Filipino Chicken Adobo
Filipino Chicken Adobo
Filipino Chicken Adobo may become your favourite Asian chicken dish. It’s a simple recipe with ingredients you probably already have. The result is juicy, tender, and glazed in a sweet-sour glaze, with a little heat from the peppercorns.
This recipe is for chicken thighs and MUST be made using thighs. Do not substitute with breasts!
Filipino Chicken Adobo
Filipino Chicken Adobo was one of the first chicken thigh recipes I shared back in 2015 when I launched this website. Then, I said that this was the new Asian chicken recipe that I loved, even though it was a bit disloyal since my background is Japanese. ).
Sincerity be damned; I might have embellished just a little bit. I was blinded by my excitement at discovering Chicken Adobo and how easy it is to make a dish with such amazing flavour.
Look at how sticky it is! The sauce tastes just as good as it looks. It’s so easy to make with only a handful of ingredients.
What you need
Filipino Chicken Adobo, the national dish of the Philippines, has many variations. It can be made with different proteins, such as beef or pork.
The key ingredient is the perfect balance of black pepper, soy sauce and vinegar. This creates a sticky glaze with a flavour that’s almost like slow cooking, but it’s actually not!
- Boneless, skinless chicken thighs (cannot substitute breasts as the sauce needs fat to be transformed into a glaze);
- Soy sauce – all-purpose or light soy sauce. Dark soy sauce is not allowed (the bottle will say so if dark soy has been used);
- White vinegar is just plain, everyday white vinegar. Substitute with any clear vinegar, including apple cider vinegar, rice wine vinegar or sherry vinegar.
- Onion and garlic
- Peppercorns or coarsely cracked pepper
- Sugar – Brown is best, but white is ok.
- Bay leaves, fresh or dried – it’s not the end if you do not have them;
- Green onion – Optional garnish
How to Make Filipino Chicken Adobo
Here’s how you make it. You marinate briefly the chicken before you sear it, and then simmer the chicken in the pan along with the marinade. The liquid will appear watery until the last few moments, and then it transforms into a sweet glaze.
How Chicken Adobo Tastes
The Filipino Chicken Adobo glaze is sweet and savoury with a slight tang. It also has a distinct flavour of soy. Garlic and onions create a savoury foundation, along with bay leaves. Peppercorns provide a subtle heat.
Peppercorns are not to be feared! The sauce’s flavour and cooking time will temper the spiciness so that it is more of a flavour enhancer than a fiery spice.
And lastly, the chicken. The cook time makes it incredibly tender. It takes only 6-8 minutes to cook chicken thighs on the stove. So, simmering them with sauce for 25 minutes makes them so tender that it feels like they’ve been slow-cooked for hours.
What to serve with Chicken Adobo
It is important to use rice as a sop for the sauce. If you are watching your calories, Cauliflower rice is a great option. It’s pictured on the first picture of the post with Smashed Cucumbers. This delicious meal has only 415 calories.
This Filipino Chicken Adobo Recipe makes a lot of sauce. You might not need it all. The sauce is strong, so taste it before you cover your plate.
Don’t waste leftover sauce! This stuff is gold. It’s great for making Filipino Chicken Adobo Fried Rice – I add it to the cooked rice along with some chopped Asian Greens and the sauce. It is so flavorful that you won’t even need to add anything else.
