Effortless Adobo Chicken

We eat a lot of chicken in our house. So I'm always looking to change it up a bit. Luckily, I grew up in a pretty diverse environment. The majority of my classmates in high school were Filipino. So I was lucky enough to experience some of the culture and the deliciousness of the cuisine. From cassava cake and biko, to adobe chicken I have a couple of clear favorites.

But it's been so long since I've lived in an area with a large Filipino population, I actually had forgotten how much I loved the food. That was until I assigned the "Food is Culture" project to my World History students. One of my students brought in Adobo Chicken and it was absolutely delicious. In addition to having delicious food the student explained of how to prepare the dish. Yippe!! Why hadn't I made this dish before? It was super easy - garlic, soy sauce, rice vinegar and a bay leaf. So, in a pinch one night I made it.

Adobo Chicken

Ingredients:

3 lbs of boneless chicken breast
1/2 cup soy sauce
3/4 cup of rice vinegar
4 cloves of garlic
1 bay leaf
Pinch of Salt
Pinch of Pepper
1 tsp ginger

Directions:

Season your chicken with salt, pepper and ginger then place it in a bowl. Smash your garlic and add it  to the bowl with the bay leaf, soy sauce and vinegar. 

Let the mixture marinate for an hour before putting it in a heavy pot (like a dutch oven). Bring everything to a boil. Then decrease the heat to medium and cook for 2 hours.

The sauce took a little longer to thicken so in the end it cooked another hour until it thickened.

*Note: As you see I used boneless chicken breast because that is what I had on hand. I do believe that recipes like this taste better when you use bone-in chicken. Also, I added a little ginger worried about how my mini me would react but he was fine. You could also add a little sugar.

Hope you enjoy it...it's a little reminder of home for me.