Arroz Caldo (Instant Pot)
Blog: www.nextinlime.com
Servings: 5
Ingredients
- 1 pound (454 g) chicken thighs - boneless, skinless, or use breast
- 2 inches fresh ginger piece - peeled
- 3 cloves garlic - peeled
- 1 small Thai green chili - (Note A)
- ½ medium onion - peeled
- 3 tablespoons cooking oil
- 1 stalk lemongrass - fresh or frozen, cut into 2-inch chunks
- 6.5 cups water
- 1.5 tablespoons fish sauce
- ½ cup (100 g) glutinous white rice - aka sticky rice or sweet rice
- ¼ cup (50 g) regular white rice - I prefer basmati, jasmine rice works too
- 1 chicken bouillon cube - or granulated bouillon or chicken base
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
Optional Garnishes
- 2 hard-boiled eggs - sliced or halved
- 1 lime or lemon or calamansi - cut into wedges or slices
- 2 green onions - aka scallions, thinly sliced
- some crispy garlic - (Note B)
- some chili oil - to drizzle on top
Instructions
- Cut the chicken thighs into small bite-sized pieces. If using frozen chicken, no need to fully thaw – just enough to make cutting manageable. Set the chicken aside.
- Roughly chop the peeled ginger and onion and remove the stems from the Thai chilies.
- Put the ginger, chilies, onion into a high-speed blender, along with garlic cloves and 3 to 4 tablespoons of water. Blend until completely pureed.
- Turn on your Instant Pot, select sauté mode (on "normal" setting), add cooking oil, the prepared puree of aromatics and the lemongrass chunks. Sauté 3 to 4 minutes.
- Add 6.5 cups of water, chicken pieces, fish sauce, glutinous white rice, regular white rice, chicken bouillon cube, ground black pepper. Give a quick mix, then turn off the sauté mode.
- Now secure the lid in place, choose the pressure cook mode and cook on high pressure for 25 minutes. Then wait 10 minutes before proceeding with a quick release of pressure. Please make sure to follow the safety instructions that came with your Instant Pot.
- After that, give your arroz caldo a good stir. If it’s too thick, add water in small increments until you get your preferred consistency. Let it simmer on sauté mode for a couple of minutes, and stir to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of the pot.
- Remove the lemongrass chunks and serve with your preferred garnishes from the options I've shared. I usually prefer mine with a squeeze of citrus (lime, lemon, or calamansi), hard-boiled eggs and sliced green onions.
- When reheating, add some water to restore the consistency.
Notes
Note A: Thai green chilies – If you have a very low spice tolerance, choose milder options like Anaheim peppers or reduce the quantity of Thai chilies.
Note B: Crispy garlic – here is a good recipe if you want to make some at home.