Quick-Fix Champorado
Merienda & The After-School Hustle
If you grew up in a Filipino household, you know the smell of champorado. It is the ultimate rainy-day comfort food and the greatest after-school snack ever invented. While traditional recipes demand standing over a stove stirring raw sticky rice for forty-five minutes, any real Lola will tell you the secret to a fast weeknight merienda is bahaw—leftover, cold rice straight from the fridge. Aggressively boiling leftover rice with a precise blend of cocoa and dark chocolate mimics the rich, fatty bite of traditional Philippine tablea in just fifteen minutes. It is a brilliant display of domestic frugality that demands no specialized trip to the market.
Before you start
Save your rice.
This recipe relies entirely on bahaw (leftover rice). Make sure it has spent at least one night in the fridge so the grains are firm and cold before boiling.
Ingredients
- water4 cup
- cooked white rice3 cup
- Dutch-processed unsweetened cocoa powder1/3 cup
- dark chocolate3 oz
- dark brown sugar1/3 cup
- kosher salt1 pinch
- evaporated milk or sweetened condensed milk1/4 cup
- bacon4 strips
- flaky sea salt1 pinch
Method
- 01
Bring the water to a rolling boil in a medium heavy-bottomed pot and add the cold leftover rice.
- 02
Lower the heat to medium and stir the rice vigorously, mashing some of the grains against the side of the pot.
Because we aren't using traditional sticky rice, this aggressive mechanical stirring forces the leftover grains to release their starches, thickening the water into a creamy porridge.
- 03
Drop the heat to low and fold in the cocoa powder, dark chocolate, brown sugar, and kosher salt.
Stir continuously until the chocolate is completely melted and glossy, taking on a deep, dark brown color.
- 04
Simmer until the champorado is thick but pourable, keeping in mind it will tighten up significantly as it cools.
If it is too thick, splash in a little extra hot water; if it is too thin, let it simmer for another two minutes.
- 05
Ladle the hot porridge into bowls, hit it with a heavy, swirling drizzle of milk, and serve immediately alongside the crispy bacon.
Take alternating bites of the sweet, rich chocolate porridge and the salty, smoky bacon—that contrast is the true magic of the dish.
Notes
The savory contrast is non-negotiable.
The genius of Filipino champorado is its pairing with tuyo—dried, heavily salted fish. For the first-generation American cooking on a Tuesday night, crispy bacon provides the exact same salty-smoky-umami punch without perfuming your entire apartment.
From Cook Filipino in America.