February 16, 2009

chicken adobo

they say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. while that didn't exactly happen in my case, where i only started cooking after we said our vows, i think i saw what that phrase meant when i decided to throw my fear aside and attempt one of my hubby's favorite dishes of all time: chicken adobo.

now chicken adobo is a staple in filipino households and while there are a few variations, the basics are always the same - same ingredients, same delicious outcome. the inbetweens are where the variations come in.
since this was my first time making it, there were going to be no variations for this beginner-adobo-cook. so from start to finish, i used the recipe below. you may say i'm biased, but i really think this may be the best way to make chicken adobo. the chicken was extremely moist, tender and packed with flavor.
the skin was nicely crisped then flavored again... and pouring that sauce all over your big bowl of steaming hot rice... talk about comfort food!
now i see why my hubby's eyes lit up when he saw it cooking in the wok. :) so thank you martin yan!


Chicken Adobo, by Martin Yan's Asia

ingredients:

3/4 cup rice vinegar

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 T. minced garlic

1 bay leaf

1 tsp. sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. black pepper

1 chicken, cut into 8 pieces

3/4 cup water

2 T. cooking oil

2 tsp. cornstarch dissolved in 1 T. water


steps:

marinate: mix vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, bay leaf, sugar, salt and pepper and marinate chicken for 30 minutes in a big wok.

braise: add 3/4 cup water to the marinade and simmer over low heat for 45 minutes. remove chicken from sauce and pat dry with paper towels. allow remaining sauce to thicken while you...

fry: heat a clean, dry pan over medium heat. add oil, let it come up to temp, then place the chicken skin side down. fry for about 5 minutes until crispy on all sides.

add: the chicken back into the sauce to coat and allow it to really soak in the sauce as it thickens.

serve over hot white rice and enjoy! don't forget to pour some extra sauce over your chicken and rice in the bowl. :)


cPe 2008

3 comments:

Mica said...

Adobo is my favorite comfort food! Congrats that you took that brave step! It was soooo worth it. Love the photo, too!

Alisa said...

This is one delicious comfort food. I really love this post and if you won't mind, I'd really love to guide Foodista readers to your site. Just add your choice of Foodista widget at the end of this blog post and you're all set. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

when do i put the cornstarch in... with the water that i add to the chicken after its marinated?