Food & Drink

Carolina Chicken and Rice Porridge

Serves 6

A recipe from Charleston’s Edmund’s Oast

Photo: Courtesy of Edmund's Oast


Edmund’s Oast could have been a very good beer garden. Owners Rich Carley and Scott Shor are the knowledgeable duo behind Charleston, South Carolina’s beloved Charleston Beer Exchange, and early reports suggested that their new establishment might become the Holy City’s go-to spot for craft brews on tap.

Then, new information began to trickle out from behind the double doors of the old car dealership on Morrison Drive. Carley and Shor hired Jayce McConnell, an award-winning bartender who had overseen a library of tinctures, bitters, and infusions at Oxford, Mississippi restaurant Snackbar. They brought in chef Andy Henderson, who had earned his reputation working with Mike Lata at Charleston’s FIG and burnished it with a stint as chef de cuisine at Local Mission Eatery, a farm-to-table spot in San Francisco.

Yes, Edmund’s offers forty-some beers on tap, many exotic and hard-to-find. But add small-batch sodas from the local Cannonborough Beverage Company, cheese plates curated by downtown shop goat.sheep.cow, an on-site brewery stocked with state-of-the-art equipment, and an ambitious charcuterie program, and the result is an all-things-to-all-people culinary hub that feels like a summation of Charleston’s flourishing food scene.

And despite the growing buzz around the restaurant, the obsessives in charge intend to keep it gimmick-free. Henderson, for example, helped to design the wide-open kitchen, where diners can observe every cut, sauté, and simmer. “That’s no accident,” he says. “We don’t want to hide anything.” Dishes such as his dead-simple chicken porridge, made with Carolina Gold rice, local poultry, and a topping of crab or shrimp, showcase an unselfconscious approach to farm-to-table food that’s surprisingly easy to replicate at home.


Ingredients

    • 1 whole chicken, broken into parts

    • 1 cup chopped carrots

    • 1 cup chopped celery

    • 1 cup chopped onion

    • 1 cup chopped ginger

    • 4 garlic cloves, smashed

    • 5 each sage, bay, and thyme leaves

    • 10 black peppercorns

    • 2 cups Carolina Gold rice, uncooked

    • Kosher salt and black pepper, to taste

    • Sautéed lump crab or shrimp, for garnish

    • Scallions, for garnish


Preparation

  1. Put the first 9 ingredients in a large pot with 5 quarts of water and bring to a simmer, skimming any fat off the top. Cover and continue to simmer until chicken is fork-tender, about 1½ hours.

  2. When chicken is done, strain the broth into a large saucepan, reserving the chicken and discarding other solids. Bring broth to a simmer and whisk in rice. Simmer uncovered over very low heat for 6-8 hours, or until the rice has completely softened and broken down into a porridge. Stir often.

  3. Pick the meat off the chicken and add it to the cooked porridge. Season with salt and pepper and top with crab or shrimp and chopped scallions.

Recipe from Andy Henderson of Edmund’s Oast in Charleston, South Carolina.


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