Chicken Glop

I’ve always found it interesting that many cultures don’t have separate foods that are just for breakfast. Like my daughter, they eat the same kinds of things for breakfast as they do for lunch and dinner rather than the modified English country breakfast we’re accustomed to. As a person who doesn’t eat gluten or dairy and who really doesn’t like eggs, Anna’s breakfast options are pretty limited when we go out; her favorite Coney Island breakfast is lemon rice soup. This dish fits the bill perfectly for her: easy to reheat, substantive enough to get her through to lunchtime, and squishy enough to eat when you’re half-asleep on the way to school.

Hey! Did you know that Glop was a Marvel comic book character? I didn't.

The original Chicken Glop was based on a recipe for a Middle Eastern dish called halim - basically a meat porridge - in which I substituted millet for the barley (and a Cornish hen for the chicken, but Cornish Hen Glop doesn’t have quite the same ring to it). It was tasty but took a while to make on the stovetop, so I was super happy when Cooking Light published a slow-cooker chicken congee in a recent issue. I’m always on the lookout for good slow cooker meals, which make David’s life a lot easier on weeknights when I’m at work and he’s schlepping the kids to various sports practices. It also helps keep him and John safe, since Anna post-swim practice is sometimes hungry enough to resort to cannibalism if food isn’t produced quickly enough.

We liked the original Chicken Glop, but this version is just fantastic. I’ve literally eaten it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the last 2 days, and I’m really sad that it’s almost gone now and I’m going to make more as soon as I buy more chicken. This is definitely going to be a coffee can recipe now that the coffee can is an actual binder in the kitchen instead of the electronic version that David alleges he maintained for years.

Adapted with minor variations from Cooking Light magazine, January/February 2017, where it is more respectably named Slow-Cooker Chicken Congee. I recently renewed my subscription after a 10-year break and I can’t recommend it highly enough to everyone that cooks. At least half of our weeknight dinners for the last 6 months have come from here.

Chicken Glop

8 cups chicken stock (homemade or unsalted)
1 cup uncooked basmati or jasmine rice
1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated (we keep the pre-grated jars in the fridge for John’s favorite ginger chicken, which I can’t believe I haven’t posted yet. We literally eat it every week.)
1 whole cut-up fryer
1 star anise pod (another great reason to buy your spices in bulk rather than pre-measured jars)

Put all the ingredients in your slow cooker and cook on Low for 6 ½ hours or so. When it’s done, take out the chicken, pull the meat off the bones, and put it back into the rice. Cook on High for about 30 minutes.

Seriously. That’s it.

If you use a slow cooker liner, which is basically a plastic bag that goes into the insert and makes cleanup a zillion times easier, you will be much happier using your slow cooker. You can find them near the plastic wrap and foil at the grocery store. 

The original recipe calls for a Thai chile in the slow cooker, and topping your bowl with chopped peanuts, green onions, hot chili oil or Sriracha, watercress springs, and diced avocado. And I bet that would really elevate this dish and be delicious; maybe I’ll try it next time. But it’s a lot more likely that I’m doing to ladle it into a bowl and eat it as-is, maybe with the little salt and pepper, because that’s what Chicken Glop is all about.