filipino chik'n adobo

amount of forethought required: 1.5 hours with ingredients handy

stuff yll need

  • solids
    • 5-10 cloves of garlic, large pieces
    • 2 onions, large pieces
    • some kind of protein. we like chik'n strips; fried tofu would work too.
    • kale, shredded
    • ginger, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks
    • white rice
  • liquids
    • 1 tbs coconut oil
    • ¼ cup kalamansi juice
    • ½ cup soy sauce
    • ½ cup spiced sukang maasim
    • ½ cup sukang iloco
    • 1 cup water
  • spices yo
    • some crushed red pepper
    • 3-4 bay leaves
    • lots of black pepper
  • sides

stuff yll do

  1. prep garlic, onion, ginger, protein
  2. mix liquids in bowl:
    • vinegars
    • soy sauce
    • black pepper
    • crushed red pepper
  3. combine liquids with:
    • protein
    • ginger
    • garlic
  4. if you are feeling really cool and not hungry you can let this sit and marinate pretty much as long as you want. or just cook it right away. marinating softens the flavors a little bit but if you love a sharp vinegar kick in the face like we do you'll be fine either way.
  5. toss it all in a biggish pot, along with:
    • oil
    • water
    • bay leaves
  6. bring to boil and then put heat to low
  7. cover (leaving a little gap for steam to escape) and let simmer 45 minutes. stir sometimes.
  8. shred kale
  9. add kale and add more water if needed to keep covered
  10. bring back up to boil, then reduce to medium low
  11. simmer for 20 minutes (or until kale sufficiently wilted)
  12. serve over a bed of white rice

notes

T_____ fondly recalls a ton of Filipino food from growing up but these days doesn't eat the meat that usually goes along with it. She described what adobo tastes like and, after many many iterations, we've arrived at this recipe.

Definitely consider pairing this with tomato salad. The cool sweetness of the tomato offsets the salty spice of the adobo.

I am obsessed with Filipino flavors. The ratio of sour, spicy, and sweet is perfect for me. It's a struggle though to find it vegetarian, so I've been working on a few recipes with the help of T_____'s memory.

Beyond Meat brand chik'n strips were perfect for this dish, but they were discountinued :( we're hunting to find our favorite replacement still.

For even more nuanced and nice flavor, marinate the whole thing over night and then cook for an extra hour. It's good as hell but we never think ahead to do it much.

substitutions

If you have trouble finding some of the ingredients, here are some subs we've found work well:

ingredient subtitutions
sukang iloco (sugarcane juice vinegar) white wine vinegar
sukang maasim white vinegar + more chili flakes, apple cider vinegar
kalamansi lemon, lime.
chik'n strip soy curls, tempeh, pre-fried tofu

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