Pinoy Life At Large

I am trying my darnest best to avoid salty food. My doctor has been sounding worse than a broken record, and believe me, I am doing all I can to not eat more sodium than my body needs. However, being Filipino our cuisine is inherently more salty than that of our Asian neighbors, such as the Japanese or the Thai. A fine example is everyone’s favorite, the Adobo.

Adobo is a stew of chicken and pork with a dark and oily sauce, because it has been cooked in soy sauce and palm vinegar, with a dash of garlic. Dolores, Noreen’s mom, whips up a really lean and mean adobo. What makes it so special, is that it is not as salty, yet very flavorful and unforgettable. All her relatives come to her for her Adobo, which she has learned from an in-law, so she claims.

To share this wonderful Chicken Adobo experience to you, Dolores has provided me with her secret recipe. If you follow the recipe step by step, you will be rewarded with the best Adobo you have ever tasted. And no restaurant can give you that!

Ingredients:

1. 1 Kilo Chicken
2. 1/2 cup palm vinegar
3. 1/4 cup soy sauce (Dolores recommends a brand called “Kasikatan” which is abundant in her home province of Baliuag. Not sure if it is available in your area, though generic soy sauce will do. However, maximum taste is achieved only by using the Kasikatan brand. No, this is not a product endorsement.)
4. 1/2 tablespoon black pepper
5. 1 small red onion
6. 1 whole garlic (The indigenous garlic seems to work better than the imported ones.)
7. salt to taste

Procedure:

Combine the soy sauce, vinegar, salt, pepper, onion and whole garlic in the pot along with the chicken and bring to a boil using very low heat (this takes a while). Do not cover the pot while bringing the ingredients to a boil. When it is boiling, cover for five minutes then remove the chicken and set aside. Get a wok and put in a little oil. Fish the whole garlic out from the broth and crush it. While the wok heats up, saute the crushed garlic. When the garlic begins to brown, add the chicken and saute for another five minutes using low fire. At this point, the oil starts to ooze from the chicken’s fat and then pour in the remaining broth. Increase the heat to reduce the broth and give a rich, thick sauce.

This recipe was formulated using only chicken. It is not guaranteed to work with pork. I hope this works for you as it did for me. Enjoy!