Chicken Adobo
Tuesday, August 10, 2010 at 08:00AM Thus far, in terms of Filipino food I've made for the blog, I've hit some of my childhood favorites: chicken arroz caldo, kare-kare and sinigang. But I've neglected the Filipino national dish: adobo. The term "adobo" actually refers to the cooking process in this tangy and tasty meal - the protein of choice (most commonly chicken and pork, but can be pretty much anything) stews in a mixture of vinegar and soy sauce. As with all Filipino dishes, there are many different variations on adobo, but this one from the wonderful Marvin of Burnt Lumpia is one of my favorites, and is almost identical to the one my mom made us growing up.
- 8 skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 6 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/3 cup soy sauce
- 2/3 cup apple cider vinegar
- 2 tsp whole black peppercorns
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 cups cooked white rice
First, I heated the oil over medium-high heat, then browned the chicken in batches, about 5 minutes per side. Mmmm, crispy chicken skin.
I removed the chicken to a large bowl, poured off all but about 1 tbsp of the drippings, then sauteed the garlic over medium heat for about 1 minute.
I added the soy sauce and vinegar and deglazed the pot, making sure to scrape all the yummy brown bits off the bottom of the pot.
I added the peppercorns, bay leaves and chicken (with its juices), then covered and simmered about 20 minutes.
I removed the cover, then simmered an additional 15 minutes to thicken up the sauce. I served the chicken with rice and spooned the piquant sauce over the top. This meal is not for everyone - the vinegar and soy sauce make for a very pungent and powerfully flavored dish. But surprisingly, despite his New England palate, Mark loved it and immediately went back for seconds. In fact, I wish that I had made double the recipe to keep eating all through the week, since adobo keeps FOREVER (the vinegar and salt from the soy sauce are great natural preservatives). Oh, well - it's such an easy and simple recipe that I can throw it together in a heartbeat if I want more!
Chicken, Entree, Filipino in Recipes: At Home
Reader Comments (12)
Wow, Angela last night when we tweetered about this dish you made me salivate. Love that golden sheen you achieved with the chicken. Looks yummy and delicious and I could have it for breakfast:) Shulie
Thanks, Shulie! Mark and I are both addicted to this - it was supposed to last a few days (for lunch), but we've managed to decimate it pretty quickly. It's such an easy dish!
This brings back great memories, and makes me miss my mom's and aunt's cooking! I need to learn to cook Filipino food on my own - I think I'm going to start with this. :)
Aww Angie, so touching your last comment. That is a good start! Believe it or not I am the only kid that is carrying the Indian cooking tradition in my family and we are six kids! My mom even by her own sisters testament was the best cook out of the bunch. She is very gifted got that touch:)...and to think I was the rebelious one..hardly lifted a finger cooking or cleaning growing up, god forbid I would succumb to tradiitional Indian society expectation of women's role. Jonathan enmraced the indian in me way before I did! Shulie (this is turning into a dear diary, lol)
Well it was Lisa's comment but still touching:).
Lisa-
This is pretty much the easiest thing in the world, so it's a good place to start! Some recipes include coconut milk, but that's not the kind I grew up with. I prefer coconut milk-less versions.
Do you think there would be a way to do a fish version of this? It looks so good... would love to try it out!
Brian-
Absolutely - I've actually had fish adobo before, just never made it. I think you could use this recipe, just cutting out the pre-cooking of the chicken (which is mostly for color), and adding the fish a little later in the process (to avoid overcooking). I also found a recipe specifically for fish adobo that is very similar: http://www.filipino-foods.com/filipino-recipes/fish-adobo-adobong-isda
Let me know if you make it!
Oh. my. god. I have been craving Filipino food since I left home, almost a year ago -- and I just didn't have a recipe for this.
Needless to say, I'm trying this tonight. YUM. Yeah. My stomache just growled.
Sarah Marie,
Oh, excellent! Let me know how it goes! And Burnt Lumpia is a very good resource for Filipino recipes in general. Marvin is really funny, too!
This looks mouth watering, even at 8:30 in the morning. I think I'm going to have to make this this weekend. You had me at garlic and soy sauce ;-)
Debb-
This is the perfect dish for salt-cravers like us supertasters. I hope you like it!