Chicken Adobo
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This Filipino Chicken Adobo is a simple, yet delicious stove-top quick chicken recipe. Made so easily in one pot, with just a few everyday simple pantry ingredients, this national dish of the Philippines is sure to become a family favorite! Sweet, sticky and tangy chicken marinated in a marinade that requires a handful of ingredients, seared to perfection then braised until fall-off-the-bone tender.
Chicken Adobo
This Filipino Chicken Adobo is such an easy recipe to make and the results are incredibly delicious. Sweet, sticky and tangy chicken, is what I’m talking about. Amazing for a weeknight dinner recipe, a brunch plate or even an addition to a fancy family dinner, this recipe is so delicious it goes with every occasion. You can even prep it ahead and marinate it overnight, then cook it when you come from home the next day!
Because the chicken thighs are slowly cooked, you end up with incredibly tender, fall-off-the-bone thighs. This chicken adobo is great served over rice, even cauliflower rice for a healthier alternative, with additional sauce drizzled over it.
Chicken Adobo Highlights
- Simple Pantry Staple Ingredients. You probably already have most ingredients in your pantry or fridge already.
- Sweet, Sticky And Tangy Chicken. This chicken has all the great flavors we love about most Asian dishes.
- Made In Just One Pot. Because this is my favorite way to cook, plus less dishes to clean.
- Chicken – I used chicken thighs with skin and bones for extra flavor. You can use skinless boneless thighs, or even drumsticks, but I wouldn’t substitute it with breast.
- Sugar – This is where the sweetness comes from, you’ll want to use brown sugar to help with a little bit of caramelization.
- Soy sauce – This is where the saltiness comes from in the marinade. I recommend going with a low sodium soy sauce.
- Vinegar – This is where the tangy comes from. I chose Apple Cider Vinegar but you can use a regular white vinegar as well.
- Bay leaves – Also for the marinade, you can use fresh or dried, they’ll just add a nice minty flavor to the marinade.
- Onion and Garlic – Essential for flavoring the sauce.
- Oil – You can use any kind of vegetable oil you have handy such as Sunflower, Olive oil or any kind of neutral tasting oil.
- Green Onions and Red Chilies – I love to use some fresh green onions for garnish and some Thai red chilies. If you like a lot of heat, you can even add some chopped red chilies to your sauce, when you’re sautéing the onions.
- Prep the marinade: In a large bowl, combine the soy sauce, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, half of the garlic and the bay leaves. Add the chicken thighs and toss well. Marinate for 20 minutes to overnight.
- Sear the chicken: In a large skillet, with a lid, heat 2 tbsp of the vegetable oil. Remove the chicken from the marinade, reserving the marinade, and cook about 4 minutes per side on high heat or until golden brown. Transfer the cooked chicken to a plate.
- Caramelize the onions: Add the remaining 1 tbsp of oil to the skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook until the onion has softened and has begun to caramelize, about 5 minutes. If wanting to spice this up, now is the time to add some red chilies. Stir in the remaining garlic and cook for another minute until aromatic.
- Braise the chicken: Add the chicken pieces back to the skillet right over the onion, pour the reserved marinade over the chicken and about ¼ cup of water. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low, cover the skillet and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes. Remove the lid from the skillet and increase the heat to medium-high. Cook for another 5 to 10 minutes, or until the sauce has started to reduce, thicken slightly and become glossy.
- Garnish and serve: Serve garnished with green onion and red chilies.
What Is Chicken Adobo
Chicken Adobo is a Filipino dish made by braising chicken legs (thighs and/or drumsticks) in a sauce made up of vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, and black pepper. It’s tangy, salty, garlicky, slightly sweet, and spicy. The chicken is slowly simmered in the sauce making it flavorful and incredibly tender.
Can I Bake Chicken Adobo In The Oven Instead?
Yes, you can absolutely bake this. Follow instructions up to and including step 3, preheat the oven to 375F and bake for 30 minutes covered. Uncover the pot and bake for another 15 minutes or until the sauce has thickened.
What Is Braising
Braising basically means simmering meat and vegetables in a small amount of liquid in a covered pot for longer periods of time to enhance the liquid’s flavor and tenderize the meat. Typically the meat is first seared at a high temperature then finished in a covered pot at a low temperature.
Serve This Chicken Adobo With
Easy Tossed Salad
Brown Butter Mashed Potatoes
Cilantro Lime Rice
Lemon Orzo with Asparagus
Expert Tips
- If the chicken skin sticks to the skillet when you try to turn it, leave the pieces to cook another minute or so. Once the chicken is ready to be flipped it will slowly release from the skillet.
- If you have the time, you can marinate the chicken overnight in the fridge. This will give the chicken time to absorb the flavors of the marinade.
- Don’t skip the searing of the chicken. Searing the chicken first creates color and lots of flavor.
- Drizzle the simmering sauce over the chicken thighs to help it form a tasty glaze over the meat.
Leftovers
Fridge
Store the leftover chicken in an airtight container. It will store nicely in your fridge for up to 3 days!
Freezer
After it cooled down, transfer to an airtight container and store in the freezer. It will last anywhere from 4 – 6 months.
More Delicious Chicken Thigh Recipes To Try
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Chicken Adobo
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup soy sauce (low sodium)
- ½ cup apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoon brown sugar
- 6 cloves garlic (chopped, divided)
- 4 bay leaves (fresh or dry)
- 8 large chicken thighs (with skin and bones)
- 3 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 large onion (sliced)
- ¼ cup water
Garnish
- 2 green onions (green parts, sliced)
- 1 red chili (sliced)
Before You Begin! If you make this, please leave a review and rating letting us know how you liked this recipe! This helps our business thrive & continue providing free recipes.
