Of Arroz Caldo for Adults

Arroz caldo is basically the Philippines' version of porridge, except better. It's made from rice, water, chicken, garlic, onions and ginger. When I was younger, my mom would make this for breakfast using leftover cooked rice from the night before. She would usually cook more rice for dinner than usual if she planned to make arroz caldo for breakfast. She'd also cook the chicken, although she sometimes did this on the day itself. It is definitely one of the comfort dishes of my childhood.

This time around, though, I decided to make a more adult version by adding saffron. (I only say it's adult version because I figured that saffron is probably more expensive than safflower) It's probably not the best idea, but I did it anyway because the recipe I looked up used safflower, which I hear is an alternative to saffron. Since we had saffron and not safflower, I figured it would do. 

Another mistake I made this time was to use raw rice instead of cooked rice. This added to my cooking time.  It also taught me to just use my mom's recipes next time around. Most traditional recipes use raw rice, but the my mom's version is also a way for me to get rid of rice leftovers. So, instead of giving you my carefully measured recipe, I'll give you my mom's recipe instead. A word of warning, since this is my mom's recipe, I have to warn you that all the measurements she used are based on instinct. That's also how I basically learned to cook this dish until this disastrous effort of using someone else's recipe.

My Mom's Arroz Caldo Recipe

chicken cut into pieces (amount will depend on how much chicken you want)

3-4 cloves garlic, crushed and diced

1 small red onion, diced

1 scallion, separate white stalks from green leaves and cut into tiny pieces

1 small ginger, crushed and diced

oil

cooked rice (amount will depend on how much you are eating)

water (amount will depend on the amount of rice)

chicken bouillon cube (optional)

a big  pinch of safflower

salt and pepper

a calamansi (calamondin) per person

toasted garlic

hard boiled egg

The first thing to do is to decide how much rice you want to cook. You'll need a ratio of about 2 cups water for every cup of rice. Once you've decided, boil the chicken in a pot of water with half the ginger. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Once cook, remove from the pot, but reserve the chicken broth. 

In another pot, saute the garlic until golden brown. Add the onion, the whites of the scallions and the rest of the ginger. Cook until the onions are a little translucent. Add the rice, the water and the chicken broth. Also add the bouillon cube if you're using it. Add the chicken. Cook on medium low heat until the water has thicken. The rice should have soften but not quite lost its shape. At this point, if the porridge is too watery, just allow it to boil off the water until it thickens again. If it is too dry, add more water. Add the safflower. Season with salt and lots of pepper. Serve in a bowl.

Traditionally, you can serve arroz caldo with calamansi, green scallions, toasted garlic and hard boiled egg, but my mom loves it without any of these toppings. Except for the calamansi, I like it the way my mom does too. Calamansi is the traditional citrus served, but you can also use 1/8 of a lemon or lime. I think if you don't add the safflower/saffron you end up getting Lugaw, which is another version of rice porridge. Truth is, you don't really need to add any of these because the joy in arroz caldo is simplicity of the dish, but it does add to the traditional yellowish color of the dish.