Chicken Adobo

Chicken Adobo

One of the staples in my house when I was growing up was adobo.  It was an easy to fix and cook Filipino food..  My Mom with four kids to watch over makes adobo whenever she was short on time.  You can make adobo with almost any type of meat.  The main ones are chicken, pork and beef.  I would think that it might also work for mutton, lambs or goat.  I know they also make adobo with fish and frog legs.  I heard they also make it with beetles in some of the provinces back in the old country.

My Mom would always cook adobo when we go on a family road trip.  It was normal when we travel that we have a pot of rice and a pot of adobo in the car.  When lunch time comes around, we would stop at a rest stop and break out the rice and adobo.  It was cheaper to eat my Mom's home cooked meal than to eat in a restaurant.  It was also economical because family trips includes everyone plus all the friends and a few neighbors.

One funny story I have with adobo was with my old boss, Sue.  She loves adobo so much that everyone would bring her adobo to try.  One day she got the recipe and tried to cook it at her home.  She reported the adobo taste great, but she was perplexed why the sauce was not brown like the ones her co-workers bring her.  She solved it by putting food coloring in the adobo. Case solved. Oh my goodness.

I consider adobo a good camping food.  It lend itself to camping or bushcrafting, because of the few ingredients required and how easy to cook it.  It think it would work well with rabbit, squirrel, boar and deer.  I think it would be great to try trout adobo.  It also does not need refrigeration once cooked and can be kept for a few days.  Adobo taste the best on the second day, since it had the time for the meat to absorb the flavor.  It taste great.

Chicken Adobo

• 1 chicken (about 3 pounds), cut into pieces or 8 chicken legs (about 4 pounds)
• 1/2 cup white vinegar
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
• 2 bay leaves

Combine the chicken, vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, peppercorns and bay leaves.  Put in high heat and let it come to a boil.  Lower the heat and let it simmer for 30 minutes, stir occasionally.  Remove the lid and reduce the sauce until thickened and chicken is tender for another 20 minutes.  Serve with steamed white rice or brown rice.

If you can marinate the chicken adobo in the refrigerator for a few hours after combining the ingredients and before cooking it, it would taste even better.  There are so many ways to make adobo.  There is really no wrong way to make it.  Each household has its own variation.  Each region got its own added ingredients or combination, but the basic recipe is the same.  Once you become familiar with the recipe you will start to adjust the amount of the ingredients and may add extra ingredients to suit your and your family's taste.  The older recipes were white since they were made before soy sauce was introduced to the Philippines.  You can also cook the chicken, pork and beef mixed together.  Don't eat the bay leaf and watch out for those peppercorns.  Do put the sauce on the rice, it taste awesome.


A.Sibal