bone-in chicken pieces. Dark meat is going to give you a lot better flavor than breasts, so I highly suggest you stick to thighs and drumsticks. You can remove the excess fat as well, but I found that it made the porridge incredibly rich and velvety. Plus, trimming the fat is tedious. Ha.
Place one cup uncooked jasmine rice in the bottom of the Instant Pot and add the ginger slices, crushed garlic, and sliced mushrooms on top.
Then add the chicken pieces…
And finally, add 7 cups water.
If you’re making this on the stove top, just add all the ingredients listed above to a large pot, but use 10 cups water instead of 7 (you’ll get a lot more evaporation with the stove top method). Bring the pot to a boil (with lid) over high heat, then reduce to low and let simmer for 1-2 hours, stirring often, or until a thick porridge has formed. If the porridge is too thin after that time, simply let it simmer without a lid until it thickens.
Close and lock the lid on the Instant Pot and turn the steam release valve (on the left in the photo) to the “sealing” position. Notice the float valve on the right, the small metal circle, is down. This means there is no pressure in the Instant Pot.
Press the “porridge” button over there on the right and it will turn on to the automatic setting of 20 minutes at high pressure. No need to adjust, just wait ten seconds for it to begin.
It may take 10-15 minutes for the pot to come up to temperature and pressure. Once it reaches high pressure, the float valve will be elevated (it’s that small metal circle on the right). That indicates that the pot is under pressure. Once it reaches the proper pressure, the display on the front will begin to count down 20 minutes.
After cooking with high pressure for 20 minutes, the Instant Pot will beep and change to “keep warm” mode. The display will show an “L” and start counting up the time (it’s at seven minutes in the photo). Let the pressure naturally come back down, which may take 15 minutes or so. You’ll know the pressure is safe when that metal float valve has fallen back down.
Once it’s back down to safe pressure, open the steam release valve, then open the lid. It will look a little something like this. It looks a little watery on top, but once it’s stirred it thickens right up. Carefully remove the chicken pieces with tongs and place them on a clean cutting board.
Use two forks to shred and pull the meat from the bones. The meat should be so tender that it literally falls apart when you touch it.
Stir the shredded meat back into the congee. Give it a taste and add salt to your liking (I added 1/2 Tbsp). You want enough salt to make the flavors pop, but not so much that you wouldn’t want to add soy sauce as a topping.
Ladle some congee into a bowl… I gotta say, too, that I love those ginger slices. They become quite mild through the cooking process and have a texture similar to water chestnuts. They’re SO GOOD. More ginger slices next time for sure.
At a minimum, I’d suggest adding a small drizzle of toasted sesame oil & soy sauce to each bowl, along with some sliced green onions, cilantro leaves, and chopped peanuts to your Instant Pot Congee. The chopped peanuts were truly a delight. They added wonderful texture.
Or, you know, you could go crazy and add a soft boiled egg and some sriracha too… Cuz why not? Make your Instant Pot Congee your own!
It’s been almost 40 mins and my pressure hasn’t gone down. Should I be concerned? Can I release the steam?
I would go ahead and release the steam latch at that point.
The float valve never drops for me unless I turn the Keep Warm function off. Otherwise the continual addition of heat keeps the pressure up
Has anyone received a burn food error when doing this?
I tried this for the first time (first instant pot recipe I’ve tried after the test run and white rice!), And it pressurized but right when the 20 min cook time kicked in, it gave me the burn food error. I decompressed and uh.. it blew rice bits all over the inside and up on top of the lid. It’s all contained but I read something about not letting food gunk up the vents.
Anyway, the vent was turned to sealing, the food inside was not burnt. I stirred it and re-set the program. So far, no error again. Any tips?
So, I know this comment was from a while ago, but I wanted to offer a suggestion. Sometimes the burn error happens if there is not a sufficient amount of liquid in contact with the bottom of the pot. By adding the water last, it’s possible it was “trapped’ on top of the chicken. Try adding the water before the chicken thighs and give it a stir to ensure the water makes it to the bottom of the pot.
Hopefully this helps someone as I spent a couple years absolutely frustrated that I couldn’t get my instant pot to work without things burning before they got up to pressure. Tried doubling moisture amounts, tried a new seal ring, tried a new instant pot, none of it worked. Finally was told that when cooking with starches, they tend to gum up the pressure piston and cover to the pressure valve and need to be deep cleaned by removing them from the lid and hand washing the parts in warm soapy water and allowing them to dry before the next use. Now I do this every time I cook with potatoes or rice (which is the vast majority of the time) and never have any problems anymore.
Thank you so much for this experienced tip! Also, I’ve made this recipe before and it was great. Trying again now with frozen thighs and drumsticks, dried shiitakes, and some leftover turkey stock from thanksgiving for a flavorful broth.
This is one of those go-to recipes I have been making and enjoying for years. I have used bone-in skin-on chicken legs, thighs, breasts, as well as boneless and skinless parts, whatever I happen to have. I have used jasmine rice, sushi rice, and regular long grain rice. Basically as long as you use some meat and fat, ample garlic and ginger, some mushrooms, the result is creamy comforting simple goodness. Top it with scallions, cilantro, tamari, toasted sesame oil and roasted peanuts or some other crunchies, and you have a show stopper of a breakfasf or lunch for pennies. Add a scoop of chili garlic sauce, siracha or chili crunch oil to all that and you have one of the all-time favorite meals in our house!
