Delicious Chicken Adobo Recipe

Back in 2012, Bizarre Food host Andrew Zimmern, claimed Filipino food was the next big thing in cuisines, set to hit the world.

Every other cuisine could be found in the metropolitan centers of London and New York, but Filipino food was curiously missing.

That could have something to do with lack of awareness, but it’s mostly because the cuisine is so hard to pin down. Food experts and bloggers find it hard to define what constitutes original recipes from the nation of 7,000 islands.

However, the most quintessential hallmark of Philippine cuisine is adobo. You can’t go wrong with a chicken recipe that’s simple to make, as well as incredibly delicious.

The dish is so common and popular in the Philippines, it’s considered the unofficial national dish. Here’s the recipe so you can try it out at home:

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 10 large garlic cloves
• 1 tablespoon fresh-ground black pepper
• 1 cup whole canned tomatoes with their liquid
• 2 bay leaves
• 1-1/4 cups Filipino palm vinegar, or cider or white vinegar
• 3 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 8; organic if possible)
• Good tasting extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 medium onions, thin sliced
• 2 whole scallions (garnish)

Instructions:

• Start preparing for this dish a day before.
• Combine all the ingredients for adobo – soy sauce, black pepper, vinegar and bay leaves.
• Add tomatoes and garlic, which you can either chop up roughly or crunch down in a blender or NutriBullet.
• Add everything to a bowl and mix thoroughly.

The best way to marinade the chicken completely is to add the pieces to a ziplock bag along with the mixture and lock it up.

• Leave it in the fridge overnight or for a whole day.
• Once that’s done, pour the mixture into a big heavy pot and simmer for 25 minutes.
• After that, take the chicken out from the pot and place it on a plate.
• Turn the heat up and reduce the liquid down for a few minutes.
• Meanwhile, you can pour a little olive oil on a saucepan and heat the chicken.

When the chicken is brown on one side, pour the chopped onions on top and turn over.

• Remove the chicken when the pieces have browned enough on both sides.

By this time the chicken is done and the liquid is thick enough to serve.

I prefer a serving with rice.

Place the chicken pieces over a bowl of boiled rice and gently pour the liquid adobo sauce over it. Add some chopped up scallions as garnish and enjoy!