Arroz Caldo for the Snowy day

Calling today a “snowy day” is very much an understatement.  While here in Richmond the snow hasn’t been too bad, other parts of Virginia (like Northern VA where my parents are) are literally buried under at least a foot of snow!

For this day I decided to whip up some arroz caldo (aka. goto, lugaw, congee).  Arroz caldo is a filipino dish typically consisting of rice and some sort of meat like chicken, think porridge.  Unfortunately I don’t have an exact recipe for this dish; it’s one of those comfort foods that you just kinda throw everything together in the pot.

Arroz Caldo

Ingredients:
Chicken wings (I used frozen wings since that’s what I had)
3-4 cloves of Garlic, chopped
1 medium Onion, chopped
Ginger (I didn’t have any fresh, so resorted to using ground ginger… it still worked)
Uncooked Rice (long grain and glutinous rice)
Water
Salt, Pepper, Saffron

Here’s how I put it together…. I got a big pot and added heated up some olive oil, in which I browned my chicken wings.  I also seasoned the chicken while it was cooking with the salt, pepper and ground ginger (if using fresh ginger it would be added later with the onions and garlic).  Once the chicken wings were browned but not completely cooked through I added the garlic and onions.  Once the garlic and onion had sauteed a bit I added 2 cups of long grain rice and 1 cup of glutinous rice and stirred it all around.  Then I added enough water (you can use chicken broth, if you’d like) to fully cover all the rice and chicken.  I left it to simmer until most of the water had been absorbed and the rice had cooked, stirring occasionally to make sure the rice wasn’t sticking to the bottom of the pot.  For a little bit of color I added saffron leaves.  Boiled eggs, especially quail eggs are great to add at this point as well; unfortunately I didn’t have any on hand.  If your arroz caldo looks too dry (remember, it should be a little soupy) then just add more water or broth.     That’s it!

I like to eat mine with lemon juice and fried garlic 🙂

Sorry this isn’t very insightful, as far as recipes go.  Arroz caldo is just one of those dishes that my mom would make for us growing up, and now I can make it for myself!