Chicken Adobo Recipe (2024)

Having been born and raised in the Philippines, this is comfort food for me. This version is from the Bicol, in the southern part of Luzon. Around Manila they don't use coconut milk. A relish of two parts chopped tomato and one part chopped white onion, flavored with a little lemon juice and salt, makes a nice accompaniment.

Don't need to put under the broiler Marcia. If you want follow the marinade process. when ready to cook, heat oil in a pan and brown it in batches to get a nice brown color set aside, in same pan put the marinade mixture and let it boil, season as your taste. Put the chicken back in the sauce and simmer it until the chicken is tender and the sauce is a bit thicken.

Being from Panay island in the Visayas, this recipe would constitute as "Adobo Sa Gata" meaning, abobo in coconut milk, a variation of adobo. Regular adobo does not have coconut milk. And we don't ever marinate them. We throw everything all at once in a pot, chicken (or pork, or both), garlic, onions, soy sauce, vinegar (cane or coconut), bay leaves and black pepper, no chilies until the liquid reduces considerably to a thick, delicious sauce.

In every region in the Philippines they have their own version on how to prepare Adobo. In northern part of the Philippines don't use coconut milk and chilies on their adobo dish. Instead they use ginger root, whole pepper corns, garlic and bay leaves. Preferably use cane vinegar and regular soy sauce, don't use light soy sauce or else your adobo meat looks pale. But either way it's all very good.

Astonishingly good!
It is essential to use seasoned rice vinegar, or to add a couple of tablespoons of brown sugar.

Do u leave the 22 garlic cloves in ? Do I chop them
Or leave them whole ?

Being part Pinot, one learns fast that every island then region and province to village and then to family all have their own version of Adobo. My family was from the Visayas, Bohol to be exact and my family never used coconut milk ether and getting authentic sukang either from coconut or sugar cane was almost impossible in the '30s California. So we adapted and use Apple cider vinegar we now prefer then "Tang" from iit vs. medicinal white vinegar or too subtle rice vinegar. JMO

used a full can of coconut cream instead of a cup of coconut milk (by mistake) + 2 pounds of boneless skinless chicken thighs. simmered uncovered for 40-45 minutes so i could skip the oven/grill step, boiled the sauce to reduce somewhat. fragrant and tasty (served with rice) everyone loved it despite the change in proportions. Will do this again for sure (i may have to repeat my mistakes)

Made exactly as written (plain rice vinegar, no added sugar) except, as others noted, it took about twice as long to cook the sauce down to the consistency of cream. I would like to drown in this sauce. My only recommendation is that, instead of discarding the peppers in step 3, eat them. They are a cook's reward--full of flavor, softened and succulent, with the heat tamed by cooking.

How to make in pressure cooker:Maggie1 year agoDelicious. Used exact ingredients but made in an electric multi/pressure cooker and skipped marinating. Seared chicken until brown, added the rest of the ingredients and pressure cooked on high for 8 minutes. Removed chicken and boiled the sauce down for about 20 minutes until thickened. Worked great.

My Filipino husband LOVES this recipe. I used rice and apple vinegar and a larger 14oz cannot coconut milk and just reduced a bit longer. This is amazing and easy!!!

Delicious! I always use the seasoned rice vinegar (sushi vinegar) in the recipe, because you need a little sugar to really bring out the flavor.

Awesome delicious..... Another reader here suggested a condiment served along side of chopped seeded tomato and white onion with lime juice. Let me tell you I have friends in the Philippines I made this for and they all agreed better than their family recipe and all left for home with it in hand. The condiment is an incredible lively addition.

Use whole chilies, as written, Mary, and you'll enjoy a marvelous adobo!

I made this with bone-in thighs. Marinated 30 hours. Very good. I pulled all the meat off the bones to save as leftovers. Crisped them up in air fryer and used in banh mi sandwiches. Amazing! They get crispy like carnitas if the get cooked a second time.

Made as directed and the flavor was excellent; however, broiling the chicken after the simmer completely overcooked it. I’ll skip that step next time.

This was a 10 ! I agree the sauce is to die for. I had about. 8 oz old mushrooms I sauté’d first, then added the marinade and chicken. Wow. I will make this again. I used the whole can of coconut milk and cooked down the sauce for about 30 minutes. Winner winner chicken dinner.

Amazing recipe. Out of this world delicious. I didn’t have fresh chiles so I substituted with 1 tbs cayenne, 1tbs chile powder, and 1tbs smoked paprika. Came out great!

Tasty. Made it per the recipe, except that I used dried chili de arbol as that's what I had on-hand. Very good...husband really liked it. The acidity from the vinegar was almost too much for me, but not quite. Won't be my go-to recipe, but definitely in the rotation when I need a quick-and-easy chicken dish.

Did anyone feel like this had too much vinegar?

Way way too vinegary, I love the bite of acid in my food but this was off. I had to add cream, baking soda, some sugar to cut it. It was easy to make and I did like the browning under the broiler. I will not make this again:/

Wasn't this supposed to be a dish with eggplant?

Used 8 thighs (3 lbs), habaneros, seasoned rice vinegar, rest as written in enameled Dutch oven. Marinated overnight. Took 14 minutes to reduce sauce. Placed chicken directly on sheet pan and skipped bowl. At 4 minutes in broiler it started to char and gave three on flip after adding sauce. Served with sautéed baby bok choy and basmati rice. Sapporo went well. Delicious

Are the chiles put in to the marinade dry?

After reading the glowing reviews, I decided to try this recipe. The sauce was way too vinegary . I tried cooking the sauce down to get it to the consistency of cream but it never did that. Not sure what I did wrong. I just reread the recipe this morning in case I messed something up but I did everything as written.

Delicious! Added a side of cuke, tomato, white onion and lime juice as others mentioned. I actually loved it served atop the adobo, others preferred it on the side. Used skinless, boneless thighs and just cooked them a bit less. Don't skip the broiler stage, even with the skinless thighs

Sauce takes forever to reduce

Super Easy way - cube chicken thighs (the best) roughly chop 1 onion, half a head garlic, ginger (optional) put in a Wok or deep frying pan, pour in 1 cup soy sauce (any is fine but preferably dark) 1/2 cup white vinegar. I follow 2-1 ratio of soysauce and vinegar. Generously salt (coarse) black pepper, add 1-2 bay leaf, mix well, put on high heat for 30-45 mins, stirring every 10 mins. Simmer, add 3-4 tbsp sugar at the end and any chile (also optional) till sauce is thickened.

This recipe does not take two hours; rather, it's more like one hour+ to cook and reduce sauce. Marinating extra. Don't waste a bowl to marinate the chicken - use the Dutch oven you'll cook it in. Sauce needed some sweetening for balance, so I added honey, to taste. Didn't have chiles so I used cayenne, about 3/4 tsp. Keep tasting to get the balance you like. Added arrowroot slurry to help thicken the sauce a bit. Seriously delicious.