Nikko Cagalanan has been serving arroz caldo, the poster child of Filipino comfort food, ever since he opened Kultura in 2023, during a hot Charleston, South Carolina, summer. “I tell everyone this is my favorite dish on the menu because it reminds me of my grandmother’s cooking,” he says. “It’s what she makes when she’s sick or the family is sick.”
Arroz caldo is essentially a warm rice porridge traditionally made with chicken. But that description belies a dish that is both comforting and subtly complex. Its likable cousins include Chinese congee and Korean juk. It’s soupier than purloo, the one-pot Lowcountry standard with roots in West Africa, so the closest Southern corollary might be old-fashioned chicken and rice made with lots of broth.
In Cagalanan’s version, garlic and ginger join onions as they sweat in oil. Bouillon powder boosts the flavor of small pieces of boneless chicken (thighs are nice here), while fish sauce and lime juice give it an edgy tang.
“The base recipe is what my grandmother would make,” he says. Then he levels up the dish with some cheffy toppings. He might add smoked trout roe, a jammy egg, and a hit of XO sauce. And always, crispy fried garlic makes a welcome appearance.
At the restaurant, Cagalanan uses sweet rice, which is also called glutinous rice. For more local flavor, Carolina Gold or the shorter-grained Charleston Gold make fine substitutes. The trick is to give the rice a good rinse to remove some starch and then overcook it, so it breaks down a bit and forms a creamy porridge.
Cagalanan immigrated to the United States in 2011, working as a nurse until he couldn’t deny that what he really wanted to do was cook. He landed in Charleston in 2018, learning the ropes at a few restaurants before starting Mansueta’s Filipino Food, a pop-up named after his grandmother. He sees a lot of similarities between his two homes. Both Charleston and the Philippines make good use of fresh seafood. Each has great local farmers. And they share a deep passion for rice.
Arroz caldo, of course, especially shines when the weather cools. But Cagalanan keeps it on the menu year-round, and his customers have come to adore the dish as much as Filipinos who grew up eating it do. “Even in the summer, people still order it,” he says. “Everybody loves this.”
