Chicken Adobo

This is one of my husband's favorite Filipino dishes. He used to request my mom make it every time she came to visit. He always watches her cook and asks questions. Me...I'm content on waiting for my mom to come down for one of her monthly trips to visit me her grandkids. Kevin, however, started to make it years ago so he wouldn't have to wait for her to visit. 

   

I decided to add it to our menu for the week. I sent Kevin a text asking if he wanted me to make it tonight and if so to email me the directions. I'm sure he probably fell out of his chair at work. lol Is it weird that I asked my Irish/Italian husband for the recipe this afternoon b/c I, a full blooded Filipino, do not know how to make it?!? lol 

Ingredients:

chicken drumsticks (Publix sells them in a large package of 14 - enough for dinner and leftovers and then some; you can also use any part of the chicken that you want, but Kevin prefers drumsticks)

1 cup of soy sauce (YIKES!!! But we like a lot of sauce to go on top of our rice)

1 cup of white vinegar

2 cups of water

 minced garlic (we love garlic and I ended up using about 10 cloves!)

~ 1-2 Tbsp of oil (I don't measure this - I just eyeball it)

Instructions:

1. Wash chicken legs and pat dry - I didn't do this step b/c I get a little grossed out by raw meat.

2. Heat oil in wok over medium heat.

3. Place chicken in wok. Throw garlic on top (so that it doesn't fry and burn). This was probably 5-6 medium cloves of garlic. I realized it wasn't enough a little later on and minced an additional 4 large cloves. Then Kevin asked if I used a lot of garlic b/c it needed more. Told ya we like love garlic!

4. Let the chicken brown for about 5 minutes; turning over on all sides to brown. I kind of skipped over this a little bit b/c I had a crazy 18 month old begging for a snack and I was trying to keep her quiet since Parker was still napping. Mine only "browned" for a few minutes and I only tossed it around a couple of times so it didn't really brown - it still turned out fine. 

5. Add soy sauce, vinegar, and water. Turn up heat to medium/high and let vinegar cook off for about 20 minutes. 

6. Cover and cook for an additional 20 minutes.

7. I didn't see the point of this step and only did it for a few minutes. I won't do it next time and probably just let the chicken cook covered for a little while longer: Try to transfer most of the soy sauce mixture into a large bowl and let the chicken fry for about 10 minutes. 

8. I somehow skipped this next step all together so I'm making it a step all on it's own b/c Kevin had it combined w/ step #9: Transfer chicken to a plate.

9. Pour soy sauce mixture back into the wok to allow it to thicken - about 5 minutes. 

(So next time, I won't remove the soy sauce mixture at all; I will just transfer the chicken to a plate and allow the sauce to thicken.)

10. Add chicken back to wok and coat in soy sauce mixture. 

Serve with rice - make sure you pour some of the yummy sauce over your rice! We had it with green beans too since both kids love green beans. Both kids LOVE this dish and always eat a ton. 

Shhh....don't tell my mom, but I used 5 minute rice. Years ago after getting tired of eating "rice that doesn't taste like anything", she bought us an "authentic" Asian rice cooker and started to bring rice when she visits. She buys a HUGE bag of rice at the Asian store and she usually brings down half the bag for us. We are all out of the real rice, but I refuse to bring 2 kids to a tiny store with narrow aisles so 5 minute rice it is!