Chicken Congee

Name: Chicken Congee
Prep time: 12 min
Cook time: 21 min
Total time: 33 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Chinese
Ingredients: 8 oz Chicken; pinch Salt; pinch Pepper; 1 tsp Ginger Cordial; 1 tsp Ginger; 1 tbs Spring Onions; 1/2 cup Rice; 8 cups Water; 2 oz Coriander

By The Spice & Simmer Kitchen · Published May 3, 2026

A one-pot Chicken recipe with Chinese flavors, built for busy weeknights when you want real food without a sink full of dishes. Comes together in roughly 57 minutes, serves about 4, and uses ingredients you can find at any normal grocery store. The technique is simple: build a base in your pot, layer in the main ingredients, simmer until everything has had time to talk to each other, and serve straight from the pan. If you're cooking for picky eaters, this one tends to land — the flavors are recognizable, the texture is comforting, and there's nothing weird hiding in the ingredient list. Perfect for the kind of evening where you want dinner on the table by 7pm and the kitchen empty by 7:30.

Step-by-step instructions

MARINATING THE CHICKEN In a bowl, add chicken, salt, white pepper, ginger juice and then mix it together well.
Set the chicken aside.
RINSE THE WHITE RICE Rinse the rice in a metal bowl or pot a couple times and then drain the water.
BOILING THE WHITE RICE Next add 8 cups of water and then set the stove on high heat until it is boiling. Once rice porridge starts to boil, set the stove on low heat and then stir it once every 8-10 minutes for around 20-25 minutes.
After 25 minutes, this is optional but you can add a little bit more water to make rice porridge to make it less thick or to your preference.
Next add the marinated chicken to the rice porridge and leave the stove on low heat for another 10 minutes.
After an additional 10 minutes add the green onions, sliced ginger, 1 pinch of salt, 1 pinch of white pepper and stir for 10 seconds.
Serve the rice porridge in a bowl Optional: add Coriander on top of the rice porridge.

Why this works on a weeknight

Chicken Congee lands at about 33 minutes total — a little longer than our 30-minute target, but most of that time is hands-off simmering, which is why it earned a spot in our Skillet & One-Pan collection. The technique is forgiving, the ingredient list is grocery-store standard, and the active cooking time is short enough that you can answer a text message in the middle without ruining dinner.

Cleanup notes

This is a single-pan recipe, so the cleanup is exactly one pan, one cutting board, and one knife. While the dish rests, fill the pan with hot soapy water — by the time you are done eating, the residue lifts off with a single pass of a sponge. Skip the steel wool on cast iron; a stiff brush and warm water are all you need to keep the seasoning intact.

Make-ahead and leftovers

Leftovers keep covered in the fridge for up to three days. Reheat in a dry pan over medium-low with a splash of water or stock to loosen the sauce. Chicken Congee actually improves overnight as the flavors keep talking to each other, so doubling the recipe and packing tomorrow's lunch is a high-leverage weeknight move.

Filed under 🥘 Skillet & One-Pan Chicken Chinese