I first became interested in chicken adobo when I saw a recipe for it using a slow cooker. It looked delicious but completely different than the adobo that I was familiar with. I thought adobo was that rich, spicy, reddish-brown mexican sauce that comes with chipotle peppers. The recipe I saw didn’t even involve any chile peppers. So then I just had to learn more…
What is Chicken Adobo?
Chicken Adobo is a Filipino dish and is not at all like the Mexican or Spanish Adobo that I was familiar with. Filipino adobo is a tangy, salty mix of vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, and spices that are used to marinate and stew meat. It creates the most flavorful and complex meat you’ve ever had. It almost reminds me of jerky that’s not dried.
If you want to learn more about Filipino Chicken Adobo, check out these authentic recipes:
- Chicken Adobo from Rasa Malaysia
- Filipino Chicken Adobo from Panlasang Pinoy
- Chicken Adobo from The Woks of Life
What Kind of Chicken Should I Use?
I used bone-in drumsticks for this recipe but you could really use any type of chicken pieces you’d like (or beef or pork for that matter). You’ll want to use a bone-in chicken for the most flavor, and I suggest leaving the skin on to keep everything super moist and delicious. The skin crisps up nicely in the last step and keeps the meat nice and tender.
What to Serve with Chicken Adobo
I served my chicken adobo with some yellow jasmine rice, which isn’t at all authentic, but I found the flavors to be really great together! The brine that the chicken simmers in is super delicious, so I do suggest serving it over rice or noodles of some kind to soak up that awesome broth.
Chicken Adobo
Servings 6Ingredients
- 4 lbs. skin-on, bone-in chicken ($7.96)
- 1/2 cup soy sauce ($0.48)
- 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar ($0.48)
- 2 Tbsp vegetable oil ($0.08)
- 2 Tbsp honey ($0.21)
- 2 whole bay leaves ($0.10)
- 1 Tbsp minced garlic (about 2 cloves) ($0.20)
- 1 Tbsp black peppercorns ($0.15)
Instructions
- Arrange the chicken pieces in a large pot in one layer. Remove the skin if desired.
- Combine the rest of the ingredients (soy sauce, vinegar, honey, oil, garlic, bay leaves, peppercorns) in a bowl and whisk until the honey is dissolved. Partially crush the peppercorns if desired. Pour the marinade over the chicken. Cover and refrigerate for a few hours or over night.
- When you’re ready to make the chicken, add just enough water so that the liquid comes just up to the top of the chicken (about 1/2 cup). Cover the pot with a lid, place the pot over a high flame, and bring it up to a rolling boil. When it reaches a boil, reduce the heat to medium/low and let simmer for 30 minutes.
- Preheat your broiler on high. Remove the chicken from the pot and place it on a broiler pan (or a sheet pan with wire cooling racks placed on top). Place the chicken under the broiler until it is brown and crispy on top (5-10 minutes), depending on your broiler).
- While the chicken is broiling, turn pot with the soy/vinegar liquid up to high and bring up to a rapid boil. Allow the liquid to boil heavily until it is reduced in volume by approximately one half. You may need to boil it for 5-10 minutes longer than the chicken is in the oven to get it to this point.
- Use a soft brush to baste a few layers of the reduced soy/vinegar liquid onto the browned chicken. Serve over rice or noodles and spoon more of the reduced liquid over top.
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Notes
Nutrition
How to Make Chicken Adobo – Step By Step Photos
In a small bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup soy sauce, 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar, 2 Tbsp oil, 2 Tbsp honey, 2 bay leaves, 1 Tbsp minced garlic (about two large cloves), and 1 Tbsp peppercorns.
Place 4 lbs. chicken pieces in a large pot. They really should be in one layer to maximize exposure to the marinade, but my wide pot was in use when I made this. In hindsight, I should have used a wide casserole dish to marinate and then transferred back to the pot to cook. Anyway, do as I say not as I did. ONE LAYER. Then pour the marinade over the chicken, place the lid on the pot, pop it in the fridge. Let it marinate while you’re at work, over night or just for a few hours.
When you’re ready to cook, add a little bit of water so that the liquid comes a little closer to covering the chicken. You don’t want to add too much or else it will take too long for the sauce to reduce later. Cover the pot with a lid, place the pot over a high flame, and bring it up to a boil.
Once it reaches a boil, reduce the heat to medium/low and let it simmer for 30 minutes. The chicken should be cooked through by this point but it’s not too pretty so we’re going to broil it. Turn the broiler on to high.
Boiled chicken is just so blond and sickly looking so we’re going to add color under the broiler. If you don’t have a broiler pan, you can create a make shift one by placing some wire cooling racks over a baking sheet, like I did. After you pull the chicken out of the simmering liquid, turn it all the way up to high and let it boil furiously while you finish broiling the chicken. You want it to reduce in volume and concentrate in flavor as much as possible.
Place the chicken under the broiler for about 5-10 minutes or until it gets a nice brown color to it. The time it takes will depend on how hot your broiler is and how close you have your rack to the heat (it should be fairly close). So, you’ll just have to keep an eye on it. You should hear crackling and popping as the skin begins to crisp. Once the soy/vinegar liquid has reduced in volume by half, use a brush and baste a few layers onto the chicken. This will add moisture and tons of flavor.
I like to let it broil just a few minutes more to let the basting liquid caramelize and get all nice and delicious!
