Chicken Adobo (Recipe #4 in our series)

Ok, so here we are presenting the fourth in our series of recipes from Two In a Rain Barrel.  Today we are sharing our award-winning recipe for Chicken Adobo, one of the staples of Philippine cuisine.  Many a family in the Philippines has passed down its Adobo recipe from generation to generation but in this case I have simply taken my wife Maryann's recipe, given it a little twist, and made it my own.

I was initially introduced to Chicken Adobo while serving in the Philippines.  At the time, I thought it was very good no matter who made it but Maryann's was always a cut above.  Today, Maryann won't even make it because she says mine is better.  Indeed, I've been called upon by several of our Filipino friends to make Adobo for them because they either don't know how to make it or they acknowledge that they'd rather have mine.  No brag--just fact.  So you're in good hands, I assure you.

So, to begin with, let's start out with one of these bad boys:

I go with the Perdue because I find it to be the best.  That's it--no other reason.  You can also use boneless chicken breast and chop it up but it will not taste the same or as good--something about the flavor coming from the bone and marrow and the whatever.  Go with the whole bird.

Skin that puppy and chop it up good:  legs, thighs, wings, and cube the breast.  If your whole bird includes the liver then cut it up and toss it in the pot (we won't be using fava beans or a nice chianti) but don't use any of that other crazy crap like the heart, lungs, gizzard, or neck.  That goes in the trash with the skin.  There's just no place in polite society for that nonsense.

                        

Rinse it repeatedly with running water to get all the Salmonella off of it. Just kidding--there's probably no Salmonella on it but rinse it off good anyway and, for crying out loud, if you see anything in there that you don't want to eat then now's the time to get it the hell out of there. Drain off the water complete then place it on the burner and turn it up to eleven (that'd be the highest setting, please).   

Use a large spoon like the one pictured here and get out your Marca Pina soy sauce and Datu Puti cane vinegar.  If you don't possess these ingredients STOP NOW and go get them at your local, friendly Asian food store.  You may not continue effectively without these.  If you try using regular vinegar or some pansy-ass soy sauce like La Choy you will cause irreparable harm to the dish and, quite frankly, lose face with me and about 5 billion other people.  

Three spoons of vinegar and five spoons of soy sauce and throw in a few bay leaves.  And while I'm on the subject, soy sauce is high in sodium.  If you're worried about that then perhaps eat something else.  

Your pot of chicken will now look something like this:

While that's on the boil, prepare the ingredients for your saute:  one entire garlic, peeled and smashed; one medium-size Vidallia onion sliced as so; an equivalent amount of ripe tomato as that pictured.  You may use half the onion and it'll turn out fine--I just use the whole onion because I like eating it and this way there's more to go around.

Use 2 to 3 tablespoons of butter for your saute and turn it up to medium heat.  DO NOT USE COOKING OIL OR LARD OR ANYTHING ELSE.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME???  

Meanwhile, the chicken should be boiling away like so:

Add your garlic and onion to your sizzling butter.  Let it ride for a few minutes, stirring occasionally.  IF YOU DO NOT STIR IT, IT WILL BURN.

Introduce the tomatoes.  In a few minutes and with a bit of help the structure of the tomatoes will break down into a mash.  Stir all the saute ingredients together.

Now, using one of those big spoons with the holes in it (I don't know how to describe it in words other than I've already used), remove the chicken and add to the saute mix.  This leaves the liquid behind momentarily and also allows you to remove the bay leaves.

Like so:

Then stir it all together like so:

We're almost done.  Now add the liquid to the saute and you'll end up with such:

Cover and allow a few more minutes of burner heat.  In my case, the burner is still set to medium but the liquid will be boiling away at this point.  I shut it off after a few minutes but because it's an electric range the burner keeps up the boil for a few more minutes still.  So if you're using a gas range probably leave the heat on for like 7 to 10 minutes.

Presto!  You're done and should be looking like so:

Serve on a bed of steaming white rice.  And it's got to be some kind of decent rice out of somewhere in Asia--like Thailand or somewhere like that (we use jasmine scented). I don't want to hear about anyone disrespecting this dish by serving it with Uncle Ben's.  Enjoy!!