Chicken Adobo sa Dilaw

What is more delicious than adobo?  Adobo sa Dilaw (Adobo cooked with Turmeric) that's what!  I have made adobo sa dilaw with pork before.  But a recent trip to Taal where we tasted authentic adobo sa dilaw, using chicken on the bone, had me craving for it.  And, as it was impractical to go back to Taal, I just had to make it at home.  For my homemade version, I added boiled eggs too.

The recipe is virtually the same as my usual adobo sa dilaw with minor changes.

1 kilo chicken legs, rinsed, cleaned and patted dry
6 pieces yellow ginger, sliced
1 small onion, sliced
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp black and white peppercorns
1/4 cup local vinegar
1 cup soda water (7-Up or Sprite)
3/4 cup to 1 cup water
2 pieces bay leaf
2 pieces dried chili
1/2 to 1 teaspoon sea salt, or to taste
4 pieces hard-boiled eggs

Saute the yellow ginger, onion, garlic and peppercorns.  Add the chicken.  Cook until the chicken is lightly browned.  Pour in the vinger, soda and water; do not stir until the liquid boils.  Throw in the bay leaves and dried chili.  Season with salt, to taste.  (Remember that different kinds of salt have varying levels of saltiness.)

Simmer until the chicken is tender, about 30 to 40 minutes (depending on the size of the chicken legs).  Add the boiled eggs when almost done.  Simmer further until the eggs are heated through.

Serve over hot rice.

Adobo sa Dilaw

I love adobo, especially when it's done the way I like it (it is said that adobo has a thousand and one recipes, as each family would have its own "secret" recipe).  But recently I discovered a totally different way of adobo.  And it's one that we really, really like... The thing is, it does not have soy sauce as an ingredient!

The first time I made this dish was a couple of weeks ago, quite by chance.  I had recently discovered yellow ginger (or turmeric) and had bought quite a lot.  So I had been looking for recipes that used it as an ingredient.

There was none in my foreign cookbooks.  And while I found an article about a regional dish popular in the south, describing "original" adobo dish made with local vinegar, no soy sauce and turmeric, there wasn't a recipe attached to the article.  So I started experimenting.

The first time I made it, I winged it by following a basic adobo sans the soy sauce.  I discovered that the dish was a tad sour and rather bland without a salty component.  I fixed the sourness by adding soda and the blandness by adding a couple of large pinches of sea salt.

The result?  A really happy hubby!!! 

At that time I really did not intend to share the recipe.  But as luck would have it, BFF and I were talking the other day, and she mentioned that contrary to most of our countrymen who are lovers of adobo, she vehemently disliked adobo.  (She was referring to the dark colored, soy sauce rich adobo that was the norm.)  And I told her that she just had to try this particular kind of adobo!

So, on our next get together (a few days after), as a special treat for her, I cooked another batch of adobo sa dilaw!

She tasted it and liked it so much that she asked for the recipe. 

So here it is!

1 kilo pork, cubed
4 pieces yellow ginger
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp black and white peppercorns
1/3 cup tuba vinegar
1 cup soda water (7-Up or Sprite)
1 cup water
2 pieces bay leaf
1 teaspoon sea salt
sugar, to taste

Saute the yellow ginger, garlic and peppercorns.  Add the pork cubes.  Cook until the pork is lightly browned.  Pour in the vinger, soda and water; do not stir until the liquid boils.  Throw in the bay leaves and season with salt, and sugar, if desired.

Simmer until the pork is tender (for smaller cuts of pork it's about 30 minutes).  That's it!

♥

Pork Adobo, My Way...

There's a million and one ways to cook adobo - it is, after all, the national dish of the Philippines (well, not officially...).  Seriously, I don't know anyone who does not like it, even if everyone has varying preferences - salty, tangy, oily, saucy, mixed, double cooked...  In fact, it was my late father's favorite dish, the other one being Braised Pata (pork hocks).  As a child I could eat loads and loads of adobo with a ton of rice... and ice cold coke!!!  (which was the way my dad enjoyed his adobo!)

But the adobo that I like and cook at home these days is one where a bit of my ancestry shows through - with banana blossoms (which some say are really lily buds but that's another story...)

And, I like my adobo with bay leaves and boiled eggs... in addition to being all pork, specifically belly part (although on occasion I also use kasim or pork shoulder), where I try to find ones that have very little pork fat (otherwise we trim off as much as we can).  As much as I like pork adobo, I'm really not a fan of the chicken variant, don't know why.

My recipe is pretty standard, although I use my magic cooker -

5 to 6 strips of pork liempo (about 750 to 1000 grams), cut into cubes (we trim a lot of fat off...)
1 whole bulb garlic, cloves smashed
2 to 3 large pieces bay leaves, crumbled
1 cup soy sauce (I use light soy sauce)
1/2 cup native vinegar
a handful whole black peppercorns, lightly smashed
1 cup water
a handful of banana blossoms, rehydrated, tough ends cut off
hard boiled eggs (optional)

Clean the pork and place into the inner pot of the magic cooker.  Add garlic, bay, soy sauce and vinegar.  Leave to marinate for at least 30 minutes.

Place the pot on the stove, add water and cook (simmer) over low-medium heat for 15 to 20 minutes.  Stir only after the mixture has bubbled (initial boil).  Place the inner pot in the magic cooker and let it sit for at least 30 to 40 minutes.

Return the inner pot to the stove.  Add the banana blossoms and boiled eggs.  Lightly stir the mixture.  Let simmer about 10 minutes.  Return to the magic cooker and let sit until meat is tender - another 30 minutes or so.

Adjust the seasonings.  I know some people like a really salty, or a salty-sweet adobo, but personally I like mine adobo tangy and only a bit salty so I've been known to add a little more vinegar (the banana blossoms add to the tanginess, too).

Yummmmyyy!!!  And perfect with ice cold coke (diet or zero).  Where's the rice????