Chicken Adobo - Comfort Food

Here is a delicious way to serve bone-in chicken thighs, drumsticks, or leg and thigh quarters with rice.  This is comfort food at its finest, and who couldn't use some comfort food about now? A Filipino friend introduced me to the adobo method: meat marinated in vinegar and soy sauce and braised with garlic, bay leaves, and black pepper. This recipe is adapted from The Cooks Illustrated Meat Book.  

Filipino Chicken Adobo
8 bone-in chicken thighs, or 8 drumsticks, or 4 leg and thigh quarters
1/3 cup soy sauce or soy-free coconut aminos
1 can coconut milk (13.5 ounces)
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar 
8 garlic cloves
4 bay leaves
2 teaspoons black pepper
1 scallion, thinly sliced, optional

Toss chicken with the soy sauce or coconut aminos in a large bowl.  Refrigerate for 30 minutes to 1 hour. Remove the chicken from the sauce, letting the sauce drip back into the bowl for use later.  Fry the chicken, skin side down, in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat until the skin is browned, 7 to 10 minutes.  Meanwhile, whisk the coconut milk, vinegar, garlic, bay leaves, and pepper into the reserved sauce.  Transfer chicken to a platter and discard the fat in the skillet.  Return the chicken to the skillet skin side down, add the coconut milk mixture, and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes.  Flip chicken skin side up and continue cooking, uncovered, for about 15 minutes, until chicken registers 175 degrees.  Serve with sauce spooned over the rice and enjoy. 


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