What an awesome website! I have two questions about this recipe:
1) Do you rinse the rice before?
2) Why take of the skin off? To make the shredding easier later?
Hi Henry! Thank you! Yes we recommend you rinsing the rice prior, but you don’t necessarily have to. And yes to help with shredding and to prevent the skin from getting rubbery.
I like frying the skin until crispy and throwing it back in as a topping after cutting it up. Chinese definitely don’t waste that chicken skin!
Made it today, was delicious and would definitely make again. Made exactly as written in the recipe, but I have a different pressure cooker so did 20 min on high pressure (12 psi)
Can you use frozen thighs?
Yes you definitely can!
I had forgotten how much I love congee until I found this Instant Pot recipe! I’ve made it with water and with chicken stock. Boneless, skinless chicken thighs work well.
If you have an Asian market in your area, I suggest getting some dried shiitake mushrooms. The place I go to has both whole and sliced dried shiitakes, so I always keep both in the house. I just threw in a handful of dried sliced shiitakes, breaking up the larger slices as needed, and proceeded the the recipe as written.
I’ve also made this using shrimp instead of chicken. I cooked the congee with the other ingredients, adding a tablespoon of shrimp tomalley to the water for added flavor, then when the pressure had dropped, added the shrimp and some frozen peas, stirring it all in and covering the pot with a lid until the shrimp cooked through from the heat.
Great suggestions and swaps Melissa!
I’ve made this a few time and it’s insanely delicious. But I have to put it through three cycles of the Porridge setting on the Instapot to get the right consistency. What am I doing wrong?
Hmm, I’m honestly not sure. The only thing I can think of is that your rice is somehow different?
Has anyone tried this with brown rice? Did you have to differ how much water you put in? If so, how much?
You’ll definitely need more water, but I haven’t tested it to know how much for sure. I have seen recipes for brown rice congee other places on the internet, so you may want to try Googling “brown rice congee” to see if there are any recipes that you can reference for a rice to water ratio.
Hmm, you probably would need more time, not more water. The increased amount of water used to cook brown rice is to compensate for the increased level of evaporation over a longer cook time, in the Instant Pot, there’s no evaporation, so the ratio usually stays the same.
I didn’t add extra water, but I did use more time. I tried 20 minutes first, then another 10, and then another 10, for a total of 40 minutes. Delicious. (I pulled my chicken out after 20 minutes, but I don’t think the extra cook time would hurt it – it’ll just make it fall apart more.)
I made this in the slowcooker, 1 cup Rice and 10 cups water. It was so good!
There’s a brown rice that cooks like white rice – should totally see if you can find that for recipes like this that depend on white rice.
Hello! Has anyone tried vegetables and beans instead of chicken? Also in a slow cooker?
I haven’t tried any of those options, unfortunately! And those are fairly large changes, so it’s too hard to predict how it would turn out.
This recipe is great! One question: at the end of cooking, my instant pot didn’t naturally release pressure nearly as quickly as yours did. Do you know anything about what would affect something like that?
There can be a lot of factors, including the temperature in your house (colder rooms will help it cool down faster). If it takes longer it shouldn’t affect the outcome of the recipe, though.
Definitely turn off the ‘keep warm’ function.
Hi! I see that you mentioned that boneless skinless chicken breast wouldn’t be as flavorful. Curious if you had an opinion re: don’t bother making it with them, or go ahead and make it but it just won’t be AS good. Know what I mean? Also, would basmati rice work here (can you tell I’m trying to figure out what I could whip up for dinner without packing the children into the car and heading to the store?)
I think it wouldn’t be as good and you run the risk of getting dry chicken because the breast doesn’t have as much fat, so it can get a bit dry sometimes. Basmati would probably be delicious, too!
I make this all the time with boneless, skinless chicken thighs and they are never dry. it is impossible for them to dry out cooked in so much liquid. I also use them from frozen and it works perfectly every time. I have made this recipe many, many times. Mine also has a ton of flavor…though it might be due to the changes I make, I saute the garlic and ginger in some sesame oil, use chicken stock instead of water and add fish sauce and a little Chinese red vinegar at the end of cooking.
I should stress that I use unsalted chicken stock.
They are talking about breasts not thighs -_-
This was out of the world delicious. We licked off even the last scrapes from the pot! Thanks for such a simple and yet tasty recipe!
I made 1/2 the recipe in my 3 quart mini Instant Pot. I put the soy sauce and sesame oil right in with the rice and chicken and cooked it all together. Delicious. I forgot about the cilantro and peanuts afterwards but it was still great. Will be making this again and again. Now for a way to make a tasty vegan version for my son!
I have made a vegan version before, I used vegetable stock, some shredded cabbage and carrot and shiitake mushrooms as well as garlic, ginger and sesame oil. it was delicious
Has anyone made this with the Crock Pot pressure cooker? The options are a little different so I don’t have one for porridge :(
It’s 20 minutes on the porridge cycle so use your bean button and use 20 minutes on that since it allows you to alter the time. (This is what I saw on the Crockpot site under FAQs).
I never use the porridge button. Just set it on pressure cook high and put your time in. The few times i’ve tried to use the specialty buttons there were issues involving time.