chicken adobo plated with rice chicken adobo plated with rice

Serves 3-4 | Ready in 45 min

This is my favorite dinner entree to make! It's quick and easy, and it's my favorite Filipino comfort food. Over the past year, I've fine-tuned this recipe from one on Recipe Tin Eats that my mom recommended because it's similar to the way she makes it. At times, I ran out of ingredients and cooked for my roommate with a gluten allergy, so I've left those lessons under Substitution Tips below.

Allergens: Gluten in soy sauce (see substitution tips)

Ingredients

    Marinating

  • 6 chicken thigh fillets, boneless and skinless
  • 6 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1/3 cup soy sauce
  • 1/3 cup + 2 tbsp white vinegar
  • 3 dried bay leaves
ingredients for marinating

    Cooking

  • 2 tbsp olive or coconut oil
  • 1 small brown onion, diced
  • 1 1/2 cups water
  • 2 tbsp brown sugar
  • 1 tbsp whole black pepper
  • 6 peeled, medium-boiled eggs (optional)
ingredients for cooking

    Substitution Tips

  • Gluten allergy/intolerance? Use 1/3 cup of coconut aminos! It'll have the same great flavor.
  • Scaling the recipe up? Use less black pepper (it goes a long way).
  • Out of brown sugar? You can substitute white sugar, or even replace the water with apple juice.

Directions

Marinating

  1. Prepare the marinading ingredients. Save half of the minced garlic cloves for the cooking step.
    2. marinating done
  2. Combine these ingredients into a bowl, and let marinate in the fridge for at least 20 minutes, or up to overnight.

Cooking

    before frying chicken after frying chicken
  1. Fully heat 1 tbsp oil in a skillet at medium high. Remove the chicken from the marinade and place it in the pan, saving the marinade. Sear each side until the chicken turns white, which takes about 1 minute.
  2. Set the chicken aside on a plate.
    3. frying onions and garlic
  3. Add the rest of the oil to the skillet, along with the garlic and onion. Cook for two minutes.
    4. simmering marinade, ingredients, and water
  4. Add the reserved marinade, water, sugar and black pepper. Bring it to a simmer then turn heat down by 1 or 2. Simmer for 5 minutes.
  5. Add chicken smooth side down. If you are using eggs, add these to the skillet as well.
  6. After chicken reaches a simmer, set a timer for 15 minutes. Flip the chicken when the timer finishes.
  7. Continue simmering until the sauce has a jam-like consistency, coating the chicken enough to visibly change its color when flipped.
    8. skillet of chicken adobo
  8. If it does not reach this thickness after 15 minutes, remove chicken and continue simmering the sauce. Then, add the chicken back in.
    9. chicken adobo plated with rice
  9. Coat chicken in glaze then serve over rice.