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This is a super easy and quick way to make creamy and smooth Chinese rice congee (jook) using leftover cooked rice. You can cook it on the stove or rice cooker.
A comforting bowl of creamy and thick congee can be prepared even faster now if you have leftover cooked rice, which I usually always do. I always cook more rice than we need on purpose. I can use them to make fried rice or in this case, a rice congee.
YOU CAN COOK IT ON THE STOVE OR USE A RICE COOKER
To be honest, it actually cooks faster on the stove than the rice cooker with the leftover cooked rice method 🙂 But if you like the set and forget convenience, the rice cooker works great.
WHAT IF I DON’T HAVE A BLENDER ?
You can skip the blending part and it will still work, but it will just take a bit longer to cook, but it will still be shorter than cooking from raw rice grains.
WILL THIS WORK WITH ANY TYPE OF COOKED RICE ?
The water/broth amount may vary a bit. For example for cooked brown rice, it may need a bit more extra liquid. This also depends on how thick or thin you like your congee too.
HOW TO MAKE RICE CONGEE QUICKLY WITH LEFTOVER COOKED RICE
1. BLEND THE COOKED RICE
Put 1 cup of cooked rice in a blender
Pour 2 cups of broth/water in the blender and blend until the rice grain is broken and smooth
2. COOKING ON THE STOVE
Pour the blended rice mixture into a heavy-bottom pot. Bring it to a boil and then lower the heat to medium-low
Continue to cook over medium-low heat until it reaches the consistency you like, it will take roughly about 5 minutes of cooking time
If you want to add a protein like pork, chicken, fish, century eggs etc, add it here after the congee has thickened and continue to cook until the protein is cooked/heated through
3. COOKING IN THE RICE COOKER
Pour the blended rice mixture into the inner pot of rice cooker. Close the lid and press “quick cook”. You don’t need a porridge setting because this will cook much quicker because the rice is already all broken up
If you want to add a protein like pork, chicken, fish, century eggs etc, add it after the congee is done cooking and the rice cooker has switched to “keep warm”. Add the protein, give it a stir and close the lid back and the “keep warm” will gently cook the protein, give it about 5 minutes or so or until the protein (if raw) cooked through
DID YOU MAKE THIS EASY AND QUICK RICE CONGEE USING LEFTOVER COOKED RICE RECIPE?
I love it when you guys snap a photo and tag to show me what you’ve made 🙂 Simply tag me @WhatToCookToday #WhatToCookToday on Instagram and I’ll be sure to stop by and take a peek for real!
Blending the rice first with some liquid really cuts down on cooking time and also produce that creamy consistency that will take much longer to cook using raw rice grains. What a great idea from KT.
Easy and Quick Chinese Rice Congee (with Leftover Cooked Rice)
Ingredients
- 1 cup cooked rice (warm or chilled rice will work)
- 2 cups chicken broth or use water
- Season with salt to your taste
Protein you can add (just some ideas):
- Century eggs
- ground pork/chicken/beef
- fish slices
- Firm tofu cubes
Serve with (just some ideas):
- fresh minced ginger
- green onion finely chopped
- sesame oil
- you tiao
Instructions
- Put 1 cup of cooked rice in a blender. Pour 2 cups of broth/water in the blender and blend until the rice grain is broken and smooth
Cooking on the stove:
- Pour the blended rice mixture into a heavy-bottom pot. Bring it to a boil and then lower the heat to medium-low
- Continue to cook over medium-low heat until it reaches the consistency you like, it will take roughly about 5 minutes of cooking time. If you want to add protein like pork, chicken, fish, century eggs etc, add it here and continue to cook until the it's cooked/heated through
Cooking in the rice cooker:
- Pour the blended rice mixture into the inner pot of rice cooker. Close the lid and press "quick cook". You don't need a porridge setting because this will cook much quicker because the rice is already all broken up
- If you want to add a protein like pork, chicken, fish, century eggs etc, add it after the congee is done cooking and the rice cooker has switched to "keep warm". Add the protein, give it a stir and close the lid back and the "keep warm" will gently cook the protein, give it about 5 minutes or so or until the protein (if raw) cooked through
RECOMMEDED TOOLS
If you don’t have cooked rice and want to make some rice congee, you can check out this How To Make Asian Basic Rice Congee/Porridge using uncooked rice grains.
Other congee recipes you might like:
Easy Chicken Rice Congee / Porridge (Bubur Ayam)
Bubur Ayam Betawi Kuah Kuning (Jakarta Chicken Rice Porridge)
Dried Scallop Abalone Congee (Porridge)
Bubur Manado Tinutuan (Manadonese porridge)
Pork and century egg congee (Bubur pitan)
Easy Chinese Fish Congee (Bubur Ikan)
6 comments
Love the life hack! What an efficient shortcut for rice porridge— it adapted very well to Filipino puspas (the Filipino version of congee). Thank you for such a time saver!
Hi Anne, I’m glad you find it useful! I like to use this to make congee too 🙂
I’m at the point in my life where I don’t need a recipe for congee, but it always seems like cooking it from the raw rice is how it’s done. I know I’ve tried it once before with leftover rice, but I never did it again because it just seemed taboo when I’d never really seen it mentioned in any recipe. Anyway, I’m so glad this is here, because it’s another good use for leftover rice, it saves energy from the long cooking time (extra-long because I live in high-altitude), and it’s good for controlling the yield- especially for making just 1 or 2 portions.
I agree! It’s a great short cut and I always have some leftover rice ( I always cook more anyway) that I can use for fried rice or making congee 🙂
Should the rice be warm prior to blending? Or straight out of the fridge?
I did it straight out from the fridge. It should work if your rice is warm too.