Kitchen

Easy Recipes Of Comfort Food For The Sick

by Kevyn Gohu
July 10, 2025

Here are some easy recipes to comfort food that the sick would love to eat

It’s rainy season and that means people are going to get sick. A lot. Besides taking vitamins daily and sleeping well, food plays a vital role in making sure the body builds those defenses against germs. Unfortunately, being sick means the tastebuds are usually dead and there’s no will to eat. But we know they have to! So we gathered up with easy comfort food recipes that help the sick feel better.

Hainanese Chicken Congee

Fusing together two Chinese favorites made this hearty yet clean-tasting meal. The Chinese love lugaw or congee; it was their comfort food growing up whenever they felt sick. But this recipe has an easy twist: poach the chicken first in grated garlic, ginger, and pandan leaves for thirty minutes or until white. Then, once cooked, pull the chicken out and use the same water to make the congee. While some would argue long grain rice is the best way to go, others are just happy using whatever rice they have at home.

Also, it helps if we make the sauce. Grate ginger, garlic, and green onion. Heat the sesame oil until lightly smoking and then pour. Add some salt for taste.

Ingredients

4 chicken breast fillet
1 whole bulb of garlic, peeled and grated
1/2 cup of rice
3 cups of water
2-inch knob of ginger
3 tsp of sesame oil
pepper
salt
green onion (green part)

Bulalugaw

A Filipino fusion of Bulalo and lugaw, this comfort dish makes its rounds commonly in Bulacan or the northern areas. After slow-cooking the Bulalo until tender, they use the broth to cook the lugaw. While that’s cooking, make some golden garlic chips by frying bits of garlic in oil, salt, and pepper. Feel free to add an egg or two!

For people watching their cholesterol, some would rather use olive oil to fry the garlic. However, kitchens aspiring for zero waste can use bits of the beef fat to fry or roast the garlic instead.

But if cooking Bulalugaw is too time-consuming, some places like The House of Bulalugaw make it.

Ingredients

1/2 cup rice
3 cups water
200 ~ 250 grams of beef shank
1/2 bulb of garlic
salt
pepper

Samgyetang Chicken

With Korean convenience stores like Funhan Mart and SHINE Korea Supermarket all over the place, getting the herbs for the classic Samgyetang Chicken soup (otherwise known as the Ginseng Chicken soup) will be easy! Making this is too! Garlic, ginseng, dried jujube, black peppercorns, and leek for the soup, and then boil it together with the chicken. Usually, it’s two ginseng roots to one kilo of chicken.

Don’t forget to add a bit of salt to taste!

Ingredients

2 bulbs of garlic,
2 roots of ginseng
1 kg of chicken
5-10 pcs of dried jujube
black pepper corns
1 stalk of leek

Chicken Tinola

Ever wonder how boxing legend Manny Pacquiao got so strong? It was because of all the Chicken Tinola he was eating!

It’s a balanced meal of protein and fiber. Grab a chicken and boil it with some sayote, ginger, malunggay, and garlic. Add some salt and pepper to taste, and it’s done!

Binakol is one of its variants. Instead of using plain water, the chicken is boiled in coconut juice. If there’s a nearby panaderia or convenience stores, then they most likely would have the bottled ones.

Ingredients

1 kg of chicken
2 big sayote
2-inch knob of ginger
Malunggay
1 bulb of garlic
Salt
Pepper
1/2 red onion

Sotanghon Soup

A traditional Filipino favorite, the thin, transparent noodles mixed with a wholesome and heartwarming chicken broth and veggie bits even get the pickiest sick people to eat. Because everything’s processed into small bits and the noodles don’t need much chewing, it’s an easy thing to eat and prep. Just don’t forget to soak the sotanghon separately from the soup! Those absorb a lot of liquid!

Ingredients

3 chicken breasts, filleted and shredded
150 g of sotanghon
Half a small carrot, diced
1 bulb of garlic
1/2 head of onion
1/2 head of cabbage

Macaroni Soup

If slurping isn’t an option, then Macaroni Soup is the way to go. All it takes is a small pack of macaroni noodles, bits of cabbage, carrot, onion, and garlic. Salt and pepper to taste and then, some parents add a bit of cream to make it look presentable. Other parents mix egg into the soup while shredding chicken to make sure there’s protein.

Ingredients

225 g of macaroni noodles
150 g of cabbage
half a small carrot, diced
salt
pepper
1 egg (optional)

Arroz Caldo

The traditional Filipino lugaw with bits of chicken and potato is pretty easy to make. Chop up the chicken and potato, and then boil with grated garlic and ginger. After that, use the remaining broth to cook the lugaw. Make sure to serve with toasted garlic, calamansi, and patis (Filipino fish sauce).

Ingredients

1 kg of chicken
4 whole big golden potatoes
1 bulb of garlic, grated
2-inch knob of ginger, grated
1/2 cup of rice
3 cups of water

Picadillo

If the family’s getting tired of chicken, then Picadillo would be the next best choice! Usually a stir-fry based on ground beef and potatoes, feel free to add broth, carrots, malunggay, and sayote to add more vitamins and minerals. Don’t forget to add onions, black peppercorns, and garlic too!

Ingredients

250 g of ground beef
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 bulb of garlic, grated
1/2 head of onion, diced
1 sayote, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 potato, diced
Peppercorns

Tips for Making These Comfort Foods:

While they sound easy to make, it’s also very easy to mess up. Here are some tips to make sure that the comfort food stays as good as we imagine it to be:

Grate the ginger and the garlic – A lot of kids have trauma and trust issues because people would cut the ginger, chicken, and vegetables all the same size. Because they all look the same, they get confused. Besides, grating the ginger and garlic makes sure that the juices also end up in the soup.
Keep stirring the lugaw – Lugaw is just overcooked rice, swimming in soup. But remember: it still burns at the bottom. Just keep stirring every five minutes or so to make sure it doesn’t burn. Tutong may be delicious, but not in this case.
Always cook the leafy vegetables last – Leafy vegetables like pechay, kangkong, and spinach cook really fast. When overcooked, they turn black and look like ugly worms in the soup. It’s better to just steam it for thirty seconds and mix them separately so the dish looks brightly colored. The only vegetables that are exempt from this rule are cabbage and leek.

As the rainy season becomes more unpredictable, these dishes are not just healthy – they’re easy to make too! Just dump them all in a pot and cook until the protein’s soft enough. There’ll be a healthy meal in no time.