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
Ingredients
- 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
Instructions
- To make the marinade, add the soy sauce and cider vinegar to a bowl together with the minced garlic and mix well.
- Place the chicken thighs in a large dish and pour over the marinade.
- Cover with clingfilm and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, so that the chicken can soak up the flavours.
- Remove the chicken from the dish and retain the marinade.
- In a large frying pan, heat up the oil and add the chicken thights.
- Fry slightly on each side until lightly brown.
- 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.
- Serve the chicken with rice or the side dish of your choice, pouring over the remaining sauce.
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Notes
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Katherine
Too vinegary for me.
Leslie Kenyon Booth
Can I leave out the oil, or perhaps use Olive oil? I’m on a stent diet and not supposed to have any oil, with exception of Extra Virgin Olive oil. Thanks.
Daniela Apostol
I haven't used olive oil, but worth a try.