I had just gotten an Instant Pot when I decided to try this recipe. Excited,  I immediately texted my sisters I knew already had one, “What is the one amazing thing I should cook with it?”

Beans, soups, chili they texted back– but then my youngest sister, Laura exclaimed, “Congee!”

Congee? What’s that? And she put an exclamation point after it. Rice porridge? Why does a rice porridge deserve an exclamation point?

Alright, alright, alright. I trust my sister’s opinion, usually.

Congee is considered the comfort food of not only Chinese cuisine but can be found throughout East Asia. The list of countries wikipedia.org lists and the various names they have for congee is quite interesting. You can check it out in more detail here.

My mother is from the Philippines where this is called lugaw when a simple rice soup base, but more commonly known as goto or arroz caldo, depending on the protein. This wasn’t a dish that I’ve experienced growing up but decided to give it a try.

The basis of congee is rice and either water or chicken stock with sliced ginger. From there chicken, scallions, soy sauce, and sesame oil seem most common.

In this recipe I decided to try it with pork butt roast I had on hand cut into chunks. I loosely based it on the recipe over at Budget Bytes https://www.budgetbytes.com/instant-pot-congee-jook and modified it to my tastes.

What makes pressure cooking so amazing to me is that it drastically cuts down on time to make things like this. While usually it would take hours and a lot of attention, this recipe allows you to just dump all the ingredients into the pot, set for 30 minutes and you’ll soon have a delicious meal.