Instructions
- Prep the marinade: In a large bowl, combine the soy sauce, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, half of the garlic and the bay leaves. Add the chicken thighs and toss well. Marinate for 20 minutes to overnight.
- Sear the chicken: In a large skillet, with a lid, heat 2 tbsp of the vegetable oil. Remove the chicken from the marinade, reserving the marinade, and cook about 4 minutes per side on high heat or until golden brown. Transfer the cooked chicken to a plate.
- Caramelize the onions: Add the remaining 1 tbsp of oil to the skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook until the onion has softened and has begun to caramelize, about 5 minutes. If wanting to spice this up, now is the time to add some red chilies. Stir in the remaining garlic and cook for another minute until aromatic.
- Braise the chicken: Add the chicken pieces back to the skillet right over the onion, pour the reserved marinade over the chicken and about ¼ cup of water. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low, cover the skillet and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes. Remove the lid from the skillet and increase the heat to medium-high. Cook for another 5 to 10 minutes, or until the sauce has started to reduce, thicken slightly and become glossy.
- Garnish and serve: Serve garnished with green onion and red chilies.
Equipment
Video
Notes
- If the chicken skin sticks to the skillet when you try to turn it, leave the pieces to cook another minute or so. Once the chicken is ready to be flipped it will slowly release from the skillet.
- If you have the time, you can marinate the chicken overnight in the fridge. This will give the chicken time to absorb the flavors of the marinade.
- Don’t skip the searing of the chicken. Searing the chicken first creates color and lots of flavor.
- Drizzle the simmering sauce over the chicken thighs to help it form a tasty glaze over the meat.
- Store the leftover chicken in an airtight container. It will store nicely in your fridge for up to 3 days!
- After it cooled down, transfer to an airtight container and store in the freezer. It will last anywhere from 4 – 6 months.
Nutrition Information
Notice: Nutrition is auto-calculated for your convenience. Where relevant, we recommend using your own nutrition calculations.
This was incredible! We’ve made many variations of adobo and this is by far the best (and fastest!). I only marinated for four hours, next time will do so overnight. Can’t wait to make again, thanks Jo!
Could this be cooked in an instant Pot then sautéed with lid off to reduce the sauce?
I haven’t tried it myself, but I don’t see why not!
We really enjoyed this recipe. A happy accident had me make the full recipe of marinade for four thighs. That left us tons of sauce and we will probably do it intentionally next time. I also think I will up the spiciness next time as we didn’t have any red peppers to use.
Foolproof and easy! Marinate overnight! So delicious to have with rice, I swear it gets more flavorful as leftovers. Thank you for this great recipe Jo!
My pleasure, so glad you liked it!
I’m Filipino, this recipe is good exactly how Filipinos will make it, I suggest to use the white vinegar instead it brings out the original flavor of the adobo, also you can never have too much garlic in adobo! Add more garlic 😊😊😊
I will never say no to more garlic!
Ce poulet Adobo a l’air délicieux ! merci pour cette recette très bien expliquée. Bonne journée.
Hi – for some reason my family only likes boneless chicken breasts. Do you think they will be too dry to use? Should I cut it up in big pieces or slice it up or actually don’t try this with the boneless cutlets. Thanks. I love your recipes; never failed to please.
Yeah, I wouldn’t use breasts, the chicken might end up too dry. I would stick to chicken thighs or chicken drumsticks if you want juicy chicken.
Fantastic recipe. After you simmer the chicken for 20-30 minutes, do you remove the chicken and then reduce the sauce on medium high for 5-10 minutes? I wasn’t sure about that step.
You leave the chicken in there, removing the lid will help reduce the sauce. 🙂
This is an EXCELLENT recipe for chicken adobo. I’m 100% Filipina, and not only does this remind me of the adobo I had as a child, it gets my mother’s approval! I remember it as a stew — no searing of the chicken, just all in the pot and cooking away until it was done. This is now my preferred recipe for adobo. I made it once just as written, and it was wonderful. The second time, I changed a few things — I used Datu Puti, a Filipino cane vinegar and increased the soy sauce to the same amount as the vinegar. I also doubled the recipe (using 6 lbs of chicken) — adobo is one of those dishes that improves with time and was never a one-meal dish when I was growing up. Braising it in the oven is a brilliant idea — so easy and SO delicious — and I highly recommend it. And the leftovers freeze really well. Thank you much for this marvelous recipe!
Elena, thank you so much for taking the time go write this comment. I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
This was a super flavorful dish. It was easy to make and everyone who ate it enjoyed it. I didn’t add the chilis because we don’t like the heat. I will be making this again soon. Thanks for the great recipes!
That’s awesome! So glad you enjoyed it so much!
This is the most flavorful chicken I have ever had. Next time I will marinate over night.
This was wonderful
Substituted the brown sugar with maple syrup YUMMY
So glad to hear this. 🙂
In step 2, you don’t state the temperature of cooking the chicken. Should it be medium? Medium high?
Nevermind. I see the temperature above; it wasn’t in the directions below.
In step 2 it says to sear the chicken over heat. “Remove the chicken from the marinade, reserving the marinade, and cook about 4 minutes per side on high heat or until golden brown.”
This is one of my favorite dishes
Made this tonight, didn’t have too much time, the chicken thighs only got to marinate for 20mins, turned out so good! No leftovers.
Yay! We are so glad you enjoyed it! It’s such a fun and easy recipe.