Filipino adobo image from WikiFilipino

Adobo is a dish with origins in Spain. The word means sauce or marinade in Spanish and the dish almost always has vinegar, garlic, salt, and a number of spices like pepper. The dish usually uses pork, but chicken is also a preferred meat in some regions of the world. In the Philippines, which used to be a Spanish colony, the adobo dish is unlike what’s prepared in places like Mexico and Puerto Rico. Recipe variations are used in different parts of the archipelago. Most are not sautéed but those that are do not require vinegar.

What follows is a special chicken adobo recipe (pork can be used as an alternative) from the Southern Tagalog region of Luzon. It is popular because of its sweet and mildly salty flavor. It is called adobo sa kawali in Tagalog or “adobo in a pan” in English.

For a meal for 2 to 3 persons, you will need the following ingredients to make adobo in a pan: ¼ kg. chicken (chopped), 4 cloves garlic (minced), 1 onion bulb (chopped), 6 tbsp. of soy sauce (not light), 2 tbsp. of sugar (or to taste), a pinch of pepper, a pinch of salt.

First get a pan. Heat it for a minute with a low fire, then ladle in three tablespoons of cooking oil. Saute the onion and garlic together in the pan. After about five minutes, the onion should already be translucent and semi soft. By this time, the garlic should also be ready. Add the chicken, then the salt and pepper. Let the mixture simmer for ten to fifteen minutes, but the time will depend on how tender you want the chicken to be.

Once the chicken is cooked, add the soy sauce and the sugar. Let the dish cook for another 10 minutes until the chicken absorbs the sauce and turns darker. You can simmer the dish until the soy sauce mixture has the consistency you prefer. You can add slices of pepper to make the dish spicier. Allow the sauce to get hot to taste. Sip a bit of the sauce to make sure the flavor is just right.

The sauce of adobo in a pan is an ideal flavoring to rice and it is traditionally added to hot rice which is eaten by the handful together with the meat. You can eat adobo any way you want to, but traditionally, you just have to use your fingers (wash your hands thoroughly). It’s the old-fashioned way to eat in the Philippines and it’s perfectly alright, especially if you’re outdoors under a tree, with your hot rice and your delicious adobo on a piece of banana leaf.

A Taste of the Philippines