Chicken Adobo

the Philippines' national dish: chicken simmered in a sharp, dark, glossy sauce of vinegar, soy, garlic, black peppercorns, and bay leaves until tender, the laurel lending the rounding fragrance that marks a true adobo

Origin: Philippines

From the journey of Bay Leaf.

Adobo is the national dish of the Philippines, and one of the world's great demonstrations of the bay leaf at the heart of a cuisine. The technique, cooking and preserving meat in vinegar, is older than the Spanish, who merely gave the dish the name (from the Spanish adobar, to marinate); but the classic adobo turns on a defining set of flavours: vinegar, soy sauce, plenty of garlic, whole black peppercorns, and bay leaves. The laurel, carried across the Pacific to the islands by the Manila galleon trade, is no afterthought here but an essential, the aromatic that rounds and binds the sharp vinegar and salty soy into the savoury, glossy sauce that defines a good adobo. Chicken (or pork, or both) is simmered gently in this dark liquor until meltingly tender, then the sauce is reduced until it clings and glistens. Tangy, salty, garlicky, and fragrant, eaten with a mound of white rice to soak up the sauce, adobo is the everyday and the iconic dish of the Filipino table, better still the day after it is made, and the bay leaf is as essential to it as the vinegar itself.

Ingredients

The Adobo

  • 1 kg chicken pieces, bone-in thighs and drumsticks
  • 120 ml cane or white wine vinegar
  • 80 ml soy sauce
  • 1 whole head of garlic, cloves crushed
  • 4 bay leaves
  • 1 tsp whole black peppercorns, cracked
  • 250 ml water
  • 1 tbsp neutral oil
  • 1 tsp brown sugar (optional)

To Serve

  • steamed white rice, to serve

Method

  1. Combine the chicken with the vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, bay leaves, and peppercorns and marinate for at least 30 minutes, or up to a few hours in the fridge.
  2. Lift the chicken from the marinade (reserve it) and pat dry. Brown the pieces in the oil in a heavy pan over a medium-high heat until golden, then set aside.
  3. Pour the reserved marinade and the water into the pan and bring to the boil. Crucially, let it boil for 2 to 3 minutes before stirring, to take the raw edge off the vinegar.
  4. Return the chicken, reduce to a simmer, cover, and cook for 25 minutes, turning once, until the chicken is tender and cooked through.
  5. Uncover and simmer for a final 10 minutes to reduce the sauce until dark, glossy, and clinging. Add the sugar if you like a touch of sweetness, and taste.
  6. Discard the bay leaves and serve hot over steamed white rice, with plenty of the sauce.

Notes

Pork belly, or a mix of chicken and pork, makes an equally classic adobo; the method is the same. Regional and family versions vary endlessly: some add coconut milk (adobo sa gata), some pineapple (adobo sa pinya), some leave it 'white' without soy (adobong puti). The constants are vinegar, garlic, peppercorns, and bay. Use only true bay (Laurus nobilis).

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

Mapping Culinary History

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
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