How To Cook Chicken Adobo

Chicken Adobo

Adobo could be the most famous of all Philippine foods and every family has its own version of this popular dish. The types of adobo differ from ingredients used but the basic desired taste remains the same, sour and salty. 

There are adobos cooked with soy sauce giving it a brown gravy, some add coconut cream rendering a creamy gravy and still others add wine instead of native vinegar, spices, herbs or anything they fancy like turmeric, black beans, pork skins, sugar, flavored oils like olive oil, pork lard, etc. 

There is really no exact formula in cooking adobo. But basically adobo is so simple anyone can make a delicious concoction from scratch. The simplest adobo can consist of chicken, vinegar, garlic soy sauce or salt, peppercorns, bay leaves and water.

Here's how I cooked my Chicken Adobo from scratch.

Ingredients:

1 kilo chicken legs, cut up

1 head garlic, crushed

1/2 teaspoon whole black peppercorns

3/4 cup coconut vinegar

1/4 cup good quality soy sauce

3 small bay leaves

1 cup water

Procedure:

• Clean the chicken pieces, wash very well and drain of water.
• Put in a cooking pot, add in the crushed garlic, whole black peppercorns, vinegar, soy sauce, bay leaves and water.
• Cover and bring to a boil and simmer in low heat for 20 minutes. 
• Skim off the scum and collect the oil pooling on the surface to be used to fry the meats.
• Drain the chicken and using a non stick pan, fry the chicken pieces using the fat collected from the top of the adobo liquid. 
• After frying the chicken pieces return them to the adobo liquid and bring to simmer for 10 more minutes until the sauce has thickened. Taste for saltiness and adjust if necessary by adding salt.
• Remove from fire and transfer the adobo into a deep dish for serving.

Serve and Enjoy!

Note: You may opt to serve this adobo for next day to improve on flavor but I could not wait, it tasted the same, delicious adobo as usual anyway... 

Chicken Adobo