Cantonese Porridge with Chicken Balls

Basically there are two type of porridge I know of - Cantonese style porridge and Teow Chew style porridge. What are the differences between the two. The Cantonese style porridge is thicker in texture and it is more flavourful, because it is usually cooked with other ingredients such as chicken, pork or fish. Thus you can eat it on its own without any side dishes. The Teow Chew style porridge, on the other hand, is plain in taste and is diluted in term of texture. It is usually eaten with other side dishes. Pretty similar with plain rice i.e. a form of carbs, but less solid and usually suitable for babies or elderly who can hardly chew solid food. 

I personally prefer the Cantonese style porridge over the Teow chew style, because I like the thick and smooth texture of it. Nevertheless, it is less hassle to prepare as you can just chuck everything into the pot and cook it at one go. I refer it as 'one-pot-meal'.

The only hassle of the cooking is, you need to stir the porridge pretty often to avoid burning at the bottom of the pot. However, the bright side of the constant stirring is, it helps to smoothen the grain and the porridge will turn thick and smooth without to blend it with the electronic blender.

For today's recipe, I will showcase my way of making the Cantonese chicken balls porridge.

Ingredients
Porridge
1 cup rice
8 cup water
1 chicken cube
4-5 slices of ginger
salt (good amount)

Chicken Balls
150g minced chicken
1 tbsp. soy sauce
sugar, pepper and salt to taste
Optional: ginger and chili (finely chopped)

Garnish or toppings
fried shallots
dried scallions flakes
ginger stripes
white pepper
sesame oil
soy sauce

Directions
1. Wash and soak rice for overnight.
2. In a mixing bowl, add minced chicken, soy sauce, salt, sugar, pepper, ginger and chili. Mix well and put a side for 15-20 min (marinate purpose).
3. Form the chicken mixture to 2-3cm diameter wide meatballs. Set aside for later use.
4. In a cooking pot, add rice, water, ginger slices and chicken cubes and bring to boil.
5. Once rice is boiling, turn heat to medium low and continue to cook for another 20-30 min.
* Constantly stir the porridge to avoid burning at the bottom of the pot.
* Add in extra water if require.
6. Once the porridge turns thick and creamy in texture, add enough amount of salt.
7. Slowly add in the chicken meatballs into the porridge (medium low heat).
8. Porridge is ready to be served once the chicken meatballs are thoroughly cooked.
9. Garnish the porridge with a dash of white pepper, soy sauce, sesame oil, fried shallots, ginger strips and scallions.

Porridge is simply a must-have dish during fall/winter!