Are you a fan of Filipino food? You’re in luck because we’ll be talking about how to cook one of the Philippines’ most delicious dishes: Filipino chicken adobo. As a country that bonds over food, knowing how to cook this dish is a must if you ever find yourself visiting the Philippines, if you have Filipino friends, or if you want to learn Tagalog!
If you are interested in how to cook this delicious meal that all Filipino families bond over, then read on!
Filipino chicken adobo is a classic Filipino dish. It is usually paired with steamed white rice, brown rice, or garlic fried rice. It is best eaten with your hands (kinakamay).
This dish is basically chicken thighs and chicken breasts, or any part of the chicken, that is cooked and braised with dark soy sauce, white vinegar, bay leaves, green onions, or even adobo sauce.
Filipino chicken adobo tastes very tangy, but it can be slightly sweet if you prefer. Not to mention, the recipe is very easy and quick to prepare! Depending on the process that you choose, cooking can range from 30 minutes to an hour. So, if you are looking for a dish that will not take up too much of your time yet still tastes good, this is the way to go!
Step 1: Prepare The Ingredients
The ingredients for this recipe are very easy and you may even have them all in your kitchen already! Although you can always modify the ingredients to best fit your taste buds, these are the ingredients for the chicken adobo of the Philippines:
- Chicken: Can be chicken thighs, chicken legs, chicken breasts, or any part of the chicken
- Chopped garlic: 5-6 cloves
- Chopped onions: 1/2-1 small onion
- Soy sauce/Adobo sauce: 1 cup
- Vinegar: 1 cup
- Brown sugar: 1/2 cup (optional depending on how sweet you want it)
- Ground black peppercorns: 1 teaspoon
- Bay leaves: Up to your personal preference
Did You Know?
These are just the basic ingredients to get you started with cooking chicken adobo.
Did you also know that there are actually two types of adobo? The first one is to marinate the chicken and then cook it with oil. The second is to braise the chicken so that it has a sauce. This goes to show that Filipino dishes and Filipino cuisine are very versatile in taste and the way that the dishes are cooked!
Step Two: Marinate The Chicken
Preparing the marinade is very easy. You just need to combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and mix them together. If you have a reserved marinade, then that is also okay!
Ideally, it is nice to poke parts of the chicken with a stick or a knife so that the marinade can seep into the inner parts of the chicken. If you don’t like to eat the skin of the chicken, you can remove it and then proceed to marinate it like normal.
As for the soy sauce and the vinegar, although there is a preferred measurement, you can always marinate the chicken adobo according to your taste and what you feel would suit you or the other people who will be eating it best.
You can marinate the chicken adobo for 30 minutes to an hour, but you can marinate it overnight to really make sure that the chicken adobo is well seasoned!
Step Three: Cooking Time!
In a large skillet (kawali) on low to medium heat, add the chicken pieces carefully along with the marinade. Since the chicken naturally has a bit of water, this will also help the dish cook.
From time to time, stir it so that the chicken pieces do not stick to the pan. Remember to reduce the heat if needed because chicken cooks very fast, unlike pork. Letting the chicken adobo cook on very high heat might result in overcooking!
If you notice that there isn’t much sauce anymore, you can add extra soy sauce, rice vinegar, or any liquid condiment that you feel would make chicken adobo more flavorful. Adding water is also okay.
Upon tasting, if you feel like it has a very strong flavor, you can add water to dilute the taste.
If you want the Filipino chicken adobo to have a good aroma (magandang amoy) or you want to enhance its flavor (lasa), you can add whole peppercorns (paminta) as well as bay leaves (dahon ng laurel). Brown sugar can also be used to make the flavor of the chicken adobo and the chicken pieces sweeter. It can also be used to make the sauce slightly thicker.
Quick Tip!
If you want a chicken adobo that doesn’t have any sauce, you can wait for it to simmer down. When it is simmering, you can add cooking oil or canola oil and cook the chicken parts on medium-high heat.
Doing this will allow the chicken pieces to cook thoroughly while still retaining their moisture and flavor. Don’t add too much cooking oil because it will make your chicken adobo very oily. Of course, if you prefer using butter, you can also do that.
Voila! You now have the fried Filipino chicken adobo recipe.
Step 4: Serve Chicken
If you have already cooked the chicken adobo to your liking, it’s time to serve it!
You can serve the chicken adobo with mashed potatoes (patatas), garlic fried rice, or just plain rice (kanin)! Filipinos typically use their hands when eating dishes like these so it is best to wash your hands thoroughly before eating! Aside from that, you can use white vinegar as well as fish sauce (patis) to dip the chicken in before eating for a more enhanced flavor!
What’s Great About Chicken Adobo And Other Filipino Food?
What makes every chicken adobo recipe and other Filipino meals the best is how they can be paired with everything. If you have leftovers from when you cooked the dish, you can store the adobo inside your refrigerator and make adobo fried rice!
You can do this by chopping up the chicken pieces, adding garlic, adding onions, and then frying it before adding the rice. This is a very good recipe when you are on the go! You can even use the sauce of the chicken adobo as the seasoning for your rice.
In the Philippines, it is very common practice to always use the leftovers for new meals. Having said that, most Filipino dishes are cooked in a certain way to accommodate that!
Innovative? Definitely.
Know More!
This is just one of the many Filipino dishes to help introduce you to Filipino culture and the deliciousness of Filipino cuisine!
From delicacies like biko (sweet rice cake), puto (steamed rice cake), suman (rice cake), to Filipino staples like pinakbet, sisig, and so much more, the Philippines is rich in culture and diverse in its heritage. The least of your worries when you plan to visit the Philippines should be what to eat!
If you want to try this dish out or even visit the Philippines, then what better way to get acquainted with the language of the country than to learn it? Good thing the Ling App is here to help!
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