Growing up, one of my most cherished memories of my mother is how, whenever I’d get sick, she would always cook for me a Filipino dish called arrozcaldo. Multiple sources say this humble dish’s origins can be traced back to the Chinese even though its name is of Spanish origin, and it has many variations, depending on one’s province (or one’s mother) but, at its most basic, arrozcaldo is simply rice porridge with sauteed ginger and bits of chicken, seasoned with patis, or Filipino fish sauce, which is very similar to the Thai nam pla. Even though it is just plain old chicken porridge cooked the Filipino way, arrozcaldo for me has always been a hug in a bowl, comfort whilst enduring illness or pain, nostalgic memories of the mother I love.
As I grew older and had my own family, I started missing my mom’s arrozcaldo. To be more accurate, I missed being coddled by her whenever I’d get sick and have her spoil me with a steaming hot bowl of arrozcaldo.
Then I got myself a Thermomix. And one fine day, it dawned on me that I could “Thermomize” arrozcaldo. I replicated the recipe from memory, tweaking the quantity of the ingredients and Thermomix settings. And I simplified it further by eliminating the need for actual chicken meat to be in the dish, given that the annoying step that requires defrosting frozen chicken often prevented me from cooking arrozcaldo in the past. Instead, I decided to make use of homemade chicken stock as per the Basic Cook Book’s recipe, considering that it is, afterall, made of real chicken meat and some spices.
Today, to honour my Mama as she celebrates her 77th birthday, allow me to share with you this humble recipe that is rooted in maternal love.
Mimi’s Quick & Easy Arrozcaldo (Filipino Chicken Porridge)
- Ingredients A:
- 50g yellow onion, sliced in large chunks
- 50-100g ginger, peeled & julienned
- 20g oil
- Ingredients B:
- 140g rice, washed
- 1,100g water
- 10g BCB chicken stock
- 1 Tbsp fish sauce
- 1 tsp ground white pepper
Cooking Method:
1. Place Ingredients A into mixing bowl.
🕑 5 min🌡120 o C ⚙ speed 1
2. Add Ingredients B.
🕑 40 min🌡98 o C ⚙ speed 0.5 98 o C
Tips:
1. The fish sauce (Filipino: ‘patis’) and calamansi juice are traditional condiments for arrozcaldo. If you don’t have fish sauce, add salt to taste and/or increase chicken stock to 15g. Calamansi juice can also be substituted with lime juice or lemon juice.
2. You can add cubed chicken breast, if you want. Add after step 1. Brown for 🕑 3 min🌡120 o C ⚙ speed 1
You can also find this recipe listed in the Malaysian online Thermomix Recipe Community.
