Filipino Chicken Adobo, a delicious recipe made with chicken thighs cooked in a delicious adobo marinade. It is a super easy dish to make from scratch with just a few ingredients. Serve it with rice, salad or any other side of your choice, and enjoy the best homemade dinner tonight.
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What is adobo?
Adobo is a popular dish and cooking process in the Philippine cuisine that involves meat, vegetables or seafood cooked in a sauce made from vinegar, soy sauce and garlic. The recipe is considered by many people the sample food of Philippines.
And rightly so, as it is so tasty and easy to make. The key is to leave it to marinate, ideally overnight, or as long as you have time. And be generous with the amount of garlic you use, the more, the tastier. Which is fine by me, as I love garlic, way too much!!!
Once cooked, the sauce is sticky and rich, bursting with amazing flavours, which give the thighs a fabulous Asian touch.
Ingredients needed for the chicken adobo
The recipe uses a few simple ingredients that can be found easily in any supermarket: chicken thighs, chicken stock/broth, vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, oil, peppercorns and bay leaves.
How to cook chicken adobo
I chose to cook chicken, as it is a light and easy meat that many people love, including little ones - you can check other chicken recipes I have, there is a whole category on my blog. Most recipes call for a whole chicken, but l decided to go for chicken thighs only, skin-off, bone-in.
Now, there are lots of different cooking methods for adobo, and I think there is no right or wrong, you just choose the way that you like best. And I chose the easy way where everything is cooked in one pot. Don't you like less mess?
- in a bowl, combine the vinegar, soy sauce and minced garlic, add the chicken thighs and leave to marinade, ideally overnight.
- heat up the oil in a pan, add the chicken thighs, and fry gently until brown. The chicken won't be cooked through at this stage.
- add the chicken stock, marinade, peppercorns, bay leaves, cover the pan with a lid, and leave to cook until the chicken is tender and the liquid is reduced into a thick sauce.
Is the adobo sauce too strong?
I must admit that I was a bit reluctant at first, was unsure whether I would like the adobo sauce. And that is because it uses quite a bit of vinegar.
I thought the flavour would be too strong and the sauce too sharp. But, surprisingly, it is the very best sauce I have ever tasted. You really cannot tell that is has that amount of vinegar.
Yes, it is slightly sharp, but it has the right amount of vinegar. The base of the adobo sauce are vinegar, soy sauce and garlic. Nothing simpler. Not tastier.
Some recipes call for brown sugar to add to the stickiness of the sauce, but I found that there is no need for sugar, the sauce is nicely balanced without. What a lovely dish!
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Filipino Chicken Adobo, a delicious recipe made with chicken thighs cooked in a delicious adobo marinade. It is a super easy dish to make from scratch with just a few ingredients. Serve it with rice, salad or any other side of your choice, and enjoy the best homemade dinner tonight.
- 5 skinless, bone-in chicken thighs
- ½ cup soy sauce
- ½ cup cider vinegar
- 4 cloves of garlic, minced
- 10 peppercorns
- 3 bay leaves
- 3 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 cup chicken stock (broth)
- freseh parsley to garnish
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To make the marinade, add the soy sauce and cider vinegar to a bowl together with the minced garlic and mix well.
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Place the chicken thighs in a large dish and pour over the marinade.
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Cover with clingfilm and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, so that the chicken can soak up the flavours.
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Remove the chicken from the dish and retain the marinade.
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In a large frying pan, heat up the oil and add the chicken thights.
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Fry slightly on each side until lightly brown.
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Add the marinade, peppercorns, bay leaves and chicken stock, and leave to cook with the lid on until the chicken thighs are cooked through and the sauce is reduced and slighty thickened.
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Serve the chicken with rice or the side dish of your choice, pouring over the remaining sauce.
Recipe Video
Some recipes call for brown sugar to be added to the sauce to help with the sticky texture, but I find that there is no need for sugar, the sauce is nicely balanced without.
Marlynn | UrbanBlissLife
Being Filipino, I grew up enjoying many variations of adobo from different family members. It's always delicious! Yum - now I am craving it!
Daniela Anderson
Thank you! I really love it!
Gloria Duggan
Chicken thighs are underrated. They are so juicy and full of flavour. This dish sounds very tasty. Love the sauce...and the heat!!
Daniela Anderson
Thank you, Gloria!
Veena Azmanov
I love Abodo chicken rice. I've eaten it a few time while in Singapore. That sauce looks so delicious. I didn't know it was so easy. Can't wait to try this.
Daniela Anderson
Thank you, Veena! I'm sure you'll love it!
Stephanie
I love cider vinegar so I'm pretty sure I would like that adobo sauce. Sounds really good and like it would be great with lots of things.
Daniela Anderson
Thank you!
Molly Kumar
This looks so delicious and we totally love saucy recipes for special weekend meals. It's going in my weekend recipes to try and I'm sure my family would totally love it 🙂
Daniela Anderson
Thank you, Molly!
Noel Lizotte
This chicken looks amazing! I've got some thighs thawing in the fridge. I just might mix up this marinade to use on them. I love how simple the marinade is!
Daniela Anderson
Thank you! I am sure you will love it!
Swathi
That chicken looks delicious, I haven' t tried adobo sauce, may be I can give it try. They sound have both tangy and salty balance from soy sauce and vinegar.
Daniela Anderson
Thank you!
ManilaSpoon
I am Filipina and certainly proud that this is our national dish!! Chicken adobo is amazing indeed - so tasty yet so easy! I have so many versions of it, too. Have to try this with parsley as you suggested. Looks so yummy!
Daniela Anderson
Thank you, glad to see that you approve of it!
Christine - Jar Of Lemons
This recipe looks so delicious! Perfect for dinner! Saving and hope to try it out soon.
Daniela Anderson
THank you!
Marisa Franca - All Our Way
This is the second time I have to write this because it is saying I'm spam -- I"m not. I did say that your chicken adobo sounds and looks great. We make our own adobo sauce so we are ready to make it this week.
Daniela Anderson
Thank you!
jay avila
Going to try this now. Sounds delish. Will let you know.
Thanks for the recipe
Daniela Anderson
Thank you! I hope you'll enjoy the dish!
foodlovers
Easy Filipino Chicken Adobo Recipe have their own set of flavor …me this Easy Filipino Chicken Adobo Recipe looking nice recipe I will try this thanks for sharing
B. neel
I would hesitate to us a Marinade that raw chicken has sat in for an hour. Too many times I have read from professional chefs to throw away. I don’t even boil. Why not divide the Marinade? Use only part for Marinade and the rest to cook chicken?
Julie
Curious has anyone tried this in a slow cooker?
Daniela Anderson
I was thinking about it today actually. I have quite a few chicken thighs and the chicken adobo is one of my favourite dishes. I want to try it in the slow cooker too, l’ll follow the exact same steps to marinade and brown the chicken, the transfer everything to the slow cooker and cook on high for 3-4 hours, l think that should do. I’ll let you know how it turns out, l might need to add cornflour to thicken it.
Erin Nolan
I just tried your recipe today and my family loved it! I let the chicken marinade for 3 hours. and it was very flavorful! My chicken thighs were a bit fatty and they ended up boiling in the fat. So after the fat melted off, I used another pan to brown the chicken, and placed it back in the original frying pan. Also, I added a little cornstarch/water mixture to make the sauce thicker. Thank you for sharing your recipe. I most definitely will be having it again!
Daniela Apostol
I am glad you enjoyed it!
Robin Gramola
So many comments, but not many of them prepared the dish first. I'll get back to ya, thanks for the recipe.