The Best Chicken Adobo Recipe Indeed!

Adobo. Every non-Pinoy with a Pinoy friend has probably tasted this dish. It's a process of cooking meat, usually pork or chicken or both, stewing the meat in vinegar and soy sauce. It's one of those dishes you'd want to prepared in one big batch since it does not spoil easily plus it does taste better when you reheat it.

During the first months of my married life, I've tried (in vain) to cook a decent adobo dish. With absolutely no background in cooking (I couldn't even fry egg decently), I thought it was a relatively simple dish to start cooking with since it contains few and no elaborate ingredients. But boy, I was wrong. My adobo turned out to be too salty, too runny or worse, it turned out to be an asado (braised dish of pork or chicken in sweet, salty sauce)!

Just when I almost gave up on cooking adobo, I came upon this recipe which claimed to be the best adobo recipe ever. Unfortunately, I can't remember where I got this recipe to give the author due credit. Whoever it is, thank you and it is the best adobo recipe indeed!



1 medium garlic, peeled and chopped
3 lbs. whole chicken
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup Silver Swan soy sauce
2 tsp. Pepper corn1 tsp.
Ground black pepper
2 cups water
1/3 cup Canola oil
bay leaves

1. Sautee garlic in oil until medium brown. Add the chicken and cook until it’s light brown then simmer.
2. On a separate sauce pan, combine vinegar, soy sauce, ground black pepper and water. Cook in medium until it boils. 
3. Let it boil for about 2 minutes then pour it on the simmering chicken. 
4. Add pepper corn and bay leaves and let it simmer, stirring occasionally until only half of the sauce is left. Serve over hot plain Jasmine rice.

*For best results, I fry the chicken after cooking. Tried making the pork variant and it was good as well.

Adobo Chicken