Chicken Adobo

Chicken Adobo

Adobo, is, perhaps, the most popular Filipino dish there is in Philippine cuisine. It can be considered, well at some point, the national dish of the country. Lol. A lot of stories have come around about the origin of Adobo. Before the Spanish came and conquer the land for over 300 years, adobo is already being served on every table across the country.

“Adobo” means “to marinate” a Filipino cooking process of preserving a food. Our ancestors got no refrigerator on those times, so they gotta find a way to preserve their food. Originally coconut vinegar is the basic ingredient not until the Chinese traders have brought soy sauce during barter trade which eventually been used for adobo.

There are so many variants of Adobo recipe in the Philippines. In fact, every region or province has its own recipe. Including me. Lol.  I’d like to say I’m proud of my version. That’s why I am sharing it. Lol.

Ingredients:

1kg. Chicken/Pork/Lamb

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup white vinegar

1/2 cup water

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon black pepper (crushed)

1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon oregano (ground)

1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary leaves

1 red chili

2 tablespoons oil

Method:

1. In a large pot, marinate meat in soy sauce, vinegar, garlic powder and black pepper for 1 to 3 hours. Cover.

2. After marinating, add in the water into the meat mixture. Bring to boil the meat in a low heat. Simmer for 30 minutes, do not forget to stir occasionally.

3. Drain the meat and set aside the sauce to be used later.

4. Sear meat in another pot by heating the oil in medium high. Add the chili and the meat, brown its all sides. Then add the sugar, rosemary leaves and oregano.

5. Pour in the sauce and stir occasionally until the sauce has thickened coating the meat. Turn off the heat. Serve it with steamed rice and fried potatoes or camote.

Enjoy!