My mother had some leftover uncooked chicken from dinner the other night, so I took that as an opportunity to make some chicken adobo. And an opportunity to take pictures of something I did so I could post about it!

Adobo is a staple of Filipino food. It is usually made of chicken or pork, and I prefer to use chicken with some small slices of pork. There’s no absolute recipe for adobo, but the basic parameters are that it is chicken or pork marinated in soy sauce and vinegar. Although I usually guess when it comes to the portions, I tend to use what results in the following ingredients:

Marinade:
2 cups water
3/4 cup vinegar
1/2 cup soy sauce
3-4 teaspoons sugar
1-2 medium-sized cloves of garlic, mashed
1-2 bay leaves, broken up
A few cranks of freshly-ground pepper
A few shakes of paprika

Before making the marinade, I cut up the chicken and put it in a sturdy re-zippable bag. I make sure there are no sharp edges on the bones, but I never remove the bones; I think it’s better if you leave the bones on. If I’m not serving anyone who objects to pork, I get a pork cutlet and slice it up into bite-sized pieces and put it in along with the chicken. I also like to leave the skin on the chicken.

When I make the marinade, I start with vinegar, water and soy sauce, and then dissolve the sugar before adding everything else.

Marinade

After marinading overnight, I get out a 1- or 2-inch-deep casserole dish and put in it all of the ingredients of the bag — including every bit of the marinade. I add some diced white or yellow onion.

When it comes to cooking it, I prefer to take a while; around an hour at 350° F. If you keep the skin on the chicken, I cook it until the skin is brown and almost crunchy. I tend to turn the pieces over a few times during the duration of its time in the oven as well.

Chicken adobo is best served on rice. I also like to serve with some tomato slices in balsamic vinegar with a dash of pepper.