Crock Pot Rice Porridge (Congee or Jook)

There is nothing like a warm bowl of jook on a cold and rainy December evening. Cooking jook in a crock pot is so easy and satisfying. This makes for creamy jook, and you can adjust it as thick or as thin as you'd like. I have a fairly large crock pot that holds 6 quarts, so you will need to adjust your amounts and time for a smaller pot.

Ingredients:
2.5 cups long grain rice (I use jasmine)
4 quarts water
1/2 pound chicken meat, diced
1/2 pound chicken bones
1 quart chicken broth
6 preserved duck eggs
chopped green onions for garnish
salt, white pepper, and/or fish sauce (optional for seasoning)

First, dice the chicken meat.

Wash the rice and put the chicken bones, chicken meat, and chicken broth in the crock pot.

Then add in water to reach the 5 quart mark on the crockpot. This gives you some room for adding in more water if needed and also the preserved eggs later. Some people like ginger in their jook, so add it if you prefer, but I am not a fan of ginger.

The preserved duck eggs often come packaged like this.

You don't need to cook them, as they're preserved. So remove the shells...

...and cut them into eighths.

It takes me 4 1/2 hours on high setting to get my jook really creamy. I stirred it every half hour for the last hour to keep it from sticking at the bottom. If your jook is too thick to your liking, add in more water and stir. If too thick, cook it a little longer.

Remove the bones if you want when the jook is done. Add in the duck eggs 5 minutes before serving. I enjoy mine with some green onion, a spoonful of fish sauce, some salt. and lots of white pepper.