You can serve the chicken over rice or noodles. I suggest spooning more of the reduced liquid over top of the chicken and the rice or noodles. Pictured here with Yellow Jasmine Rice.
See this recipe used in my weekly meal prep.
Being a Filipino, it felt good to see you included recipe for Chicken adobo in your website. It really is a favorite dish among us Filipinos. Very well presented. The honey is an added flavor for the sweet tooth.
You can also mix it with pork and now it’s called “Chicken-Pork adobo.
Thank you Beth for sharing your recipes. I’m dying to try some your of them. Happy cooking!
Thank you for sharing this delectable-looking recipe! I already have go-to recipes from my childhood, but I love trying new ways to make adobo. I think the honey in your recipe will be a hit with my non-Filipino in-laws, who need something to temper the vinegar.
Adobo is usually one of the first recipes a Filipino will learn to cook. It’s very easy to teach a kid to stick all the ingredients in a pot and wait. We don’t marinate the meat because we usually simmer this dish until the vinegar is “cooked” (i.e. no longer acrid). That can take a while, and the meat gets very flavourful and tender by then.
Did you know?
Filipino adobo, particularly the recipes with lots of vinegar in them, will keep unrefrigerated for a week or more. When the electricity goes out for weeks during typhoon season, many Filipinos cook adobo and other vinegary food so their meat doesn’t go bad while waiting for the power lines to be repaired.
Thank you for all that amazing info! :D
Wanted to make this today and noticed I’m out of apple cider vinegar. Anything I can use to substitute or not so much?
Well, because there is SO much cider vinegar in this if you use a different type of vinegar it will definitely change the flavor. I think my second choice of vinegars would be rice vinegar. Either way you definitely a vinegar of some sort and it wouldn’t work to replace it with a different ingredient all together. :/
This was the bomb over the “Yellow Jasmine Rice” on this website. I did some minor altering… I substituted one tbsp. of the vegetable oil for toasted sesame oil & added 1/2 tbsp. of sambal. Lick your plate amazing!
As Gen said, this is spot-on how my Mama taught me except for the honey. We always had chicken and pork – thighs and big chunks of country style ribs – together in our adobo, as none of us could ever choose which we wanted more. It’s true comfort food, and even though I’m now an empty-nester, I always make a Dutch oven FULL … not only are leftovers crazy amazing, it’s the one sure-fire way to get the boys to come running home for a visit …. hehehehe
I loved this recipe! After eating as is, i pulled the rest of the meat off the bone, chopped it up and mixed into the leftover rice & sauce to make it an easier to-go lunch for work… Kind of reminded me of a fried rice-type of dish. So good!
I’m a big time fan of your site, so I was pleasantly surprise that you have adobo on the your site! (I’m Filipino btw). This recipe is pretty legit except the honey part, but it might make it more palatable for people not used to the soy sauce/vinegar combo.
Just a note that pork is also another substitute for chicken!
I tried chicken adobo in a cafeteria the other day. Even though it was just fast food, it was so tasty and I went crazy looking for the dish everywhere. Had no idea it was so easy to make and your pictures make it look so much more appetizing. I can’t wait to try this! :)
And yeah, it seems totally different when it’s at a Philippino restaurant. I ordered it once and it was simmering in a big bowl of broth, and while it was still good, it wasn’t what I expected. This recipe is like…omgggg. Totally what I wanted.
I am a Filipino and this is a good version of adobo. I saw that somebody is asking for vegetarian adobo. Pretty much adobo recipe can be a base recipe for both meat and veggies. You can have green beans adobo or eggplant adobo. Adobo flavor becomes better after keeping it longer or eating it the next day.
OMG this is fucking fantastic!
Thank you!
OMG Maria! I love the review!! I LOVE when people are passionate about recipes, especially Beth’s since they’re all so good!!!
My husband decided it was his turn to cook last night and the main ingredient would be chicken drumsticks since that’s what we had on hand.
This adobo recipe was very good! Easy ingredients! Thanks!
Is there anyway you could make a vegetarian adobo? I would also love to see a recipe for vegetarian lumpia and panset. My husband said he loved the chicken =)
This looks amazing! I have never had Adobo chicken but if it tastes as good as it looks then I will definately be adding it to my dinner rotation (: I just have a question, not sure if it was asked already….I skimmed through the commemts but didn’t see it so I apologize if it has been asked. I was just curious if you could make it in the crockpot so as to skip the broiling stage and if you can would it still come out good? I am trying to find and add to my crockpot recipe list since I am working overnights and am now cooking after I get my daughter off to school so I can get some sleep during the day lol. Thank you for the help (:
This is the go-to recipe that my husband and I make when we want to impress guests.
Hey Beth,
I came across your website and couldn’t stop browsing through the recipes! I have had a lot of time lately to try new, different recipes for dinner. I think I have tried 4 of your recipes so far.
I have honestly made this adobo recipe over 5 times in the past..3 weeks? I don’t make the whole 4 pounds of chicken each time, and I just use chicken drumsticks. After making the first batch, I was hooked. Also, the ingredients are bought in portions large enough that all I have to do is buy chicken to make it and it’s so easy! I followed the whole recipe the first time, but now I exclude the broiling part and just let it simmer for longer. I added a bit more garlic and also more water to the pot so I could have more liquid, which even tastes amazing with just rice.
Thanks for the awesome recipes Beth! :)