Last night, I got to watch the World Series at my friend Glenn’s apartment. I found this especially wonderful for two reasons: First, Glenn is a baseball fan of epic proportions. I feel like if you’re going to go, go big. Second, he happens to be a pretty incredible host. One of those fun, effortlessly on-top-of-it people, the mysterious ways of whom I hope will eventually rub off on me. I’m trying to nudge that process along by borrowing some tips from the playbook. Specifically, his slow-cooked chicken–a Filipino recipe his family has been cooking and adapting his whole life. It’s easy to make, light, and incredibly flavorful. I could eat this stuff every day. The recipe, after the jump.
Glenn’s Chicken Adobo (serves eight)
Ingredients:
*4 lbs. of chicken (traditionally, dark meat. But for a healthier take, you can use white meat, or a mix of the two)
*1 cup apple cider vinegar (or distilled white vinegar)
*1 cup fish sauce (to be totally authentic, try the Filipino version, called patis)
*½ cup water
*1 bulb garlic, peeled and sliced
*2.5 tablespoons of ginger root peeled and sliced thinly
*3 bay leaves
*1.5 tablespoons black peppercorn
Procedure:
1) Peel and slice the garlic, peel and slice the ginger (thinly!), and marinate the chicken with half the patis and vinegar and all other ingredients for about 2 hours before cooking (excepting the water). *For those pressed for time, Glenn says his mother often skips this step altogether.
2) Throw everything in a large crock pot (adding the second half of the patis, vinegar, and that half cup of water) and bring to a low boil. Let simmer for 40-45 minutes. With a liberal drizzling of the sauce it’s been cooked in, Glenn serves the chicken over white rice, with a side of vine tomatoes in a bit of soy sauce. The sweetness and coolness of this accompaniment, he says, work as a great contrast to the Adobo’s savory warmth.
Useful and interesting information, per the man himself:
*”‘Adobo’ is certainly a word handed down from the Spanish colonizers, and generally means something marinated. This chicken dish–sometimes referred to in more Anglicized Filipino-American circles as “Filipino Garlic Chicken” (a phrase I do not favor)–is an absolute staple in Filipino cooking and a childhood favorite of mine. It’s also commonly prepared with a mix of chicken and pork, or solely pork.
*”The biggest difference between this–my mom’s–dish and that of many others (aunts, cousins, my little brother, the interweb) is the absence of soy sauce. In its place is fish sauce. “Patis” is the Filipino version. It’s typically an anchovy or krill-based vinegar that’s sometimes used mixed with chili peppers and other vinegar to make a dipping sauce for fried egg rolls. Most often, however, it appears as a cooking sauce for stews.”
*”For easy white rice, rinse 3 cups long grain white rice 3 times then fill a steamer or rice cooker, with the rice and water up to the halfway point between the 1st and 2nd knuckle of your middle finger above the rice; cook on low-medium heat till the water disappears.”
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Camille
