Chicken mung bean porridge

Thao Uyen

This recipe is for that time when you try to recover from a cold or flu. It’s that time when you lost all appetite and even the best steak look like a greasy heavy mess that you can’t even bring yourself to chew. Vietnamese believe porridge is the dish to go for, along with natural remedies, to recover from cold or flu.

Vietnamese porridge is made with ordinary rice being simmered in water for a long time until the grains of rice become mush. The result is like a thick broth which you don’t even need to chew. You can make porridge to feed babies and grandparents alike, just one dish.

You will need to chew this chicken porridge though, as there are different textures and flavors to savor. In this porridge you’ll find ginger and mung beans, a combination that is used for hundreds of years to neutralize poison. It can also neutralize medicine so if you’re sick and take medicine, I’d recommend you to leave out the mung bean. If you only take natural remedies like honey lemon tea, this recipe is a bonus to help you sweat out toxins. 

To optimize the healing properties of this dish, you can add a small amount of black pepper, red chili pepper and fresh turmeric or turmeric powder. You can eat your way back to health, so let’s get to our recipe right away, shall we?
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Mr Muscle for cold and flu is here and it's ready to blast away any toxin

Ingredients: (for 2 servings)
- 2 chicken thighs with drumsticks (or half a chicken of 500gr), skinned if needed
- 80 gr short grain rice, washed and drained
- 80 gr glutinous rice, washed and drained
- 100 gr mung beans, washed
- 3 slices of ginger
- 2 cloves of garlic, crushed and minced
- ¼ medium onion, thinly sliced (as thin as possible)
- 2 stalks of spring onion, chopped
- 1 handful of Vietnamese mint leaves, roughly chopped
- 1 tbsp of olive oil
- Salt, fish sauce, black pepper
- 1 handful of coriander (optional), roughly chopped
- ¼ lemon (optional)

​How to cook:
Soak the mung beans in warm water while you cook the chicken.

Boil the chicken in 1,5 liter of water along with 3 slices of ginger for 30 to 35 minutes. You don’t need to boil the chicken on high heat. In fact the medium-high heat is best, as we want to obtain a delicious broth by letting the chicken flavor infuse in the water. 

During this process, if you use the chicken skin, remember to skim off some of the fat floating on the surface. If not, you can skip this step.

When the chicken is cooked, take it out and leave it to cool down. As for the broth, keep it to make porridge.

In a small sauce pan add 1 tbsp of olive oil and stir fry the rice and glutinous rice with crushed garlic. Use medium heat as the rice can be burned quickly. Stir for 2 minutes until the rice is translucent then take it off the heat. If the rice sticks to the pan during this step, you can add a dash of water or two, just don’t let the rice be burned.

Come back to the chicken broth, add water to reach 1 liter of broth. Put in the stir-fried rice, glutinous rice and soaked mung beans. Bring this broth to a boil for 5 minutes and stir occasionally to prevent the rice to stick and burn at the bottom of the pot. After 5 minutes of boiling, turn off the heat and cover the pot with a lid. Let the pot seat on the stove for 1 hour and you can go do your things while you wait for the rice to be cooked on its own. When you do this, the rice and beans will continue to be cooked without you burning off gas or electricity. It’s a good way to economize energy, isn’t it? ;)

If you don’t have other things to do, just take care of the boiled chicken. With your hands, tear apart the chicken meat into small pieces. Throw out the bones or you can put them back in the broth pot. Mix the chicken pieces with salt (for 250 gr of chicken meat I add 1/2 tsp of salt) and 1/2 tsp of ground black pepper, onion slices (you can keep some slices for garnish later) and Vietnamese mint. It’s basically a chicken salad. I also like to add grated lemon zest for citrus fragrance but this is optional. Set this salad aside to assemble the dish later.

You can also prepare the greens (wash and drain then chop them) at this stage because the waiting time is quite long.
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After you wait for 1 hour, the rice will look like this

Rice is cooked off the heat

The mung beans need more cooking time though

Chicken salad topping is ready

Now turn on the heat again and bring the porridge to a boil. By this time all rice grains should be soft, only the beans need to be cooked. Let the porridge simmer for 20 minutes while you add salt and/or fish sauce to the taste. I usually add 2 tbsp of fish sauce and 1 tsp of salt. Stir occasionally to prevent burning at the bottom of the pot.

After 20 minutes of simmering, the cooking part is done, you can take the pot off the heat.
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To assemble the dish, put the porridge in a bowl then add the chicken salad on top. Garnish with slices of onion, spring onion and/or coriander. I like to squeeze a small portion of lemon on top for a zingy pop, and sometimes I add red chili pepper for added heat and colors.

For garnish: slices of red chili pepper and thin slices of white spring onion head

Two is better than one :). Sometimes you don't have the appetite for the chicken salad, just take the plain porridge and share the chicken salad with your family instead.

The dish looks beautiful and it tastes wonderful, especially when you’re taken down by the cold or flu. If you really have no appetite, I recommend you to add water to make a thin porridge before the last boiling step so that it’s easier to swallow. You should also use skinless chicken and add more salt to the porridge as your palate can be dull by sickness. Lastly, eat the porridge when it’s still hot, it will help you sweating out toxins.

Spring is here so let’s stay healthy with this week's recipe :)
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